Social Work England will proceed with proposed changes to their registration rules

Today we have published the outcome of our consultation on proposed amendments to our registration rules. The consultation, which ran for 10 weeks earlier this year, sought views on 2 specific changes that we proposed would take effect from 1 September 2025.

After analysing all of the responses and based on the feedback received, we will proceed with the proposed changes to rule 16 and rule 22 as set out in the consultation.

• Rule 16: proposal to reduce International English Language Testing System (IELTS) certificate validity from 5 years to 2 years
• Rule 22: proposal to remove gender identity from our mandatory data collection in line with Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) guidance

In addition to the changes related to rule 22, we will also make changes to the voluntary questions we ask as part of our equality and diversity data collection process. We have considered the recently published independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, led by Professor Alice Sullivan, and used the recommended wording in the  changes outlined below.

Our new voluntary equality and diversity questions about sex and gender reassignment relate directly to protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and will enable us to continue observing trends across the social work sector.

We will publish updated rules and implement the related changes to our processes from the start of the next registration renewal period on 1 September 2025.

For full details of the feedback we received during the consultation, how we used this to make our decisions, and the changes we will make please read our full consultation response.