Survey results confirm that social workers see the importance of professional standards

Social Work England has published the results from a survey which asked the profession for their thoughts on how the regulator maintains public confidence in social workers in England.

Launched in Spring 2024, the anonymous survey was completed by 2,120 social workers in England, which is approximately 2% of Social Work England’s register, as they register over 100,000 social workers. It was established to help the regulator to incrementally measure and track how its work is enabling positive change in the social work profession.

Many of the insights are beneficial in understanding how the regulator can better support social workers, their employers, and the many diverse groups of people who have a social worker in their lives.  

Social Work England’s professional standards set out what a social worker in England must know, understand and be able to do to practise safely and effectively. The regulator found that 86% of respondents felt that the professional standards were important to them and 90% said they understood how they applied to their work.

Overall feedback on how effective Social Work England’s regulation of the profession was mixed. Over 40% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Social Work England was an effective regulator. 35% responded neutrally, and 25% of respondents said they disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Other results from the survey echoed previous research published by the regulator on perceptions of the profession. The results found that 75% of respondents said they did not feel that social work was valued by society and over 40% said they would not recommend it as a career.

Sarah Blackmore, executive director of professional practice and external engagement at Social Work England, said:

“We are committed to being an engagement-led organisation that listens to people with lived experience, the profession, and our stakeholders. We are transparent in our accountability to those who need social work in their lives, and committed to building a positive relationship with the profession to achieve that aim.

“In sharing these findings , we underline our commitment to understand the impact of our role as the regulator. It is clear that sometimes there are differing expectations of our role, together with discrepancies as to how social work is viewed by the public and the profession itself. The insight of the survey is invaluable for us to learn and keep moving our work forward, while remaining responsive to the sentiment of the profession we regulate.”

Read the full publication of the results of the survey.