Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to content published on the www.socialworkengland.org.uk website. This website is run by Social Work England. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and add custom stylesheets
• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
• We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We aim to make our website as fully accessible as possible, but we know there are some parts which are not fully accessible:

• most older PDF documents, such as inspection reports, are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• some of our online Microsoft Word forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
• some of our Social Work England logos, buttons and the progress bar within the MyAccount section do not have non-text alternatives available
• it is difficult to navigate through the website using a keyboard only as the border colour used for the visible focus area isn’t strong enough
• some error messages do not have a clear purpose identified
• some checklist buttons are not correctly grouped or identified

Feedback and contact information

Contact us if you need information on this website in a different format.

Please tell us:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your email address and name
• the format you need - for example, accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille

You can contact us in the following ways:

• Email: enquiries@socialworkengland.org.uk
• Call: free phone 0114 349 4308
• Address: 1 North Bank, Blonk Street, Sheffield S3 8JY

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us.

• Email: enquiries@socialworkengland.org.uk
• Call: free phone 0114 349 4308

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us or visiting us in person

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Social Work England is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

1. The Social Work England logo and the progress bar within the MyAccount section of the website do not have a non-text alternative. There are Social Work England logos in some of the Microsoft Forms we use that do not have non-text alternatives. This fails the WCAG success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text content)
2. Within the MyAccount section a screen reader will read duplicate elements, there are also checklist buttons when submitting a concern that are not grouped together. There are skipped or incorrectly nested headings within the My Account section. A screen reader is unable to read breadcrumb titles across the site as well as the mandatory asterisk symbol against fields in the complaints form. A screen reader will read all of the hearings decision table results and items in the message centre when using the arrow keys. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
3. Some checklist buttons within the MyAccount section are not grouped for the correct focus order to be read by a screen reader. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.3.2 (Meaningful sequence)
4. The tooltip for the ‘+’ plus icon in the personal details area of My Account has not been defined. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.3.3 (Sensory characteristics)
5. Tooltips are not displaying for icons on the home page header and footer, and within the content editor within the My Account section. A workaround is to use the arrow keys which will allow the tooltips to be read by screen readers. The radio buttons on the ‘How do you want to pay your Registration Fee’ page are not accessible via Arrow keys, they are accessible using the space key. This fails WCAG success criterion 2 WCAG success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard)
6. You can’t skip to the main content when using swipe gestures on a mobile. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.1 (Bypass blocks)
7. There are areas of My Account that do not have the correct focus order. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus Order)
8. The edit details button in the My Account do not convey the links purpose. This fails the WCAG success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (in context))
9. Some error messages do not display for required fields in the 'raise a concern' online process and some areas of the registration section. The phone number field within the MyAccount section accepts alphabets and special character values without displaying an error message. This fails the WCAG success criterion 3.3.1 (Error Identification)
10. Labels are missing on some of the Microsoft forms we use for education course changes. This fails WCAG success criterion 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions)
11. Menu links and form fields from the Your CPD page and Your Personal details pages of the My Account section, along with some of the Microsoft forms we use, are announced incorrectly. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.12 (Name, Role, Value)
12. The upload buttons for evidence and CPD submitted status bullet points within My Account do not have high enough contrast. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (minimum)).
13. The drop down option box within the registration renewal of the MyAccount section is not a clear enough colour contrast when using the Safari browser on a Mac. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text contrast).
14. When text spacing is applied to the pages contents are overlapped by buttons, if present, or truncated. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.12 (Text spacing).
15. The focus visible indicator colour is not a high enough colour contrast in some parts of the website. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus visible).
16. Error messages within the 'apply to join the register' section are not suitably descriptive. This fails WCAG success criterion 3.3.3 (Error suggestion).
17. There are elements of the 'raise a concern' process where success statuses are not announced. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.3 (Status messages)

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

We aim to make all text available as plain text as well as publish a pdf version alongside it.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Following an audit conducted by a third-party supplier in August 2023, we are urgently working to fix content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25 November 2019. It was last reviewed on 28 January 2025.

This website was last tested on 27 July 2023. The test was carried out by Cognizant Worldwide.

We tested a sample number of pages and customer journeys within the My Account section of the website. We looked at the top 100 pages people were visiting to decide on the sample of pages to audit.