Managing challenges

Standard 7: Professional registration

Professional registration

Employer support for continuing professional development (CPD)

Research by YouGov for Social Work England shows a lack of employer support and protected time for CPD is a major barrier. Nearly 1 in 5 social workers reported no support for CPD. Social workers want to keep their knowledge current, but many feel employers do not take CPD seriously.

Professional development and career progression also motivate CPD. Use Employer standard 6: Continuing professional development tools in your organisation.

Ensuring a psychologically safe environment

Practitioners need to feel safe to speak out about declining care standards. Bullying, harassment, or discrimination can silence them. Helping social workers feel safe stops them feeling overworked and unsupported. This can help them avoid poor judgement and unethical behaviour.

Addressing unfair outcomes for protected groups

The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) highlights unequal outcomes for protected groups in professional regulation. United Kingdom (UK) ethnic minority and male practitioners are overrepresented in fitness to practice investigations.

The Health and Care Professional Council (HCPC) reports suggest structural disadvantages and unconscious bias. Work with your regional Social Work England (SWE) lead to promote diversity in decision-makers and to develop an anti-racist strategy. Many local authorities are successfully implementing effective anti-racist strategies.

Workforce pressures and professional standards

Good regulation ensures individual social workers are not held accountable for systemic issues. Safe staffing, effective induction, supervision and CPD can help to improve practice.

Some employers may wrongly blame individual workers and start fitness to practice referrals instead of addressing issues internally.

References

This is the list of research and evidence sources used to produce this section. Publicly available links are included.

HCPC. (n.d.). Understanding the prevalence of fitness to practise cases about paramedics and social workers in England – interim report.

Safer care for All. (2022). Professional Standards Authority. Retrieved from Safer care for all: solutions.

You Gov. (2021). Social Work and Continuing Professional Development for Social Work England.

The resources have been developed by Research in Practice in collaboration with DfE.
Published: 30 October 2024
Last updated: 30 October 2024