Just under 1,000 social workers remain at risk of removal from the register for not submitting CPD to Social Work England, with just under two weeks until the deadline.
It comes after a last-minute registration surge which saw almost 18,000 social workers complete Social Work England’s renewal process in the final five days of the registration period, meaning 93% of those who needed to renew successfully did so.
This left 1,347 social workers who had applied to renew by the regulator’s deadline of 11:59pm on 30 November, but had not completed the requirement to upload at least one piece of CPD
As of 9 December, just over a quarter of this group, 381, had submitted CPD. The remainder have until 11.59pm on Monday 21 December to do so or they will be removed from the register – unless they can demonstrate exceptional circumstances that prevent them from having done so. These requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
If Social Work England accepts the exceptional circumstances request, the social worker will be offered registration with conditions, in accordance with rule 30 of the Social Work England (Registration) Rules 2019. These conditions will be visible on the public register.
The regulator is sending out a series of reminder emails to this group, with two having already been sent and further reminder email communications scheduled up to the deadline.
Several hundred apply for restoration to register
Social Work England has said that just over 5,000 practitioners were removed from the register after not applying to renew by the deadline, a figure in line with previous years, capturing those who will have left voluntarily due to reasons such as retirement. However, since 4 December, 382 people have applied to be restored to the register, suggesting some may have fallen off the register unintentionally this month.
A Social Work England spokesperson said: “There have been instances where social workers have not completed all the required steps to renew their registration. We are responding to enquiries from social workers to guide them on the steps they need to take to restore to the register. We believe that we haven’t removed anyone from the register by mistake.”
The regulator said that not all of the 382 would be people removed following the latest renewal, with people applying to return to social work every month and some return-to-work courses having recently finished, which may account for some of the group.
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“We believe that we haven’t removed anyone from the register by mistake” is not as definative as saying “We have not removed anyone from the register by mistake” is it?
Oh the unintended irony! Bang on about evidenced based practice for us but have no idea who is on, who is off, who has ‘inadvertently’ fallen from the Register. “May account” is a bit of an admission of clunessless is it not? Just calculate the fees, that should do it.
SWE can begin by having staff treat us with courtesy rather than regards us a nuisance when we ring them. I dared to inform them that they sent me an erreneous e-mail only to be berated for contacting them with “this” at a time they were “particularly busy”. Still they were keen to confirm my direct debit was in order so all is well.
I see that SWE has “as part of the national Covid-19 response” given temporary registration into the New Year to those social workers who “failed to renew”.