Providing a lifeline for social workers who want to get back into the sector

Hampshire County Council’s Return to Social Work (R2SW) programme provides a lifeline for practitioners who want to return to the profession after more than two years away from practice.

Introduced in 2024, the scheme allows qualified practitioners to work in social work settings. They need to accrue 210 hours (30 days) to restore their registration with Social Work England if this lapsed between two and five years previously.

If their lapse in registration was over five years previously, they need to accrue 420 hours (60 days) to renew their registration. To date, Hampshire has supported 10 social workers through the R2SW scheme.

The programme is also open to overseas-qualified practitioners who need to update their skills and knowledge in order to register with Social Work England. Where required for their registration, it is a prerequisite for joining the R2SW scheme that they have independently gained their International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

Returning to the profession

Queenie

For practitioners like Queenie and Jessica, the RWSW has enabled them to return to a profession they have trained and worked in after having children.

Queenie joined Hampshire in March 2024 as a family practitioner in one of the service’s disabled children’s teams. She was part of a bespoke one-off scheme targeted at practitioners originally from Hong Kong who were living in the UK.

During their induction process, they were allocated time to adapt their knowledge of social work practice to English legislation and processes.

Queenie said: “I worked in Hong Kong for 20 years as a social worker and moved to the UK in 2021 with my children but didn’t think there was an opportunity to continue as a social worker while being a full-time parent.

“I worked as a teaching assistant in a special needs school for two years and absolutely enjoyed it, but when I saw the scheme, it was attractive for me as it was a handy way for me to gain the hours, registration and practice I needed to return to the (social work) profession.”

The situation was the same for Jessica, who graduated in social work in 2014 but initially struggled to secure a place to start her assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE).

“I was in a non-statutory team and there weren’t any social workers there to help me with it,” said Jessica, who started her family practitioner role at Hampshire in April 2024. “I had to try and set it up myself and find a social worker from another team and it took forever to do.

“When I did start it, I only did three months of it because I became pregnant. I then left [the job] because my husband’s job meant that we were travelling around for a few years, so I didn’t really have an opportunity to settle back into a job for a while.”

Structured support

Both practitioners value the support they gain from peers. Queenie said that colleagues are always at hand to provide practical and emotional support, while Jessica values her manager’s empathy when she has to juggle the demands of her young family with the pressures of work.

“Everyone’s very thorough, everyone really cares,” said Jessica. “And my manager is great, and I feel really supported.”

A big draw for both practitioners is the structured support Hampshire offers.

“I think the Return to Social Work scheme is really beneficial because you’ve got a set progression and support in place,” said Jessica, who, like Queenie, has submitted her registration application to Social Work England and is awaiting confirmation.

Jessica

Practitioners are allocated practice educators who support them by identifying opportunities to improve their skills. The practice educator signs the paperwork to prove that the practitioners are under supervision and that the work is of a professional standard, while their team manager supervises overall practice. Practitioners’ caseloads are capped at 20 in the first three months.

“You have to show that each task that you undertake in your role relates to social work practice and what learning that you’ve taken from it,” said Jessica.

“For example, my manager would look at my caseload and think: “Okay, so I’ll give her this case because that’s level 3 (for a family practitioner). But as she’s about to step into a social work role, why don’t I give her a case that is more of a statutory case?”

A clear pathway

Asked if it is feasible that social workers could opt to return to social work without joining the scheme, Jessica said: “I guess you could independently find an organisation to make up the hours needed to complete the Social Work England registration and then once you’ve completed that look for a role yourself, but I think the pathway with Hampshire is really clear.

“I know I am going to go into a structured, safe environment where I’m going to be supported to learn. You know that your manager and the organisation have an expectation that once you’ve finished [the scheme], you can just go into a social work job. So that is really appealing to me.”

*Since the writing of this piece, Jessica and Queenie have secured their Social Work England registrations.

Interested in a career at Hampshire County Council? Check out the authority’s employer profile, latest jobs and read more from social workers in the service here.