Registration with conditions

Last updated: 25 November 2019

• About this guidance
• Registration with conditions
• How are conditions decided?
• Monitoring of conditions
• Will my conditions be visible on the public register?
• Should I tell my employer about my conditions?
• Further information

About this guidance

This guidance is for:

• people who have been offered registration with conditions following an application to join the register or restore their registration
• registered social workers who have been offered registration with conditions due to a change in circumstances

Registration with conditions

All social workers who join, re-join or want to remain on our register must be capable of safe and effective practice. In certain circumstances, there may be factors that have the potential to affect your fitness to practise if they’re not properly managed.

Registration with conditions enables us to work with you to make sure these factors are properly managed, allowing you to practise as a social worker safely and effectively. Registration with conditions is not related to the fitness to practise process and doesn’t involve any sort of hearing.

Whether or not registration with conditions is appropriate will be decided on a case by case basis taking into consideration your specific circumstances. Registration with conditions may be considered suitable in certain circumstances where:

• you’ve failed to demonstrate to us that you meet the standard for continuing professional development (CPD)
• you’ve disclosed a physical or mental health condition where your registration can be managed with the conditions
• you are, or have been, subject to fitness to practise or other disciplinary proceedings by another regulatory body

Examples of conditions that may be attached to your registration to make sure your ability to practise safely and effectively could include a requirement that you:

• complete a certain amount of CPD within a specific timeframe
• demonstrate that you’re managing a health condition that you’ve disclosed to us
• only work a certain number of days or hours per week
• only undertake certain aspects of practice for a specified period of time

We’re unable to provide assistance with the funding of any activities that you need to undertake to meet your conditions.

For more information about registration with conditions see:

• The Social Work England registration rules 2019, rule 30(1), rule 30(2) and rule 30(3)

How are conditions decided?

If we decide that registration with conditions is appropriate in your circumstances, we’ll identify the conditions that we feel are needed to make sure your ability to practise safely and effectively is maintained.

We’ll inform you of our proposed conditions and the reasons why we believe they should be applied. We’ll also tell you the period of time that the conditions will apply for. 

Once we’ve sent you this information, you’ll have the following three options. You may:

• confirm that you accept the conditions
• propose an alternative condition that you believe meets our requirements 
• confirm that you do not accept the conditions

You must do this within 10 working days if you wish to continue with your application. 

If you accept our proposed conditions, you’ll be able to join our register subject to the agreed conditions. If you do not accept the conditions, we’ll be unable to grant, renew or restore your registration. This is because we’ve decided that conditions are necessary for us to be confident that you are capable of safe and effective practice. 

If you choose to propose alternative conditions, we’ll review your suggested conditions and confirm within 10 working days whether we consider them to be acceptable. 

If we find that your suggested conditions are not suitable, you’ll be given the opportunity to accept the conditions we initially proposed. You must inform us of whether you accept these conditions within 10 working days of us writing to you. 

For more information about how conditions are decided see:

• The Social Work England registration rules 2019, rule 31(1), rule 31(2), rule 31(3), rule 32 and rule 35

Monitoring of conditions

Once your conditions have been agreed, you’ll be assigned a case review officer. Your case review officer will be your main point of contact regarding your conditions.

Shortly after your conditions take effect, your allocated case review officer will make contact with you. Your case review officer cannot alter the decision that has been made but will be there to guide and support you throughout the period that your conditions apply. They can help explain your conditions and will set deadlines for you to submit evidence.

While your case review officer can signpost you to guidance documents and other resources, it’s your responsibility to provide evidence to show that you have been complying with your conditions.

Before your conditions expire, they’ll be reviewed by the registration team using the evidence you’ve given to your case review officer. Depending on the evidence, your conditions may be extended, changed or removed. Conditions may be changed or removed at your request if you’re able to successfully demonstrate that you’ve met all necessary requirements.

If you fail to comply with your conditions, they may be reviewed earlier than expected and you may be removed from the register.

For more information about monitoring of conditions see:

• The Social Work England registration rules 2019, rule 36

Will my conditions be visible on the public register?

We’re required to publish the information contained in the register by The Social Workers Regulations 2018. 

If your registration is subject to conditions, the online public register will state that you are ‘registered -subject to conditions’. However, the details of your conditions will not be visible to the public. 

For more information see:

• The Social Workers Regulations 2018, reg 8(9) 

Should I tell my employer about my conditions?

You should always be honest with your employer about any conditions that apply to your registration.

Further information

For more information about registration with conditions, please call us on 0808 196 2274 or email us on [email protected].