Apply to join our National Advisory Forum

We are now welcoming applications to be part of our National Advisory Forum.

Are you a social work student or a person with lived experience of social work? You can use your voice to contribute to our work.

What is the role of the National Advisory Forum?

Co-production is a guiding principle at Social Work England. We must always listen to, engage with and co‑produce alongside those who are directly influenced by our work.

The role of the forum is to act as a critical friend to Social Work England. The National Advisory Forum provides expert advice, support and challenge to our work and how we achieve our objectives. Members include social workers, people with lived experience of social work, academics and students who bring a wealth of lived and learned experience to our regulation. They also drive co-production across the organisation, embedding it in our ways of working.

This is a unique opportunity to get involved with a national organisation at an important time in our development. This year, the National Advisory Forum will be supporting us to develop and influence the delivery of our next 3 year strategy.

We offer forum members a supportive and inclusive environment, with opportunities to develop personal and professional experience through contributing to workstreams across our organisation.

For more information about the National Advisory Forum, you can:

• read about the role of the National Advisory Forum
• read the terms of reference
• read the Co-production – reimbursing expenses and involvement payments policy. We are currently reviewing our terms and policies, and successful candidates will be informed of any changes accordingly

Who can apply

Building on our current membership, we are looking for students and people with lived experience of social work.

Students

We are currently looking to recruit students with more than one year of study remaining. This is open to all qualifying routes such as undergraduate, postgraduate, fast track and apprenticeships.

People with lived experience

We are also looking for people with lived experience of social work to become members of our National Advisory Forum.

A person with lived experience of social work is someone who has received support from a social worker at some point in their lives or has supported an immediate family member who has. You could still be receiving that support or have received it previously. This can include (but is not limited to):

• care leavers
• adoptive parents
• carers
• those who have been supported by children and families social work or adults social work including mental health, physical heath or learning disabilities

What does the role involve?

You will be a National Advisory Forum member for 3 years. However for students, your membership will last through the remainder of your studies and end on completion of your assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE).

There are some criteria you need to meet. For us to consider you, we ask that you are:

• able to attend meetings 6 times a year
• passionate about improving the social work profession
• willing to challenge and offer constructive criticism
• organised and able to work to agreed timescales
• respectful of others
• able to communicate with a diverse range of people
• able to understand the role of regulation
• supportive of our aims and embody our values

Drop-in sessions

We’re running informal online drop-in sessions for people who are interested in applying. These will be on:

• Tuesday 25 March 2025 between 12pm and 1pm
• Tuesday 25 March 2025 between 5:30pm and 6:30pm

These sessions will give you a chance to speak with current members of the National Advisory Forum and members of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Co-Production team.

Email EDIandCoproduction@socialworkengland.org.uk to sign up for a drop-in session.

How to apply

To apply, please complete an expression of interest form.

Please email the completed form to EDIandCoproduction@socialworkengland.org.uk. You must do this by midnight on Thursday 27 March 2025. We won’t consider applications we receive after this deadline.

We will also accept and welcome video applications. We’ll consider these equally alongside written applications.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to give feedback at the application stage.

If you want to speak to us about the role or need help with your application, contact EDIandCoproduction@socialworkengland.org.uk.

If your application is successful

If your application is successful, we will invite you to a recruitment session and a short informal interview. This will take place week commencing 28 April 2025.

Both the recruitment session and interview will be done online using Microsoft Teams.

Please contact EDIandCoproduction@socialworkengland.org.uk if you need support to attend a recruitment session or interview.