Social Workers - It's time to renew your SWE registration

Social Workers – It’s time to renew your SWE registration.

SWE is a specialist regulator focused on enabling positive change in the social work industry and it is illegal to practice as a social worker without an active Social Work England registration.

Social Work England are on hand to highlight the importance of renewing your registration by 3 November, and what’sneeded to support your application including the CPD requirements. They are being particularly encouraging during this time of extreme pressure the social care system is under, promotion retention to ensure the valuable front line is kept strong and relevant.

Executive director of regulation, Phil Hallam, recently had this to say about why registration is important, why SWE asks social workers to renew annually, and why they need to record CPD

“The term ‘social worker’ is a protected title, and as such it is illegal for a person to use it unless they have completed the required training to become registered with us, and unless they maintain their registration. Registration sits at the heart of our role in protecting the public and being registered with Social Work England helps to provide assurance to the public social workers meet the requirements set out through our legislation in order to perform their important role in society”

“Annual renewal is important as it provides the public regular assurance that you meet the requirements to remain on the register”

He went on to say “CPD is an important aspect of maintaining and developing skills and knowledge for any professional, and the nature and importance of social work practice means that we, on behalf of the public, need to have assurance that all social workers on our register are keeping their skills and knowledge up to date. It can help you to grow and develop skills, improve service delivery based on feedback and evidence, and deliver new knowledge and ways of thinking”

It's no secret that the social care system has faced a challenging and tumultuous couple of years and those who work with or as a social worker have no doubt felt the negative effects of the pandemic on the health and well being of our communities possibly more than others. As previously stated, one of the biggest challenges the industry has faced is staff retention. According to Department for Education statistics, 8.6% of all local authority children's social workers left the profession during the year ending September 2021. Data published by Skills for Care shows that the vacancy rate in adult social care was 7.1% in 2021, which equates to 8,000 vacancies for social work jobs. With this in mind,it's obvious why encouraging all social workers to renew their registration is such a high priority.

A change that has been implemented to this years’ renewal process is the increase in CPD(continual professional development) that is required. Previously, social workers were required to submit at least one piece of CPD, whereas now, SWE require at least two pieces of CPD to support your application for renewal. For more information on this, see here.

SWE have also requested that all social workers review or consider submitting their diversity data before they apply to renew. While this is optional, they encourage social workers to share this information with them to help ensure their processes are fair.

How to renew your registration

Renewal is a relatively straight forward process. Go to your account on the  Social Work England website and select ‘apply to renew your application' and If you've already recordedyour CPD, you can continue to edit it or add to it until 30 November.

If you cannotfind the info you need or need specific advice contact the CPD advice team here

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