Social work education and training consultations

We regulate all social work education and training courses in England to give the public confidence that students and apprentices who complete a social work course can meet our professional standards and are ready to practise safely and effectively.

We have launched 3 consultations on:

• revised education and training standards and guidance
• new readiness for professional practice guidance
• amendments to our education and training rules

Please use the links below to read the proposals and to share your thoughts on our proposed changes. We want to hear from education providers, students, people with lived experience of social work, social workers, organisations and anyone with an interest in social work.

Please respond to the consultations by 5pm on Thursday 6 August 2026. You can find out more about the consultations in our FAQs. We are also holding online consultation sessions.

1. Revised education and training standards and guidance

We are proposing updates to the education and training standards 2021 and streamlining the associated pieces of guidance. We approve qualifying social work courses against the standards. We are proposing these changes as we think they will improve the quality and consistency of social work education and training courses.

Take part in the consultation

2. Readiness for professional practice guidance

This a new piece of guidance that explains to course providers how to integrate the knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) into their courses. The KSBs set out the outcomes that we expect students and apprentices to achieve from their courses so they can meet the professional standards. We have previously consulted on and published the KSBs, so they are not part of this consultation. However, we have refreshed the structure of the KSBs. This is to:

• enable integration of the KSBs into course curriculum
• provide students a clear framework of the KSBs they should be learning and where they should be learning them
• provide course providers with an assessment framework to ensure students are progressing through the required KSBs
• ensure a more streamlined approach to align with post qualifying frameworks, such as the Early Career Development Programme

It is our intention that proposed changes to the education and training standards will bring the KSBs into our regulatory framework. Subject to the outcome of this consultation, we propose that course providers would be required to demonstrate how they have mapped their courses to the KSBs and how they are monitoring student progression towards meeting the KSBs.

Take part in the consultation

3. Revised education and training rules

The rules set out our responsibilities and how we will regulate social work education and training courses. We have revised these to provide clarity for course providers and reflect learning from our first reapproval cycle.

Take part in the consultation

This image shows the framework that underpins the regulation, quality and consistency of all qualifying social work education and training courses across England.

The 3 parts of the framework are:

• the education and training standards and guidance
• the knowledge, skills and behaviours
• readiness for professional practice guidance

It enables course providers to ensure students and apprentices are capable and able to meet the professional standards when they apply to join the social work register.

View the accessible version of the education framework image.

Following the consultation, we will submit any proposed changes to the Secretary of State for Education for approval. We will then aim publish our consultation outcome and final documents in autumn 2026. We are proposing to implement these changes from autumn 2027. We’re consulting now to give course providers adequate notice of changes that may affect their courses. However, an independent review of Social Work England is currently ongoing, and the outcome of this consultation may be shaped by the findings from the review.