Regulator consults on dropping requirement for social workers to report gender identity

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Social Work England is consulting on removing the requirement for practitioners to report their gender identity when registering with the regulator.

It is also proposing to change its registration rules to tighten English language requirements for social workers applying to register from overseas, in line with standards applied by other regulators.

The plan to cease collecting data on gender identity is designed to align with 2023 government guidance on public bodies’ duties under the Equality Act 2010, which states that organisations should not use concepts that are not referenced in the act.

Mandatory collection of gender identity data

Since its inception in 2019, Social Work England has required applicants to register to provide their gender identity – whether “male”, “female”, “prefer to self-describe” or “prefer not to say” – along with their name, date of birth, contact details and nationality.

Prior to its launch, it had proposed to record applicants’ gender, as was then required by its predecessor regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council. But this was changed to “gender identity” in response to feedback from respondents to a consultation on its initial rules.

Social Work England says the reason for the current requirement is to enable it to distinguish between practitioners with different names – for example, when concerns are raised – though the information is not available on the public register.

Disproportionate representation of men in fitness to practise

It has also used it to report on the demographics of the profession in England, alongside voluntarily collected data on ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and whether social workers’ gender identities are different to their sex registered at birth.

As of 30 November 2022, 82.9% of social workers recorded their gender identity as female and 16.9% as male, 0.05% preferred not to say and 0.04% self-described.

The data is also the basis for its analysis of the interaction of social worker characteristics with fitness to practise cases, which has found that men are disproportionately represented at all stages of the process, along with black social workers and those aged over 40.

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Public bodies ‘should not use gender identity’

However, the 2023 government guidance on the public sector equality duty (PSED), under section 149 of the Equality Act, states that bodies should “not use concepts such as gender or gender identity, which are not encoded in the act and can be understood in different ways”.

The PSED requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and to advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between people who do and do not share a relevant protected characteristic.

However, gender identity – which is generally understood to mean a person’s internal sense of their own gender – is not one of the Equality Act’s protected characteristics. Instead, it protects gender reassignment, which obtains when someone is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process or part of a process to reassign their sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

The guidance states that authorities authorities should assess their fulfilment of the PSED with reference to the Equality Act’s nine protected characteristics. The collection of data on other attributes will not help them comply with the duty “unless there is a clear correlation with a protected characteristic”, it adds.

Voluntary collection of data on sex and gender reassignment

Social Work England is not proposing to mandatorily collect data on a replacement characteristic. Instead, it is proposing to ask questions about sex and gender reassignment through a revised version of its voluntary diversity monitoring data collection that aligns with the PSED guidance.

This change would not be subject to consultation as it does not involve mandatory data collection and so does not fall under the regulator’s rules.

This reform would imply a shift from monitoring the demographics of the profession based on gender identity to doing so on the basis of sex. Such a move raises questions about whether the terms “male” and “female” could be seen as continuing to have the same meaning, for example, in relation to assessing disproportionality in fitness to practise cases.

Regulator ‘to maintain ability to monitor social worker trends’

On this point, the regulator said: “We remain committed to understanding the diversity of our profession. The changes will realign how we collect data, not reduce our commitment to equality monitoring.

“We will review how voluntary data is collected in a way that maintains our ability to monitor trends across the social work sector (including in fitness to practise) and assess the impact of our processes on the protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act.”

The other rule change would reduce the time limit for the validity of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) certificate from five to two years for overseas social workers applying to register to work in England.

The IELTS is the standard system for demonstrating English language knowledge.

Reducing validity period for English language certificates

An IELTS review in 2023 found that a two-year validity period was “overwhelmingly the norm” and Social Work England said reducing its limit would bring its practice into line with that of similar regulators, such as the HCPC and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Passing an IELTS test with a score of at least 7.0 is one of three possible ways for an overseas social worker to demonstrate English proficiency under Social Work England’s registration rules. The others are:

• Being registered and practising for at least one year within the past five years in a country where English is the first and native language and an English language assessment was required for registration.
• Obtaining a recognised qualification within the past five years that was awarded in a country where English is the first and native language and the qualification was entirely taught and examined in English.

Fall in number of overseas applications to register

The number of applications from overseas social workers applying to register in England annually almost trebled from 2020-23, from 659 to 1,866, triggering a sharp rise, from less than 10 days to over 50 days, in the regulator’s average processing time per case.

The number of overseas applications fell by 19% to 1,520 in 2024, and, after peaking at 75 days in March 2024, the average handling time fell to less than 25 days in every month from August to December of last year.

Social Work England was praised for this reduction in processing time in the latest monitoring report on its performance from its watchdog, the Professional Standards Authority.

The regulator said it did not hold data on the proportion of successful overseas applications to register that were based on IELTS certificates that were over two years old.

Responding to the consultation

As part of the consultation, which runs until 5pm on Thursday 12 June, Social Work England is asking whether its proposed new rules are clear and whether, and how, the changes would affect anyone with a protected characteristic.

You can respond by answering this survey.

The proposed rule changes – which must be approved by the Department for Education – are due to come into force at the beginning of the next registration renewal period, starting on 1 September 2025.