Social Work England launches consultations to strengthen social work education and training
People encouraged to give their views on revised education and training standards and guidance
Social Work England launches consultations to strengthen social work education and training
6/11/2026 4:30:00 PM
Social Work England has today launched 3 public consultations related to its quality assurance of social work courses. The regulator is taking the opportunity to embed learning, respond to feedback and broader external changes in education and practice, as well as make operational improvements.
It is proposing updates to its rules, standards and guidance after engagement with the sector and input from its Education and Training Advisory Forum (ETAF). The proposed changes support Social Work England’s overarching ambition to ensure social work students and apprentices receive high quality education and training. The changes aim to help to equip them to meet the professional standards and protect the public when they join the social work register. The regulator is seeking views on:
Revised education and training standards 2021
Social Work England will approve social work courses against these revised standards to ensure students who successfully complete a course can meet the professional standards. The regulator has also streamlined and merged the guidance that supports course providers and embedded it within the standards.
New readiness for professional practice guidance
This guidance will help course providers understand how to use the published knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs), supporting them to map them to their courses and setting expectations in relation to monitoring student progression towards meeting the KSBs across the course duration.
Revised education and training rules
These rules set out the responsibilities of Social Work England in regulating education and training courses. They are being updated to provide clarity for course providers and reflect learning from our first reapproval cycle.
Social Work England wants to hear from anyone with an interest in social work education, including organisations, education providers, social workers, students and people with lived experience of social work. People can respond to the consultation online and find out about consultation events on its website.
The closing date is Thursday 6 August 2026 at 5pm.
Sarah Blackmore, executive director of professional practice and external engagement at Social Work England, said:
“Excellent social work education equips the next generation of social workers to thrive in such an important role that supports our most vulnerable people. These proposals aim to create a strong, integrated framework for social work education that will improve the quality and consistency of education across the country. This will benefit students and the people they support while training and once they qualify.
“The proposals are rooted in what we have heard from course providers, students, practice educators and people with lived experience during our first cycle of course inspections and reflections on our first 5 years of regulation.”
Following the outcome of the consultations, Social Work England will submit any proposed changes to the Secretary of State for Education for approval. It aims to publish the final documents and consultation outcome in autumn 2026. Education providers will be supported with a period of implementation and the revised standards are expected to be used for inspections from autumn 2027.