Launch of our equality, diversity and inclusion action plan for 2023 to 2024

We are proud to launch our equality, diversity and inclusion action plan for 2023 to 2024. The principles of equality, diversity and inclusion are synonymous with being a social worker. Social workers champion people’s rights and support those that are marginalised. The social work profession is guided by values and principles of anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice. This means social workers are uniquely placed to lead the way in achieving equality.

As the specialist regulator for social workers, we’ll continue using our influence to promote social work’s role in addressing inequality.

Colum Conway, Chief Executive of Social Work England, said:

“We're clear about our responsibilities as a regulator, and are committed to, and ambitious about, what we can accomplish when we work collaboratively to foster best practice in equality, diversity and inclusion to ensure our processes, and the wider sector, are rooted in fairness.

The equality, diversity and inclusion action plan outlines our commitments for this year and I look forward to working alongside colleagues to achieve them. I’d like to thank our equality, diversity and inclusion steering group, our National Advisory Forum, employee forums and networks, people from across the organisation and key external stakeholders for their consideration and contribution to this action plan.”

Ahmina Akhtar, head of equality, diversity and inclusion at Social Work England, said,

“This action plan brings a new focus and drive to progress our equality, diversity and inclusion efforts. It builds on the work we are already doing and sits alongside, other interconnecting strategies such as our people plan and approach to data and insights. We are proud of the progress we have made but acknowledge the many challenges that lay ahead and recognise that we still have a lot of work to do.”

Our first equality, diversity and inclusion action plan covered January 2022 to March 2023. It provided a strong foundation for us to build upon. Now, we transition to our next action plan. It’s important we take stock of our progress to date.

Some of our achievements over the last 12 months:

• developed a clearer picture of the diversity of the workforce by asking social workers to voluntarily share their data.
• co-produced Social Work Week for the third time this year
• amended our online concerns journey to reduce the potential impact of bias and prejudice when making a referral
• continued to champion the role of the National Advisory Forum. It’s important that a diverse range of voices act as our ‘critical friend’. 
• Achieved awards and worked towards accreditation including the Employer Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI) Talent and Inclusion Diversity Evaluation (TIDE) bronze award for 2022 to 2023
• submitted our validation application to gain the ‘Disability Confident Leader’ Level 3 accreditation
• developed a positive action mentoring scheme

Plans for the future:

Our equality, diversity and inclusion objectives for the next 3 years are fully embedded into our strategy for 2023 to 2026.

The core business objectives we’ll focus on through this action plan (all of the following):

• share the data and insight we hold about the social work profession and our regulation. This will help us to support leaders and policy makers to drive change, and ensure our processes are safe and fair
• ensure all social work students receive comprehensive and consistent education and training. This should be in a supportive and inclusive learning environment, to prepare them for practice
• ensure that our registration processes are fair, responsive and efficient
• further develop our digital channels and services. This is to ensure they are inclusive and focused on user experience
• be a diverse and inclusive employer. We want to support and motivate our people, so they can deliver for the people we serve
• continually develop and improve how we work. This will ensure we are a well-run organisation that delivers the right outcomes and provides value for money

Read the full equality, diversity and inclusion action plan