Monitoring Report - Social Work England 2023/24

This monitoring report covers the period January 2024-December 2024.

Key statistics

• Social Work England maintains a register of social workers in England
• 103,893, professionals on the register (as at 31 December 2024)

Key findings and areas for improvement

Fitness to Practise timeliness

Social Work England did not meet Standard 15 for the third consecutive year due to ongoing concerns about the time it takes to process fitness to practise (FTP) cases. We acknowledge that Social Work England continues to take steps aimed at improving its performance in this area and that it has some resource constraints. However, there does not appear to be evidence of an overall improvement in performance: the backlog at the hearings stage continues to grow, and many stakeholders raised concerns about the time the process is taking. We have escalated our concerns about Social Work England to the relevant Secretaries of State.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Social Work England met Standard 3. This was the first year in which we assessed Social Work England with our new approach to Standard 3. It demonstrated positive work across all four outcomes. We noted good practice in relation to its standards for social workers and education and training providers, its work with its National Advisory Forum (NAF) and approach to co-production overall, and its approach to categorising corporate complaints which are relevant to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Addressing concerns

Social Work England met Standard 4 this year. We saw that some stakeholder organisations published a joint statement raising their concerns about the significant delays in the fitness to practise process. As well as that, a registrant won claims in an employment tribunal which included exemplary damages being imposed on Social Work England. We are reassured that Social Work England is taking action in response to these concerns and we will continue to monitor its response.
 

Processing international registration applications

We noted last year that the time Social Work England was taking to process registration applications from overseas applications had increased. The time taken has significantly decreased this year, following action taken by Social Work England and a small decrease in the number of applications received, and Standard 11 is met.