CPD review

Continuing professional development (CPD) is an essential reflection and learning activity central to a social worker’s practice . By completing CPD, social workers demonstrate they are fit to practise and have up to date skills and knowledge that they need, to provide the best possible support for the people they work with.

When social workers renew their registration each year, they are confirming that they meet the professional standards. Professional standard 4 is dedicated to CPD, demonstrating its importance to social workers’ practice. 

It's a legal requirement for all social workers who want to practise in England to renew their registration annually and CPD is an essential part of that.

To do this, social workers must

• submit their registration renewal application form 
• pay their registration fee
• record a minimum of 2 different pieces of continuing professional development (CPD) on their Social Work England online account. Social workers must include a peer reflection with at least one of these pieces of CPD

All of the above must be completed by 11:59pm (UK time) on 30 November 2025. 

We’re thinking about the future of CPD

CPD is invaluable in social work practice and we understand how much work social workers do to maintain and improve their practise each year. 

We’ve reviewed learning from the last 5 years of our CPD model. This is helping us consider how we continue to ensure that our CPD requirements:

• remain relevant and achievable  for social workers to complete
• reflect and recognise the breadth and depth of CPD that social workers do
• provide the best possible assurance to the public that social workers are meeting the CPD standard

We've been the regulator for 5 years now. We want to speak to social workers and employers about CPD, our approach and what we could do as part of our regulation, and as the profession develops.

While we engage with the profession in our approach to CPD, individual records  will not be reviewed by independent external assessors. We’ll continue with routine internal system checks to ensure compliance with our CPD requirements. For example, confirming that the CPD records social workers provide are unique.

Last updated: 30 September 2024

• About this guidance
• About CPD review
• The CPD review process
• Outcomes of the review
• Concerns

About this guidance

This guidance is about the continuing professional development (CPD) review process, up until 30 September 2024.

For information about recording CPD and our CPD requirements, you should read our CPD guidance.

Who this guidance is for

This guidance may be useful for (all of the following):

• social workers who have been selected for CPD review
• social workers who want to learn more about the CPD review process
• employers of social workers
• CPD assessors

About CPD review

What is CPD review?

Every year, we carry out a review of CPD submitted by social workers. We do this to check that social workers are meeting the CPD requirements [1] and upholding professional standard 4.

Usually, we start the CPD review process in January. It takes approximately 3 months, concluding in March.

[note 1] Social Work England (registration) Rules 2019, rule 53

Why does Social Work England do a CPD review?

Upholding social work regulations

As the specialist regulator for social workers, our purpose is to protect the public. One of the ways we do this is by setting professional standards, and ensuring social workers uphold these.

When social workers renew their registration each year, they confirm that they comply with the legislative requirement to meet the professional standard on continuing professional training and development, as set out under regulation 13(4)(a) of the Social Workers Regulations 2018.

Reviewing a sample of social workers’ CPD gives us assurance that social workers are meeting regulation 13(4) of the Social Workers Regulations 2018.

Learning about the sector

Doing a CPD review each year enables us to learn more about what CPD social workers are doing. It helps us to identify key themes, and gather data about learning and development in the profession.

We use our learning from the CPD review to help shape future improvements. It also informs policy development.

How are social workers selected for review?

In January, our online system randomly selects 2.5% of social workers on the register for CPD review.

Exclusions

We will exclude some people from CPD review. This includes social workers who:

• have specific sanctions on their practice on 1 December, as a result of fitness to practise proceedings. This includes social workers with (any of the following):
  • conditions of practice
  • suspension
  • interim conditions of practice
  • interim suspension
• joined the register (through registration or restoration) between 1 September and 30 November. This is because they will have recently demonstrated their knowledge and experience

Who does the CPD review?

A team of independent assessors carry out the CPD review each year.

We recruit the assessors under our appointment rules. We appoint assessors with experience of working in quality assurance in social work (or in a similar setting).

The assessors are a mix of lay people and social workers.

To ensure a robust and consistent approach, all assessors do regular mandatory training.

The CPD review process

What happens if you are selected

If you are selected for review, we will send you an email explaining the next steps. We will send this to the email address we hold on the Register.

You do not need to do anything if you are selected. We will not ask you for any additional CPD or information. This is because we review the CPD you have already recorded on your online account during the previous registration year.

We will extract an anonymised CPD record from your online account. This will include all the CPD you have recorded during the registration year (and any supporting documents you have uploaded).

We will then supply this to an assessor for them to review.

How do the assessors review CPD?

The assessor will look at your CPD in the order that you recorded it. They will use all the information available in your CPD record to assess whether you are meeting the CPD requirements.

The assessor will ask 2 questions when reviewing your CPD record. These are (both of the following):

1. Is there a clear description of the impact that the CPD activity has had on the social worker’s practice? (In at least one of the pieces of CPD)
2. Has the social worker discussed their CPD with a peer? (In at least one of the pieces of CPD)

The assessors will accept your CPD if they can answer ‘yes’ to both of these questions.

If the answer to one or both questions is ‘no’ (in all pieces of CPD recorded), your CPD will enter moderation. For more information on the outcomes of review, please refer to the next section of this guidance.

Question 1: impact on practice

Professional standard 4 (the standard about CPD) has 6 parts. Standard 4.6 is about reflection.

Standard 4.6: Reflect on my learning activities and evidence what impact continuing professional development has on the quality of my practice.

If you are not currently practising, the assessor will look for description of future impact. This means you have reflected on the impact the CPD activity will have when you return to practice.

We recognise that many registered social workers do not directly provide social work support to the public. For example, you may work in academia or management. In this case, the assessor will look for a description of the impact that the CPD has on those you work with. For example, you might describe how you shared your learning with your students or colleagues.

You can read more about how to demonstrate standard 4.6 on our website.

Question 2: peer reflection

Peer reflection means you have discussed your CPD with a peer, your manager, or another professional. The assessor will look for evidence that you have done peer reflection.

You can read further information on our website:

• a list of professionals who count as a peer
• more detailed information about peer reflection

Outcomes of the review

Accepted

If the assessor answers ‘yes’ to both assessment questions, your CPD will be accepted. This means the assessor has confirmed you have met the CPD requirements.

We will email you to inform you that your CPD has been accepted. The assessor will not be able to provide any feedback on accepted CPD. This is because the activity is quality assurance for us as a regulator, and we have no regulatory duty to provide feedback.

Moderation

If the assessor answers ‘no’ to one or both questions, we will pass your CPD record on to a second assessor. The second assessor will then do what we call ‘moderation’. This means they assess your CPD again, using the same 2 questions. Moderation is independent, meaning the second assessor will not be influenced by the first assessor’s review. We will not tell the second assessor that this is a moderation, so they will treat it like any other review.

We will not notify you if your CPD is being moderated. Instead, we will notify you when this process is complete.

If the second assessor answers ‘yes’ to both assessment questions, your CPD will be accepted. We will email you to inform you that your CPD has been accepted.

Feedback and include in next review

If the second assessor also answers ‘no’ to one or both questions during moderation, we will include you in the next review.

This means that you will automatically be selected for CPD review again (if you apply to renew your registration) in the following January. The assessors will review the CPD you have recorded during the previous registration year.

We will email you to inform you of the outcome of the review, and let you know that you will be included in the next review. You will not need to provide any further information. We will also share feedback from the first assessor.

The assessor will provide clear feedback on why the CPD was not accepted. They will also explain how you could improve your CPD. You should reflect on this feedback and implement it when you record CPD in future.

Concerns

If the assessor has concerns about the CPD that has been recorded, they will inform the CPD quality assurance manager. The CPD quality assurance manager will refer the concern to the relevant team (where appropriate). For example, if the assessor (any of the following):

• has concerns about the validity of the CPD
• identifies a fitness to practise or safeguarding concern in the CPD
• identifies personal data about a third party in the CPD
• becomes aware of a potential conflict of interest during the review
  

Registration fraud

Where there are concerns that the information provided is not CPD relating to social work, this can be considered under our removal from the register powers, Regulation 14(1)a of The Social Workers Regulations (2018): A registered social worker's entry must be removed from the register where the regulator is satisfied that their registration was fraudulently procured or incorrectly made, and determines to remove their entry from the register.

Fitness to practise or safeguarding concerns

Our assessors may identify information that might call into question a social worker’s fitness to practise. If so, this will be referred to the triage team for consideration under the fitness to practise process.

If the assessors identify information that raises a safeguarding concern, this will be referred to our safeguarding lead.

Data protection

Our assessors may identify a CPD record which contains personal data about a third party. If so, we may take steps to anonymise the information in the social worker’s online account.

When this happens, we will inform the social worker of the action taken. We will also advise them of our requirement to anonymise all CPD. The assessor will continue to assess the record.

Conflict of interest

In some cases, an assessor may become aware of a potential conflict of interest during a review. For example, they may realise they know the social worker, or have a relationship with the employer of the social worker. If this happens, they will immediately inform the CPD quality assurance manager. We will then re-allocate the social worker’s CPD record to a different assessor.

Publishing outcomes

We rarely make the outcome of a review public. However, in some cases, the assessors will raise a concern that the CPD quality assurance manager will refer either to the registration or fitness to practise teams for further consideration. If so, these teams may publish the outcome of the review or refer to it in their processes. This includes (potentially) the adjudicators referring to it in their decision-making.