Monitoring Report - Social Work England 2021/22

Social Work England met Standard 3 in respect of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for the first time this year. It requested diversity data from its registrants as part of the renewal process, which led to most registrants sharing their data. It has also made clear progress on its EDI action plan, which was published in December 2021. We are satisfied that Social Work England is committed to EDI and that EDI considerations are embedded in its work.

Social Work England did not meet Standard 15 about timeliness of fitness to practise cases. It met this Standard last year, but we expected to see improvements, along with the resolution of the legacy cases ('Legacy cases' are Fitness to practise cases transferred from the Health and Care Professions Council to Social Work England in December 2019), for the Standard to be met this year. Whilst the legacy cases are close to being concluded, the time taken to conclude fitness to practise cases has increased.

Social Work England did not meet Standard 17 because it was taking too long to make decisions about interim orders.

Social Work England made changes to its registration renewal process this year, increasing its CPD requirements for registrants and no longer giving registrants a grace period to provide CPD following the end of the renewal period. More registrants left the register compared to last year, but we did not see any evidence to suggest that the process was flawed or unfair, so Standard 11 was met.