CPD requirements for Social Workers

Any activity that contributes to the development of the knowledge, skills and competencies of a social worker can be considered as Continuing Professional Development (CPD). This can be as diverse as completing training courses, reflecting on work practices through supervision, researching new techniques or reading an industry-related article. The learning activity can be regarded as meeting the CPD requirements for social workers as long as it enables the social worker to apply this learning in their professional life.

Social workers are particularly well placed to demonstrate engagement in CPD as the nature of their work often means working as part of teams or with colleagues where there are opportunities for learning.

What is CPD for Social workers in the Health and Social Care sector?

Continuing Professional Development in health and social care typically includes learning activities in relation to working with individuals, families, groups, organisations and communities. These can include attending health and social training courses or social work refresher courses, multidisciplinary meetings, participating in supervisory skills, or even reflecting and improving upon the various challenges faced within the social care industry.

This article provides a simple overview to the CPD requirements for social workers and a guide to Continuing Professional Development in the health and social care sector, the BASW and the previous HCPC CPD requirements that needed to be met, as well as most recent CPD information from Social Work England.

Am I required to undertake training courses for Social Workers?

Previously, all professional social workers should have been registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), but that has now been taken over by Social Work England. Prior to the take over of Social Work England, those who wish to remain on the SW register at the HCPC had to demonstrate their Continuing Professional Development every 2 years by providing evidence that they have maintained a continuous, up-to-date record of their training and learning activities relevant to current or future practice.

Before 2019, the HCPC CPD requirements for social workers were:

1. Maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD training courses and activities
   
2. Demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of relevant learning
   
3. Seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery
   
4. Seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user
   
5. Upon request, present a written profile (which must be their own work and supported by evidence) explaining how they have met the standards for CPD

Before Social Work England took over the management of this area, professional social workers would update their HCPC registration every two years and sign a declaration to confirm that they have met the CPD requirements. HCPC would then select a random sample of 2.5% of social workers to undertake an audit. If selected, the social worker was requested to provide evidence that they had met the HCPC CPD requirements. HCPC would not select social workers within their first two years of practice or a social worker who had recently returned to practice after a break in their registration.

HCPC CPD – What happened if you were selected?

If you were selected by HCPC you were asked to fill in a profile and send this back to them before the deadline of your registration renewal date. HCPC would then provide three months for a social worker to complete their profile. A CPD assessor would then determine whether or not they feel the social worker had met their HCPC CPD requirements. If a decision was made that the social workers profiles only met some of the required standards, they would provide additional time to undertake further social work training.

About Social Work England

The following information was provided to us by Social Work England. Social Work England became the specialist regulator for social workers in December 2019, taking over from the role of the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council.) Social Work England is a specialist body taking a new approach to regulating social workers in their vital roles. Their goal is to protect the public, enable positive change and ultimately improve people’s lives.  Alongside the sector, they have created professional education and training standards. These standards set out the requirements that they expect social workers and social work courses to meet. 

Registration with Social Work England

Registering with Social Work England is slightly different from the HCPC. Previously, social workers had to renew their registration once every two years. With Social Work England, social workers must renew their registration annually, with the registration period running from 1 September to 30 November. In order to renew, social workers are also required to upload at least one piece of CPD to their online account – although four times a year is recommended as good practice. A random selection of CPD records are then chosen for validation. 

CPD with Social Work England

Social workers must record at least one piece of CPD on their online account by 30 November each year. The CPD standard sets out 8 things a social worker’s CPD should achieve. Social workers should try to show all 8 parts of the CPD standard across the activities they record during the year, however, they do not need to show all 8 parts in every piece they record. A wide variety of activities can be counted as CPD, including:

• Training
• Webinars
• Supervision
• Reading an article
• Listening to a podcast
• Peer review
• Asking for feedback
• Reflecting on experiences at work
• Having a discussion with a peer or colleague
• Learning about current issues in society/politics 

Social Work England places emphasis on CPD as any activity which encourages social workers to reflect on their practice. For more information about the different activities Social Work England counts as CPD, visit this page.

As part of the transition from the HCPC, every social worker should have activated their online account on the Social Work England website. They must use their online account to upload CPD and renew their registration. For those looking for guidance on how to use the system, Social Work England have provided short ‘how to’ videos on renewing registration and recording CPD.

What is considered as good CPD for social workers?

Previous to Social Work England, the Health and Social Care Council defined CPD for social workers as ‘the means by which health and social care professionals maintain and improve their knowledge, skills and competence, and develop professional qualities required throughout their professional life’.

CPD is a cyclical process through which you:

• Review your professional development needs
• Plan how to meet these needs
• Implement a plan and take action to meet these needs
• Reflect on this learning and demonstrate how these new skills/learning has affected your work practice

Continuing Professional Development in health and social care can encompass all types of learning including workplace supervision, peer group learning, social work refresher courses, placements, training programmes and also higher level qualifications. The different types of learning that count for CPD social work:

• Work-based learning e.g. in-service training, audit of patients
• Professional activity e.g. mentoring, professional body membership
• Formal/educational e.g. attendance at conferences, courses, refresher courses, assessment training
• Self-directed learning e.g. reading journals, internet research
• Other e.g. voluntary work, public service

CPD requirements for social workers can also be both unplanned or ‘on the job’ learning and can be considered another part of a social worker’s Continuing Professional Development record. It is suggested that you keep on record all of your training courses materials, reflection work, research and information from any books you have read. Aim to keep note of the training courses dates or any conferences you have attended so that if you are selected for the process you will have all the information already collated.

What are the CPD requirements for social workers?

The new requirements have been set our by Social Work England as outlined above. Prior to December 2019, the CPD requirements for social workers were as follows. The Health and Care Professions Council standards for Continuing Professional Development were different from the General Social Care Council’s (GSCC) system of post-registration training and learning (PRTL). The HCPC CPD approach was designed to focus on the benefits of learning rather than just the time spent. The HCPC did not previously set a minimum number of CPD hours or days for social workers to undertake, but would rather focus on the outcome of learning activities and the impact on social work practice and service users.

Prior to December 2019, every professional social worker that was registered with the HCPC was required to maintain a record (portfolio) of their learning. This was either online or paper-based, and provided a snapshot of a social workers learning over the previous two years. If selected, the HCPC would then send a form to be completed which tells them about the social workers learning and development over the past two years.

The Care Council Requirements

As part of their remit of CPD in social care sector, the Care Council would recognise that there are many different ways to continue to learn and develop as a social worker, thus acted to avoid being too specific about the type of activities would meet the requirements. The Care Council stated that training courses and learning that registrants choose to attend should:

• Benefit their personal development needs
• Benefit their current employment
• Benefit their career progression
• Reflect their preferred learning style
• Make the most of the learning opportunities available to form part of their wider professional development; and improve their ability to provide high-quality services to service users and carers

CPD for British Association of Social Workers (BASW)

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) is the independent professional membership organisation for social workers. The BASW explain that the provision of regular planned CPD is central to the development and maintenance of high-quality social work and to developing professional identity and confidence. Social workers undertaking CPD should be able to work in an environment which values and gives a high priority to continuing learning and development. The BASW feel that social workers should have:

• Regular appraisal and updated personal development plans that identify learning based on an analysis of each social worker’s individual needs and personal learning style
• Space for critical reflection and learning from others through professional supervision, peer learning, professional networks and involving people who use services
• Access to on-going planned learning opportunities to maintain and develop knowledge and skills for current roles, progress career development and enable re-registration.
• Access to CPD systems and processes which support learning and career development and focus on improved outcomes for children, adults, families and communities.
• Opportunities at all levels to contribute to the continuous improvement of practice, engage in research and evidence-informed practice.
• Should be able to access information and support for CPD through BASW as a professional body.
• With the support of the professional body should expect to work with employers, regulators and training providers to develop an approach to CPD which improves the effectiveness, quality and relevance of learning and practice

Employers in the social care industry should regard CPD as an entitlement, a responsibility and a necessity, in order to maintain and improve the industry now and in the future, and also support the next generation of social workers. Employers should have a strategy for learning and development based on the learning needs of social workers, workforce planning needs of the organisation and local and national priorities.

The BASW PCF for Social Workers

Launched in 2012, The Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) is an overarching professional standards framework, developed by the Social Work Reform Board. Whether you are a qualified social worker, a student, academic or employer, you need to know about the PCF for social work. The BASW state:

As part of the refresh, BASW introduced new definitions and descriptions of the PCF in a bid to add clarity to what it means for practice. It said the PCF is the underpinning framework for social work practice, which sets out common capabilities for what social workers should expect of themselves and what others should expect of them. The PCF does not define specialist knowledge and skills or layout learning content that may be needed in particular work contexts. It describes the capabilities that all social workers should aspire to develop throughout their career. The new principles are:

• Purpose: why we do what we do as social workers, our values and ethics, and how we approach our work
• Practice: what we do – the specific skills, knowledge, interventions and critical analytic abilities we develop to act and do social work
• Impact: How we make a difference – our ability to bring about change through our practice, through our leadership, through understanding our context and through our overall professionalism

What should a CPD record include?

Reflection is a central aspect of on-going learning and development. Social workers should work critically, effectively and reflectively. Reflection can be described as the learning to be gained by engaging in deliberate practice, built on reviewing prior experience to derive new insights and lessons, and on feedback that is accurate, diagnostic and timely. A social worker's professional development is more effective if undertaken within a learning culture and evaluated in terms of outcomes.

A typical CPD profile for a social worker has four components:

• List of CPD activities
• Summary of recent work
• Statement of how the standards have been met
• Supporting evidence

The list of activities shows that you have met the required standards, whilst the summary gives you an opportunity to highlight recent scope of practice. The statement is often the largest part of the profile. It is where you can highlight in detail a number of activities that you feel have benefited your social care practice and service users. Finally, a small selection of evidence, which supports what you have said in the CPD profile. Here are some helpful suggestions from CPD assessors on examples of good practice as well as questionable practice.

Do:

• Keep it simple. Use simple language to describe the CPD you have done, what you have learnt from it, and how it has benefited you and other people. Choose three to five CPD activities over the last two years. Tell us what you did, what you learnt, and the benefits to you and other people
• Remember to include a dated list of all the CPD training courses you have completed in the last two years to demonstrate that you have met CPD requirements. If you have any gaps of three months or more, they will need to be explained
• Provide good evidence for each of the activities. Reflective logs, case studies, presentations, certificates and feedback from your service users would all be relevant
• Ensure confidentiality when including your evidence – make sure that none of your evidence or your statement includes references to named individuals
• Make sure that the evidence you send will back up the statements made in your profile. It should show that you have undertaken the activities you have referred to, and should also show how they have improved the quality of your work and benefited service users
• Keep a personal log of your social work practice for professional development purposes, so that if you move jobs or your circumstances change you will still have access to it
• The council’s approach to assessing professional development focuses on the outcome of your activities – how they have benefited you and your service users, not how many hours or points you have. It’s up to you to think about what you need to do to keep up to date in your area of practice

Don’t:

• Do not try to describe in detail every activity you have undertaken over the last two years. Instead, select a small number of different activities that you feel benefited you the most and write about each one
• Do not send us evidence of all your CPD activities – we only need evidence to support the activities you have written about that have taken place
• Do not include evidence which is confidential or includes confidential information – e.g. names of patients or clients. Please make sure that any confidential information is anonymised before you send it to us

This article was written to help provide a simple outline to CPD for social workers, the original BASW and previous HCPC CPD information for social workers from across the industry and has now been updated with the most recent CPD requirements for social workers provided by Social Work England. We have also tried to provide some additional information which can help contribute to social workers professional development.

If you are a social worker looking for training courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements, please visit the Social Care Industry Hub.

CPD accreditation for social care training

Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service is the largest and leading independent CPD accreditation organisation working across all industry sectors. Thousands of CPD training courses, events, e-learning programs, conferences, workshops and seminars are formally certified by us every year adding significant value for audiences and providers alike. Organisations wishing to become CPD accredited can display their commitment through membership, please contact our team to discuss in more detail.