CPD and registration: Joining the Social Work England register

[Introduction] 

This is a Research in Practice podcast, supporting evidence informed practice with children and families, young people, and adults.   

Hannah: Hello everybody, my name is Hannah Scott. I'm a Research and Development Officer, I'm also a qualified social worker so I am still registered with Social Work England. I also have to go through the same requirements as everybody else in terms of CPD [continuing professional development] and registration. So, what we're going to be doing today is talking about the process of joining the register and what students and newly-qualified Social Work England need to be aware of as they join register for the first time or come to their first year of renewal. We've got a few people today to talk from the different perspectives. We've got Social Work England, we've got somebody that's a new qualified social worker and we've got somebody from a local authority in work force development.  

Ioana: Good afternoon and thank you for inviting us, Hannah, and Research in Practice colleagues. I am Ioana Roberts, I'm the Regional Engagement Lead for the Eastern region or East of England. I am also a registered social worker and I work for Social Work England, part of the Strategic Engagement team.  

Sharon: Hello, I'm Sharon Norris, I'm a newly-qualified social worker and I'm doing my assessed and supported year in employment, and this year will be the first year I will be doing my CPD to maintain my registration as a social worker.  

Louise: Hi I'm Louise Shorthouse, I am a professional Practice Educator in the social work academy at Coventry Children's Services. Also a registered social worker and have been for many, many years now and yes coming up to obviously re-registering, so I've a keen interest in CPD at the moment and making sure that everybody knows what they need to be doing and when they need to be doing it by, so thank you for inviting me today.  

[Key messages for social workers and students] 

Hannah: So, just to start with, we know that since Social Work England have taken over the regulation of social work, there have been a few changes that social workers have had to keep abreast of in terms of the requirements, particularly in recording CPD and others that are familiar with our work, we've done a podcast each year with Social Work England where we've reflected those changes. So, Ioana, can you just talk a little bit about what the key messages are for social workers this year that they need to be aware of?  

Ioana: Thank you, Hannah. The key message for social workers in England, it is that it is a legal requirement for all social workers who want to practice in England to renew their registration, and we have started, on 1st September, the renewal of registration period, and this will end on 30th November 2024. To do this, social workers must submit their registration renewal application form via the online accounts they have with Social Work England. They must pay the registration fee and record, at the minimum, two different pieces of continuing professional development, CPD. Social workers must include a peer reflection with at least one of those pieces of CPD, and I'm saying 'minimum two pieces' because it is a legal requirement. However, nothing to stop us, is there, to record much more than that and, in fact, it will be good practice to record at a minimum of one piece of CPD every quarter of the year. All of those three steps, in terms of applying to renew via the online account, therefore completing your registration renewal application form, paying the registration fee and recording CPD, must be completed by 11:59pm UK time on 30th November 2024. And if people consider to explore a little bit more why it's important for CPD to be recorded, I think it's important to remind ourselves that recording CPD is a way for social workers to demonstrate their skills and knowledge, how we keep our skills and knowledge up to date, how we improve our practice, and what we have changed in terms of positive changes in our social practice.  

It provides evidence of personal development and reflection and practice and this is really critical in terms of supporting high quality practice which will provide the best possible support to the public, to members of the public. Members of the public who might access Social Services, other services or children, family support and mental health support and even absolutely charity, private sector and independent types of social support. Therefore when social workers renew their registration every year, because it is an annual cycle, they are confirming that they meet the professional standards and this includes the professional standard number four and maintaining our continuing professional development is one of our professional standards, therefore it's really important to remind ourselves this. And absolutely, meeting our CPD requirements allows us to maintain our registration, S35 in the regulations, and registration role of Social Work England. So, this is probably our first aspect of key messages from Social Work England to start with and I'm looking forward to hearing more from Sharon and Louise, how they are able to record CPD and how they are supported in their organisation and how they support other colleagues as well in terms of meeting the professional standards and including evidence in CPD. Thank you Hannah.  

Hannah: That's really helpful, thank you. And so looking at, sort of, the start of people's journeys as they join Social Work England and they maybe new to either doing CPD, if we start with students then, so what is the process for students? As they approach the end of their course, what do they need to know about how to join the register and then moving into their first roles, what they then need to start to do to prepare for their first year of registration?  

Ioana: Thank you for the question, Hannah. It's a really good question about students. Social Work England does not regulate students. This means that students do not register with Social Work England or record CPD until they have graduated and moved into practice, therefore when they join the register. However, if you are a social work student, I think you might want to familiarise yourself with our professional standards and our CPD process. Why is that important? It will help you to prepare for practice and to meet the standards once you are on the register. And I think, Hannah, you wanted to know as well when they can register with Social Work England and I think, particularly here, I can also share from my experience in a Regional Engagement Lead, and my colleagues as well from the Strategic Engagement Team. That we have met, and we continue to meet, quite a number of students, particularly final year students, and they can be across BA Social Work courses, Masters courses, apprenticeship courses, Step Up, fast track courses and so on. We do meet with the students, particularly in person. Many universities, many course providers across England have invited us, probably over the last two and a half years, to meet the students and talk to them about when to apply to join the register, what they need to be aware… We also talk about what needs to be a regulated profession, what is social work and why social work is a regulated profession, what does it mean in reality for them, and why it's important. We also meet with the first year students, and that is really, really important to us.  

It's an opportunity for them to know that Social Work England, alongside the rule around maintaining the register and establishing professional standards, we all need to uphold in our daily practice and we need to know and demonstrate them. It's an opportunity for us to talk to the students about the journey they're embarking on, alongside the fact that probably Louise is very familiar with and I hope Sharon is as well, that Social Work England has a rule around education training standards for students. Therefore, their courses, they're all approved, monitored and in fact inspected by Social Work England. But we do let the students know, even from year one, the rule Social Work England has around education and established standards around education and training of students, of social work students in England. Alongside that, we have come across final year students who are very eager, very keen to join the register. Therefore, what we say to them is that you can join the register with Social Work England once you have completed a recognised social work qualification. At that time, graduates can apply to join the social work register, however you must first of all receive that official confirmation from your course provider, from your University, that you have successfully completed a course. That's the first, kind of, step you need to have in place, and the second one means that we do ask the course providers to send us the pass list.  

It's the list of people who successfully passed the course and once that list is with the Social Work England team, the graduating social work students, absolutely, they can apply to join the register. How they do that, they apply via the online account. They will create an online account with Social Work England. Therefore all of the information around how to join the register is absolutely on our website and in fact I would really recommend to students to read the guidance before they apply and complete their online application with us. It's really important and also it has lots of details. If people allocate the time to read the guidance it will in fact make the process very straightforward.  

Hannah: Great, thank you. And my understanding is that when they join the register for the first time when they finish the course, they don't have to complete any CPD there because they've just completed their course and it's that first year in that first, sort of, September to November window that they'll complete CPD, is that right?  

Ioana: Once you join the register, you can legally utilise the title of social worker, and I think it's really important to talk about the fact that only those people who are registered and their name appears on the Social Work England register can utilise the title, which is a legally-protected title of social worker. Therefore, at that stage already, they are not students any more, they are social workers, and if you are a newly-qualified social worker and you are on the register and you see, your first time, you might come… for example, we'll have colleagues who'll maybe join in June, July, August this year, and I'm going to talk about the exception… you're already inclined to, kind of, touch on, Hannah. Therefore, those colleagues who'll join June, July, August and before that, because we know different courses might finish February, March-time as well, different, I think… Louise might have more experience around this. If you join before 1st September, you definitely, absolutely will complete CPD as all other social workers. Once again, I would like to reinforce, the minimum two pieces of CPD, with a peer reflection one of them, must be uploaded by and evidenced in your online account by 30th November 2024. You also need to apply to renew and pay your registration fee, which is going to cover the registration year starting on 1st December 2024 and will cover until 30th November 2025.  

However, the only exception is that if you join the register now from 1st September, therefore between 1st September and 30th November, therefore during the renewal of registration period, the exception if you want, you are not required to upload CPD and you are not required to apply to renew your registration. However, you still need to pay the fee, as I mentioned, that £90 fee which is still in place for many, many years, covers for the following registration year coming. It's really important, I think, Hannah, particularly for the newly-qualified social workers to know that, because many of them, they might have joined the register before 1st September and they might not be of any, kind of, cohort, they might not be aware. They absolutely need to complete CPD. Similar requirements apply to all of them, to, like, all of us experienced social workers as well. Therefore, the exception is you don't need to complete CPD, you don't need to apply to renew if you have joined from 1st September, like, twelve days ago until 30th November this year. However, we do say it's good practice if you want to upload CPD, nothing should stop you to upload CPD, because in fact you get quite used to what the online form looks like, and in fact it's about reflection and hopefully, Sharon, you're going to talk about the fact it's part of your ASYE [assessed and supported year in employment] programme, isn't it? You are doing lots of reflection, you are learning so much and you absolutely can utilise some of that to demonstrate this part of your CPD. But this is good practice.  

Hannah: Great, thank you. Yes, and when I reflect, you know, twelve years back to when I was doing my first year in practice, every day was such a steep learning curve, I could have probably completed a CPD record for every single day and practice the new processes, the reflections I was having of the new challenges and experiences that I was coming across. So, even though, you know, newly-qualified social workers may not be sent on training immediately, although it's often something that happens a lot in the role anyway, there's going to be a lot of learning opportunities that aren't just training and those reflections. Though, I think as you said, it's really good to get into the practice of recognising where you're doing that learning and particularly the peer reflection. We often, you know, have spoken about the times reflecting round the kettle whilst you're making a cup of tea with colleagues across your desks and I think that's really important to capture. So, I think that's a really key message to make sure, that it's about getting into those right habits to make things easier further down the line as practice gets a little bit busier. So, I think that leads us nicely to Sharon. Sharon, do you want to talk us through, sort of, your memories and experiences of joining the register and how you're feeling about this first year of you completing your CPD and re renewal and any reflections or questions you may have on that?  

[Experience of becoming a registered social worker] 

Sharon: Yes, so I would have been completing the register for the first time almost a year ago, so it would have been October, some time in October. So, as I recall, we got our results first and then were told to wait five days, I think, for Social Work England to get the results. And as I remember, the process of registering and I think providing documents as well, it was very well explained. So, it was very easy to do, I found, and I'm not the most technological person, so doing anything online-, but for me, it was, you know, straightforward and easy. So, I thought, 'If I can do it, anybody can do it.' So, yes, and, say, doing ASYE as well, I mean, I think I'm yet to do my first CPD. I have started it, just so I could go on the system, because my colleague at work showed me how to do it. So, yes, just so I could start it, just wrote anything so I knew how to get into it. And I think as well that it's taken so long because I am doing ASYE as well. So, every three months, we have to do work for our portfolio. Luckily, the six to nine months is a very easy one, so that's good, so I can get my CPD done in this easy period. So, there has been a lot of work to do before, and I think in the three to six months, we do the critical review. So, I will, like, look at that or the next critical review I do for the nine to twelve months, I will try to tweak it to incorporate it so it fits into the CPD, the fields that are required. Because I think there are about four fields, aren't there, that when you're completing it, different parts that you have to write about.  

So, I will do that and then another piece of work that I don't really need to duplicate that I can use is once a month in my team, I'm in the discharge to assess team in the community, there's only six of us and we're taking it in turns to present a case study and then we're discussing that and using that as a peer review as well. So, that's good learning as well, so I'm going to use that as the peer review and just… yes, just what we discussed and the legislation and the theories and the challenges and the strengths and listening to everybody else's case studies as well is really good practice as well. And in that as well when I do the CPD, I'm going to incorporate research into it as well to show that I am doing research and one good resource to do research if you're searching practice, which my practice educator told me about in my last placement, it was literally she told me about it and then a month later we had a webinar by Research In Practice and it went through how to register, how to use the resources, so I do quite a lot of training on there.  

Yes, I register, I book for the training webinars, I look at the articles as well and at the bottom of each one, it tells you what PCFs, that's the professional capability frameworks, and the KSS, it literally tells you so you don't have to go looking through the PCFs or the KSSs to see what you've met, it tells you what you've met and I know that this is isn't a part of what Social Work England needs, but I do find that professional standards are similar so then you can, kind of, like, look at the professional standards when you're doing CPD to see what you've met there, so yes.  

Hannah: And I know… I'm a practice educator and something that obviously is really important for students and for newly-qualified workers is to make sure that you have met all of the different areas of those standards in terms of your learning and I think, you know, as you've mentioned, Social Work England have different standards and it's really important that they're what are adhered to for CPD and for meeting those requirements but I think in terms of CPD more broadly, it's about recognising where those gaps are in your learning and I think, you know, doing years like the assessed and supported year in employment, it does have that very comprehensive plan of learning to make sure that you're meeting development in each area.  

I think that's really important, and again could be really important in terms of capturing the Social Work England in your CPD to talk about maybe, 'This was an area that I knew that I was struggling in in my practice, and that I really needed to make sure that I met, and then, I've used this resource. Or, I've done this piece of work. I've had this reflection, and this is how I've met that.' So, again it's looking at that impact of CPD isn't it, rather than just, 'Oh, this is something I've got to do because I need to stay on the register,' but really important in terms of how we better our own practice for the sake of the people that we work with. I think you've used some really nice examples there, Sharon, and again, I know this is something that Social Work England have talked about that, CPD isn't just about going on training and getting a certificate, so again you've ticked that box. It's about, if you've read an article, that could be a really helpful and powerful experience if it's of a relevant topic, and if you apply that to your practice. It sounds like that's a really great opportunity in your local authority to have those peer discussions because that's again, not just important to be able to document for Social Work England, but we learn so much from our peers. I've often, in this role, talked about how I would have really reflective conversations when I was an advanced practitioner with a newly-qualified social worker, who was really good at getting me to reflect, and recognising where I may be avoiding a piece of work that I was finding challenging. So, it doesn't always happen in the areas we'd always find are the most obvious, and it doesn't always need to be an orchestrated situation. It's about having those discussions, and making sure that we capture them. So, thank you for sharing that.  

Sharon: I would just say as well, that doing the ASYE as well, we have to do the professional developmental plan, so that, kind of, shows us where we've got areas for development, and then going and using the Research in Practice and going on webinars. Especially there's one that's Having Difficult Conversations as well, and it's always difficult to have difficult conversations, isn't it? So, that's a good one, and I must just say as well, Luton Borough Council, they do pay for our registration as well for Research in Practice. So, that's quite good, that we have that.  

Ioana: If I can come back to Sharon. In fact, really, Sharon, I really thank you for sharing your experience, and how you go about to look at how you meet the CPD requirements. You mentioned that you discuss with your peers some of the particularly complex-, maybe a situation you've come across, and that very much counts as the peer reflection, or it can count as the peer reflection. It means that you have discussed the content of a CPD activity. Whatever you have chosen, Sharon, what you're actually learning from one of your cases, or learning from experience or reading an article, or a podcast, whatever you might choose as a CPD. As long as you discuss that with a peer, or peers, because it could be group as well, and you mentioned probably your ASYE colleagues discussing some of your learnings, and so on. That could be a perfect opportunity to complete that requirement, which is a peer reflection and, at the minimum, one of our CPD must have that peer reflection evidenced as well on our online account. Maybe I should mention that, Sharon, you work in adult social care, is that correct? You mentioned hospital discharges and so on. It means that your peers can be not just the social workers, or your manager, or your supervisor, it could be any of the nurses, any of the… 

Sharon: Professionals, yes.  

Ioana: Absolutely, thank you. I'm really pleased to hear that you know who can be your peer, like occupational therapists and doctors. If you work around hospital discharges, you probably meet lots of GPs, around the community, and so on.  

Sharon: I don't work in the hospital, I’m in the community. So, yes, but the hospital social workers could.  

Ioana: Yes, absolutely. Please remember the peer reflection does not necessarily need to be with a social worker. It can be with another professional, who is aware of your social practice, and has that knowledge of your social work practice. Absolutely a great opportunity to have peer reflection as an informal peer reflection, rather than a formal one, which is possible in a team meeting, or a supervision, or something, but I'm also looking forward to hearing from Louise, how she goes about, maybe in your organisation around supporting social workers to meet the CPD, or the standards, let's say for us, it's important to mention the social workers, for all of us, we need to demonstrate, we need to know, and to implement in our daily practice all professional standards, particularly, we are discussing today, standard number four, which is CPD, maintaining continuing professional development.  

[A local authority academy perspective] 

Louise: So, from a local authority's perspective, particularly within Coventry, we have an academy model. So, the way that the social worker academy works within Coventry is a newly-qualified social worker will join us as a newly-qualified worker, from the point of basically finishing whatever academic programme they've been part of, and then they actually physically come into an academy setting. So, we have an office space where we have a model of staffing around them. We usually have, kind of, between twelve and fourteen in a cohort of newly-qualified social workers that will all start at once as a group, and what they have is a three-week family-free induction to begin with. So, they have lots of learning and development activities within that time, where they get to know the local authority. They look at all different areas of practice, quite generic in that sense as to social work as a whole, rather than specific service areas. So, they really get a feel for the local authority, and all of the different practice issues and practice models that we are using within Coventry. Then what happens after that three weeks is work starts to be introduced and, for the first six months in practice, they remain in that academy setting with two host days per week out in their allocated host team, which is where they will then move onto at the end of their first six months in practice. After that six months, they then go out into their team full time, and they maintain the support of the academy through us as professional practice educators. So, we then, kind of, mentor and support for the last six to twelve months through one-to-one sessions, and that helps them to pull their portfolios together, to keep that reflective element of supervision, rather than steering towards more case management-focussed supervision.  

So, we provide that additional support for those last six to twelve months afterwards. So, that's how the academy model works within Coventry, and I think for those newly-qualified social workers that come in, that family free induction for those first three weeks, and I mean, they do so much. We've got a cohort starting with us next week, and their induction plan is just packed with all these different activities, and everything is classes as a CPD activity on there, and everything would be-, we would be able to use that as a CPD peer reflection, because those conversations are constantly happening within all of those sessions. So, I think our newly-qualified social workers are really lucky in that respect, that they've got all that stuff that they're able to use, but they've only just registered, so half the time, they don't really need to use it at that point. So, often it's reminding them through those twelve months in practice, by the time they get to the end, that actually, that has been within that twelve months, and they can start to draw on some of those earlier academy activities to start to build their CPD afterwards. I am also the link officer for the Research in Practice, so, obviously I'm involved in what's going on with research and practice, and really promoting the resources that are available to us through Research in Practice. So, we often discuss what's available to us, as a local authority, and I direct people to resources. I've encouraged people to use the CPD tool on Research in Practice's website, which gives you the opportunity to document your CPD as you're using those resources, and what I encourage people to do is to have the headings that we use when we re-register, and when we upload our CPD, to pop them on a Word document, or somewhere on your desktop on a sticky note.  

So, actually when you input your document-, when you input your reflection into the CPD log, you've got those headings to go by, and you're not just free writing anything to get it done. It makes it more meaningful, and then you could actually use it to upload to Social Work England, once you've got to the end of that period and you're needing to re-register again. So, I think, in respect of what we're doing at the moment to, kind of, promote re-registration as a local authority, we are running a couple of lunchtime webinars. So, we're encouraging workers to attend some lunchtime webinars that will be coming up, that have a focus really around top tips for CPD, sharing some examples, the importance of CPD, and a bit of a question and answer opportunity, just to get people thinking, and encouraging them to start to look at it, if they haven't already done so. As an organisation, it is monitored, so we do, people are looking, in more senior roles are looking to see whether people are re-registering, and the rate at which they're doing that. So, as we get closer to that registration window closing, reminders start to go out to team managers, to the social workers themselves, to say, you know, 'We are getting to a time where actually time is running out, and you need to be making sure that you're uploading your CPD. Or, that you're getting your registration complete.' So, those sorts of things are monitored as a local authority, but I think the use of the materials that are available to us, particularly on Research in Practice, I think the CPD guide, that is on there, that one went on, was it last year? 2023, is brilliant.  

It breaks the standards down. It gives you examples, so if people are unsure in any way as to what they could be using as part of their CPD uploads, there's so much information on there as to what you can use to be able to do that. So, I think, having the opportunity to encourage people to use those is something that I often do, and make sure that people are well informed as to what sorts of things they're able to use for their CPD.  

Hannah: I have updated that this year as well. So, that will be available on our website, so that… we've made small changes each year just to make sure that the advice out there is completely up-to-date and inline with what Social Work England are getting out there as well. As well as the CPD campaign that we do each year, which again starts on the 1st September, to run alongside the Social Work England registration period as well. So, we'll have a series of blogs, this is where-, podcasts such as this one, and any events. So, for example, this year we're going to have an event in November, that will be a panel discussion, sort of, really looking at the why CPD is important, and how to get good quality CPD. So, we'll have somebody there from Social Work England, and we're hoping to bring the voice of lived experience, and why it really matters for the people that we work with, and how to write reflectively, and again, how some of our resources can support with that.  

Louise: I think it is. It's, kind of, breaking down the barriers and fears around it, and I know, us, you know, for one, as social workers that are busy, and sometimes this can feel like a bit of chore to go through this process particularly when it changed from a two year process to a one year process when we moved over to Social Work England. So, then we know we're doing it more regularly, and then the peer review element came in, and I think that almost scared people, because people start to think, 'Actually, this is something extra,' but it's not, we're doing it every single day. The conversations that we're having, and we're blessed to be in a team where actually we are very reflective, and we're always having those conversations about best practice, and learning and development. So, there's lots of things that we do on a daily basis that would tick all of these boxes for peer reflection. It's documenting it, I think, that can be the most tricky thing to do, and encouraging people to do that. So, I think, finding out ways that are helpful to other people will be a good way forward. We run an evidence and research champions group, so we do that quarterly, and we encourage people to come along to that. Louise Johnson, our Engagement Officer, she comes along to that quarterly as well, so we can look at the latest things that we've got different elements of research, and evidence-based practice, and actually have those reflective conversations in there. So, anybody that attends my evidence and research group has no excuse not to have some sort of peer reflection documented, because we do that within that, and we encourage people to embed that actually as part of what they're doing. I think it's getting people into the habits and patterns of documenting it, and uploading it, and it not being something that you do in that registration window.  

That actually, it's something that you can do all the time, you know, give yourself time and permission to do it monthly, or as often as you can do. From a student perspective, we have a student unit, so once all our students join us in September, and then we usually get a cohort of step up students every other year, they come in October as well, so we have a set of sessions that we run with those that cover different aspects of social work practice. Their final session that they do is around, kind of, preparation for employment, and that covers things like application processes, interview skills, but they incorporate that joining the profession and becoming part of-, having that professional identity, and joining the register and what that means, and the standards, and how you go about that. So, I think from that student stage, we are enforcing that, and we encouraging people to start to consider, you know, what it's going to be like to actually put in that application, and making sure that they wording's right on it, because we want to make sure that there's not concerns about the way people have described their roles. Or, anything like that, to make sure that everybody gets registered, and it's a straightforward process.  

Ioana: I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the fact, Louise, that you mentioned that, in fact, that learning, that continuous professional learning, is happening for all of us every day, and it's so essential. It's not just a reflection opportunity, you said you have a really great opportunity in your team, but the learning activities that are happening for all social workers and why they are important. Throughout our career, they are important to improve our practice and, in fact, to maintain a high level and upskill our practice and our knowledge, isn't it? But leaving that aside, it's a legal requirement and, if we want to maintain our registration, we'll also need to upload CPD. Therefore, it's a quite clear message from the regulator. By doing CPD, in fact, you also demonstrate-, I demonstrate this as a social worker, isn't it, all of us, that it's an essential part of demonstrating our fitness to practice, that we maintain our fitness to practice. That our practice is safe and effective, because not all the professional standards, through the application process-, we sign that declaration, we still maintain our professional standards and so on, but we all do learning. Allocating time, I think this is the space where the managers and the employers absolutely have a vital role in encouraging social workers to find that time and space to record, not just for the purpose of renewal of registration. And, Louise, like you pointed out, CPD should not happen just between 1st September and 30th November. It must happen across the year, each month, absolutely, and we do say in our practice from 2019, we have said this. Our guidance is saying, 'It's good practice, in fact, to record at least once per quarter, at least a minimum of four pieces of CPD.' And I think this might be relevant, particularly if you are a newly-qualified social worker and you haven't been in that space of looking at how you meet your professional standard number four, and how you evidence professional standard number four, part of your renewal of registration process.  

You must record, we say, at a minimum, those two pieces of CPD, but nothing stops you, in fact, recording much more than that. I think, on a personal level, because we are all four social workers in this meeting, when we record that CPD, for me, it feels really amazing. It feels that I can finally find that space and time to reflect on what I've learnt, what I changed in my practice, or what I will change in my future practice, because we can also reflect when we're going to do something differently in the future. I think, Hannah, you mentioned about how important it is to look at the impact, what did we learn? Whatever CPD it might be, it maybe we just listened to podcast, let's hope some people might listen to this one, Hannah, and so on. Or, they might read a quick journal article, or they might sometime, let's be honest, we have now so many newly-qualified social workers who are so good around different platforms, they might-, I don't know, they look at some programmes, or something on Netflix, or anything on any other social media channels, and they learn about social work. If it's relevant to their job, and their role at that moment in time, it can absolutely count as a learning activity. Nothing's to stop them to reflect about what they learnt and are going to do differently, but I think it's also important to mention that Social Work England, on top of those amazing resources, we've both described, we do have on our website, we have guidance, and videos, step-by-step how to complete CPD. We have CPD examples, we have a video on how to complete your online forms, in terms of, not just about renewal of registration, but equally around CPD. How to respond to the question, we also talk about the minimum wording, we hopefully have provided sufficient guidance, written and in video options, for people to feel confident that they understand what is required of them to do before the 30th November.  

Louise, I really appreciate hearing the support you and your team, and your organisation puts into supporting newly-qualified social workers, and students, because in that space you built… and I think there's clearly scope for us to talk to the students about what, kind of, models of reflective models they utilise throughout their course, because by learning early stage, we know social workers already reflect on their practice. We know the students are reflecting on their practice, throughout the practice placements, and maybe beyond that as well, and what, kind of, model of reflection you may feel more confident utilising, or maybe works for you individually, as a social worker, like Gibbs model, or Kolb learning circles. Or, are you looking at something maybe more modern such as the Weather model? Whatever works for you I think is really the students are not just familiar with them, they need to know how to apply it, because they will be super confident by the point they join the register, and I think that's the really key role for trainers, educators, and clearly practice educators, and I'm a trained practice educator as well.  

Sharon: I was just going to say what you said as well. Being a person that's doing it for the first time, you can, kind of-, you're not sure how to do it, but I was going to say, there are examples on Social Work England, I've seen them, and I've printed them off, so that can be my guidance. So, that's just what I was going to say.  

Hannah: Thank you, and I know, Louise mentioned, so on Research in Practice, we have the Your CPD function. So, if there is a resource that you've looked at, or something you've read, or some training that you have been on, there's a button you can press to add that to your CPD. There is also a box for you to add those reflections, and those notes, which you can also do, you know, pull over the Social Work England headers so that you've got that ready when you need to upload that for Social Work England as well. So, that's a really good way. I try to practice what I preach and make sure that when I work on any of the topics that I do in this role, that's every time, it's helping my own development as well as meeting the part of standard four which is about supporting the learning and development of other people as well. So, I try and make sure that when I have done that piece of work, I add that to my own CPD, so that when I do sit down and try and take that time, which again, I try and do, you know, several times a year, and not leaving it until last minute, particularly off the person at Research in Practice that talks about CPD and tries to set a good example, to think about, 'I know I've learnt and done a lot in the last year, but where do I start?' That can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. So, that can be a really helpful way just to make sure that you're keeping on top of what learning you've done, in what we know are very, very busy diaries.  

[Registering after qualifying] 

So, just before we finish, if there are any students that are coming towards the end of their training now, who are very keen to go into practice, but maybe are planning to take a year off, or have a break before they start employment, how long do they have that they need to join the register after qualifying?  

Ioana: That's a really interesting question, Hannah. I think it's important to say that in my conversations with the students, and I have come across quite a number of students, and I feel really privileged because I have had the opportunity, and I think the universities in my region have continued to see the benefit of having regional engagement leads to come in and talk to students. We have looked at our guidance. I have looked at the guidance, and it's a clear indication that it will be important to stay that in the first twelve months after you graduate, I think it will be important to join the register, and I have had some students ask me, 'Can I go on a gap year?' Absolutely, nothing stops you going on a gap year, but what is important for them to know is that after twelve months, if you haven't joined the register before, you might be asked by Social Work England to demonstrate how you kept your knowledge skills up-to-date, and demonstrate how your practice up-to-date. Before, my advice was that whilst you might take six months gap, whatever you want to do, we encourage people to join the register once they graduate and they successfully pass the course, and they have had that confirmation. I think it's important for to me remind this, please do apply to Social Work England. Join the register, and if you need us to come and talk to you, we are more than happy to do so. The regional engagement leads, we are happy to receive invitations from the course providers as well, and to clarify all of these requirements, and when the best time is to apply and join the register. It's really important to say that whilst you are on the register, yes you will have this requirement to maintain your registration, which is our individual responsibility. It's not your employer's responsibility, just to be clear, everyone, and that applies to me as well, but equally you can have the opportunity if you come back after six months, or whatever from your trip, you can apply for a job and join the practice of a practice. Absolutely, if you want to join later on, it's your choice, but be mindful that you might be required to demonstrate how you kept your knowledge up-to-date, and you skills, and so on. Before twelve months, Hannah, probably more natural, that's the answer to your question.  

Hannah: Thank you, and I know there is guidance on the Social Work England website about how non practising social workers can provide CPD even if they're not in a practising role, and we've got a blog that will be coming out to support that as well. There's quite a few members of Research in Practice, for example, that are qualified social workers that aren't in a practising role, and for a time when I started at Research in Practice, before I started doing some of my independent practice educating, I was the same. What I have found, and I've reflected on recently is, even since I've started doing a little bit of work that comes under that social work title, the majority of my CPD entries are still around the work I actually do in this role because it's about, again, developing the learning of others, and my own learning, and keeping up-to-date with topics. So, there's lots of opportunities and different ways that I know people can stay up-to-date with their knowledge even if they aren't in a practising role as well, which should offer some reassurance, if anyone's concerned about that.  

Ioana: Hannah, we have on the register over 100,000 social workers, and many of them, they work in diverse settings, therefore we should not forget there are social workers out there who are not based in statutory settings, like local authorities, or NHS trusts and so on. Absolute, charity, private sector, voluntary sector, we recognise the social work, and I think that is really what I like so much about the CPD guidance. That recognising that social work is such a diverse profession, and that social workers work in diverse settings. And sometimes absolutely they are not in front line practice, therefore, the CPD, whatever learning you might choose to do must be relevant to your current role. If you are currently on parental leave, whatever that might look like, or absent from doing any kind of practice around social work, you can still maintain your registration. You can still maintain your learning around social work. Please remember, we all have access now, just Googling lots of articles, lots of information, Research in Practice, as well as other websites, offer information about social work, and articles or even podcasts about social work. Whatever you feel that is helping you to maintain your knowledge and practice, around maybe the domain you are particularly interested in social work, absolutely will be accepted as a CPD. It needs to be relevant to you.  

[Final thoughts] 

Hannah: Are there any other key messages or any points that you really want to reiterate to our listeners today?  

Ioana: If that is okay, I can come in first, and I'm sure that Sharon and Louise will have-, but from the Social Work England point of view, it's really important that social workers apply to renew their registration before 30th November 2024, if they want to stay registered. That's the message. Therefore, what they need to do, just to summarise maybe once again, might be helpful for everybody listening to this podcast. They need to submit their registration renewal application form via their online account they have with Social Work England. Pay their registration fee and, if you already have a direct debit in place, absolutely fine, but if not, be aware that you need to pay with a card. It's a very quick process. Record a minimum of two different pieces of continuing professional development, or CPD, and you must include a peer reflection with at least one of those pieces of CPD. Please remember the two pieces of CPD, it's a minimum requirement, you could absolutely record much more than that, and I think it's really important, this particular year in 2024, renewal this year is closing on a weekend period. Therefore, please be mindful of that, if you have any IT issues, and so on, please be aware that the 30th November falls over the weekend this year. I think Hannah and Sian, I hope you might take this back to your organisation, and Louise, absolutely, the regional engagement leads run national events around CPD, and about how we can support people to meet their professional standards. The next CPD national event is on our website, it's coming on 30th September, however, on a regional level, for example, I'm more than happy to come and talk to newly-qualified social workers.  

I'm more than happy to come and meet you, and maybe help you, and not just newly-qualified, all social workers, absolutely, to talk about the legal requirements and what social workers must do before the 30th November if they want to maintain their registration. Please remember that, please take that to your principal social workers, if you have principal social workers in your local authorities. Or, if you are part of an NHS trust, you might have a mental health social work lead. Or, if you are in the charity, voluntary sector, absolutely we will be really happy to hear to from you, and you can find our details on our website under Regional Engagement Leads, and you can find our email addresses, and so on, thank you Hannah.  

Louise: I think for me, it's probably incorporating that CPD process, or the documenting of your CPD into your day-to-day, or week-to-week, life, where actually, it's not just something we do for re-registration. We all know that that window is going to come up, but recording it as you do it, can make it so much easier to record. You know, it makes it half as time consuming if you've already got those things recorded, and actually if you've reflected in that moment, and you've-, the way that you write a reflection there and then will be different than to the way that you maybe reflect on action, rather than the inaction. So, I think, just make time and space, and give yourself permission to do that. You know, I will actively block out time in my calendar, whether it be two or three hours to put a slot in for CPD. Have those conversations in supervision with your manager. Have it documented in your supervision note, if you've had that peer discussion, and then actually, you've got something to copy and paste into your CPD that will maybe form the bones of your document that you then need to bulk up a little bit. There are opportunities that we have every day that will make it less of a task when we come to actually submit it in the registration process.  

Hannah: Absolutely, I'd agree with that, I had a really helpful reflective discussion for work purposes with my other social work colleagues at Research in Practice recently, and I said, 'We all need to used this as our reflective discussion for CPD, because this has been really interesting,' and I thought I'd done that, and I went back to it recently, and I hadn't. Trying to just remember the nuance in that discussion and what I'd found so powerful about it, quite at the time, was so much harder to capture. Whereas, if I'd done it straight away, as I'd set out to do, I would have been able to write it very, very quickly. So, I think that's a really important point, thank you, and I know, one of my colleagues, I think has previously given the tip of do it on your payday, and when you've got that little, sort of, payday incentive, and those little reminders each time.  

Sharon: As someone doing it for the first time, this has been very useful, so I've got lots of information from this, so thank you.  

[Outro] 

Hannah: Great, thank you very much. Thank you, that was a really helpful discussion. We'll have-, we'll be able to link lots of different resources, and the guidance, and everything that we've mentioned today as well as the Social Work England website, where there's the clear guidance and some examples as well there. So, thank you very much for everybody's time today.  

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