Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to content published on the www.socialworkengland.org.uk website. This website is run by Social Work England. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and add custom stylesheets
• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
• We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• You cannot modify the text size using your browser settings but you can zoom in.
• Required form fields in the My Account area of the website are not always indicated consistently.
• Older PDF documents such as inspection reports, are not fully accessible to screen readers as they are not tagged properly.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, contact us.

• Email: [email protected]
• Call: free phone 0808 196 2274
• Address: 1 North Bank, Blonk Street, Sheffield S3 8JY

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us.

• Email: [email protected]
• Call: free phone 0808 196 2274

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us or visiting us in person

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Social Work England is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• The raise a concern form does not have autocomplete attributes to help collect information about the user. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (Level AA).
• Text can't be resized and zooming up to 200% may result in loss of content in some pages. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 Resize text (Level AA).
• Required field text instructions in the My Account area are not always provided. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A).

We are currently addressing all Level A and AA WCAG 2.1 non-compliance issues and aim to complete them by June 2021.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will continue to strive for full WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance as this website evolves. We are committed to accessibility testing and service audits as well as and gathering feedback from our users to make sure we provide an accessible service for all.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25 November 2019. It was last reviewed on 11 February 2021. This website was last tested on 12 November 2020. The test was carried out by CDS.

The WCAG-EM methodology was followed to conduct a WCAG 2.1 AA compliance audit on a representative sample of pages. The website was tested with a range of assistive technologies including screen readers, speech recognition software and adapted displays to test different contrast and zoom adaptations. We tested across a range of desktop and mobile browsers and devices.