Further statement from Social Work England on the remedy judgment of the London Central Employment Tribunal

Further to the statement issued on 29 April 2024, Colum Conway, Chief Executive of Social Work England, said:

As the national regulator for the social work profession we take this case extremely seriously. We want to reiterate again how we recognise this has been a particularly difficult case for Rachel Meade and all others involved.

“Gender critical views, namely the belief that sex is immutable, are a philosophical belief protected under the Equality Act 2010. We have already started implementing our learning from this case.

“Our fitness to practise role sits under the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which established us as a regulator to protect the public. Under this legislation, we have a responsibility to ensure that social workers maintain their professional standards and consider any concerns raised with us that a social worker may not be meeting these.

“We have already developed internal guidance for our fitness to practise team. The guidance considers concerns raised to us on the use of social media by social workers. In addition, we are in the process of updating and delivering training on the drafting of regulatory concerns, have started providing case law updates and implemented amendments to our regulations on the review of case examiner decisions.

“We will continue to develop, using learning from this case to further improve our processes. This includes (all of the following):

• continuing to enable anyone to raise a concern about a social worker in England in line with our legal framework, and the Standards of Good Regulation set by the Professional Standards Authority
• developing guidance and principles for our fitness to practise teams in relation to cases that may relate to aspects of the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act and how this interacts with the regulatory process
  
  
• delivering training to our triage, investigation and case examiner teams on the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act and their impact on regulatory process and how to appropriately factor this into decision making. This will include training on freedom of expression and protected characteristics
  
  
• This will be delivered by an external legal provider within the next 2 months
  
  
• developing guidance for social workers on the use of social media, with a view to supporting social workers to navigate the links to our professional standards
  
  
• making our guidance on the accepted disposal process clearer for social workers, to ensure they understand the regulatory framework and can make informed decisions about the impact of agreeing an offer of an accepted disposal

“While we remain committed to learning from this case and implementing next steps, we are still considering the remedy judgment and our options.”