Consultation on amendments to our registration rules
Consultation on amendments to our registration rules
This consultation closed on Thursday 12 June 2025 at 5pm. We are no longer accepting responses to this consultation. We are currently analysing the responses to this consultation. We will then publish a consultation response along with the final rules. Full details of our response and any amendments will be made available on our website.
Contents
Introduction
Social Work England recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, and we felt the time was right to reflect on our work as well as recent government guidance. We have collated learning where it relates to our registration rules and begun the process of proposing amendments to them. This consultation sets out those amendments.
The consultation relates only to amendments to rules, and only those rules which do not require amendments to our regulations first. Our regulations, the Social Workers Regulations 2018, set out how we perform our regulatory functions. Our rules set out what people can expect from us across appointments, registration, education and training, and fitness to practise. Because we are proposing to amend our registration rules, we are now carrying out a public consultation before submitting any proposed changes to the Secretary of State for Education. We propose to implement these changes from the start of the next registration renewal period on 1 September 2025.
A summary of the proposed changes
This consultation proposes 2 changes to our registration rules, below. We have summarised the reasoning behind the 2 proposed amendments here.
1. Reducing International English Language Testing System (IELTS) certificate validity from 5 years to 2 years
In 2023, IELTS published its ‘Review of Recommended 2-year Limit on IELTS Validity’ which found that the recommended 2-year validity period is the norm, with only a few exceptions. Social Work England’s current acceptance of 5 years is one of those exceptions.
The British Council advises that 2 years is the accepted period for an individual to remain proficient in English if the language is used regularly. Proficiency in English deteriorates after 2 years if it is not used on a regular basis.
Changing the time frame for which IELTS tests are valid will ensure consistency with other health and care regulators in England including the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the General Dental Council, and the Health and Care Professions Council.
2. Removing gender identity from our mandatory data collection in line with Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) guidance
The PSED requires public authorities to have due regard to certain equality considerations when exercising their functions. In December 2023, the Government published new guidance (which replaces the Government Equalities Office’s 2010 guidance) for public authorities on how to comply with the PSED.
The updated PSED guidance states, “Authorities should take care to undertake their assessment by reference to the protected characteristics set out in the act. They should not use concepts such as gender or gender identity, which are not encoded in the act and can be understood in different ways.”
We made the decision to collect ‘gender identity’ prior to going live as the regulator on 2 December 2019. This decision was informed by both what our predecessor, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), collected and a public consultation in spring 2019 on our own rules that set out the data we would collect.
Following the updated PSED guidance, we are proposing to remove ‘gender identity’ from the mandatory data collection we collect within the renewal, registration and restoration journeys. We are also taking this opportunity to review the questions we ask in our voluntary data collection.
Currently in their online account, social workers are asked to share a range of demographic data. Responses to these questions can be updated at any time and includes a question about transgender and gender transition. If we remove the mandatory question within the renewal, registration and restoration journey about gender identity, we will continue to collect appropriate diversity monitoring data through voluntary questions on the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment under the Equality Act 2010.
We will rework these questions to ask about sex and gender reassignment in a way that will allow us to maintain the data we currently hold, whilst continuing to observe trends across the social work sector. Both of these are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
We have considered the recently published Sullivan review and will take into consideration the government’s response and any subsequent guidance, should it be available.
List of rule amendments
"To determine that an applicant has the necessary knowledge of English, the regulator must be satisfied that the applicant:
(1) has within the last five years passed a test of their knowledge of English that has been approved under the regulator’s education and training approval scheme; or
(2) has within the last five years obtained an overall score of 7 or more in the International English Language Testing System (Academic) test; or..."
Amendment
"To determine that an applicant has the necessary knowledge of English, the regulator must be satisfied that the applicant:
(1) has within the last five years passed a test of their knowledge of English that has been approved under the regulator’s education and training approval scheme; or
(2) has within the last two years obtained an overall score of 7 or more in the International English Language Testing System (Academic) test; or..."
Purpose
To reduce IELTS certificate validity to 2 years, in line with IELTS evidence.
"An applicant must provide, along with an application form in accordance with rule 21, the following information and declarations:
(1) Their personal details:
(a) Full name (and former name if any)
(b) Date of birth.
(c) Nationality.
(d) Gender identity.
(e) Home address.
(f) All work addresses at which they are currently employed as a social worker.
(g) Telephone number.
(h)Email address."
Amendment
"An applicant must provide, along with an application form in accordance with rule 21, the following information and declarations:
(1) Their personal details:
(a) Full name (and former name if any).
(b) Date of birth.
(c) Nationality.
(d) Home address.
(e) All work addresses at which they are currently employed as a social worker.
(f) Telephone number.
(g) Email address."
Purpose
To remove gender identity from the mandatory data collection within the renew-al, registration and restora-tion journey.
How to respond
This consultation period was for 10 weeks and closed on Thursday 12 June 2025. We are no longer accepting responses to this consultation.
We are currently analysing the responses to this consultation. We will then publish a consultation response along with the final rules. Full details of our response and any amendments will be made available on our website.