Registration annotations

Last updated: 29 July 2022

• About this guidance
• Annotations to the register
• Processing your application
• Further information

About this guidance

This guidance is for registered social workers who:

• have completed further qualifications and training (in addition to their social work qualification) as approved mental health professionals or best interests assessors
• and would like to apply for their entry on the register to be annotated to reflect this

Annotations to the register

An annotation to the register shows to the public that you’ve completed additional qualifications and training in an area relevant to social work. You can apply for your entry on the register to be annotated if you’re qualified to act as one or both of the following:

• An approved mental health professional
• A best interests assessor

You can apply for your entry to be annotated through your Social Work England online account. You’ll need to upload evidence that shows you’re qualified to act in one of the above roles. The evidence that you provide will need to include:

• A certificate, or evidence of the qualification or training undertaken
• The name and address (including the country) of the provider of the course or training which relates to the annotation
• The name and address (including the country) of the awarding body for any qualification which relates to the annotation
• The date the qualification was awarded, or the date the training was completed
• Confirmation of the name in which the qualification is held

For more information see:

• The Social Workers Regulations 2018, reg 12
• The Social Work England Registration Rules 2019, rule 42

Processing your application

Once we’ve received your application, we’ll review it and decide whether or not you meet our requirements for an annotation. If we need any further information to help us decide, we will contact you to ask for this.

Once we have reached a decision, we’ll let you know through the message centre on your online Social Work England account. If your application is successful, we’ll annotate your entry on the register in 10 working days.

Once an annotation has been added to the register, it will remain against your name for as long as you remain on the register, unless you make a request for the annotation to be removed. We can only accept a request for an annotation to be removed from the social worker. Requests should be made by sending an email to [email protected]

If you leave the register and choose to restore at a point in the future, you can also request that we restore your annotation. If you request this, we may ask you for further information so that we can check that any training or qualifications relating to your annotation are still valid.

For more information see:

• The Social Work England Registration Rules 2019, rule 44(a), rule 44(b), rule 45 and rule 45(a)

Further information

For more information about annotations, please call us on 0808 196 2274 or email us at [email protected].