The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Social Workers
(Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2022.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Maria.
The draft regulations, which were laid before the House on 17
October, make changes to Social Work England’s regulatory
framework. To start with, I thank our brilliant social workers
who provide much-needed help and support for the most vulnerable
children and adults.
Social Work England began operating in December 2019 as part of
wider reforms to improve confidence in social work and raise the
status of the profession. As a specialist regulator for social
workers in England, public protection is at the heart of what
Social Work England does. The Social Workers Regulations 2018 set
out the details for the new regulator, covering how social
workers would register and how the fitness to practise process
would work, as well as educational and professional standards.
Social Work England has been operating for nearly three years,
and this statutory instrument will enable the regulator to make
small improvements to its operational efficiency and support it
to better deliver effective public protection.
The Government consulted on the draft changes to Social Work
England’s regulatory framework from 23 March to 11 May this year.
We received 48 responses from a range of interested stakeholders,
including service users and social workers. I am pleased to share
that each proposal received broad support, with approval ranging
from 67% to 94%. Having considered all the responses carefully,
we have now laid before the House a draft statutory instrument to
implement the proposals made in our consultation. The instrument
makes changes to Social Work England’s fitness to practise
processes and procedures and its duty to co-operate. It also
introduces a right for registrants to request voluntary removal
from the register. Additionally, it extends the Professional
Standards Authority’s oversight of Social Work England so that it
matches its oversight powers for other regulators.
I will now talk about some of the details of the changes. Fitness
to practise means that a social worker meets professional
standards. Regulators investigate fitness to practise concerns
when they receive information indicating that a social worker’s
practice could be impaired. That is vital for both public
protection and confidence in social work as a regulated
profession.
Sometimes, it is appropriate to use interim orders—orders that
temporarily prevent a social worker from practising while an
investigation is ongoing. The instrument makes improvements to
the regulator’s internal processes relating to those interim
orders. It removes delay in the current system by allowing the
regulator to initiate interim orders directly, bringing Social
Work England in line with other regulators. In addition, interim
orders will now be linked to individual cases, rather than a
specific social worker. That means that each case is treated
separately on its own evidence, allowing the regulator to take
the most appropriate course of action in each case. The
instrument also makes provision for fitness to practise outcomes
to be recorded on the register much faster than before. Where a
social worker has been found guilty of one of the serious
offences set out in schedule 3 to the Social Workers Regulations,
automatic removal will now be published with immediate
effect.
I would also like to discuss the provisions relating to data
sharing. It is vital that Social Work England co-operates with
not only other regulators, but the other bodies and individuals
who work alongside it in public protection. The instrument
introduces two new provisions regarding data sharing: the first
is a duty to share information relating to the regulator’s
functions when it is requested and when it is in the public
interest to do so. The second is a power to disclose any
information relating to a registered social worker’s fitness to
practise. The instrument is clear that the provisions do not
override existing data protection legislation, ensuring that the
changes deliver effective and proportionate public
protection.
The instrument addresses an omission in the Social Workers
Regulations by making it clear that the regulator can share
information with relevant bodies outside of England in the
exercise of its functions. It also introduces a provision to
allow the regulator to consider applications from registered
social workers to be voluntarily removed from the register, a
power that is held by many other health and care regulators. It
will, for example, help social workers with significant ill
health and an open fitness to practise concern to leave the
register if they are no longer able to practise. When deciding
whether voluntary removal is appropriate, the regulator’s primary
consideration will be protecting the public from social workers
whose fitness to practise could be impaired. The regulator will
be required to publish voluntary removals from the register, and
may publish further details if it deems it necessary for the
protection of the public.
The instrument also helps to ensure that the Professional
Standards Authority’s oversight of Social Work England is equal
to its oversight of other regulators. The Professional Standards
Authority is the regulator of all health and care regulators. It
performs a number of functions in respect of Social Work England,
including annual performance reviews and the referring of cases
to the High Court where it feels that fitness to practise
decisions are insufficient for public protection.
This instrument enables the Professional Standards Authority to
refer to the High Court mandatory review decisions and cases
where the regulator has restored a social worker to the register
without conditions or sanctions. These changes strengthen public
protection safeguards. It is usual once a new body has become
operational to identify areas of regulation that can be improved.
The measures in the regulations are important to support Social
Work England to improve its fitness to practise processes and
deliver effective public protection. I hope the Committee will
support the measures and their objectives and I commend them to
the Committee.
2.35pm
(North Tyneside) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Dame
Maria. I am pleased to speak to this statutory instrument on
behalf of the Opposition and my hon. Friend the Member for
Dulwich and West Norwood (), who is very sorry that due to
a long-standing prior commitment she is unable to be here today.
I start by welcoming the new Minister to her post. I wish her
well.
Social workers across the country are working hard every day to
support families and protect children. They are making difficult
decisions about some of our country’s most vulnerable children
and young people, often in the most harrowing of circumstances.
Social work is too often undervalued. The independent review of
children’s social care, published earlier this year, calls for a
total reset of children’s social services, and 50% of all
children’s services departments are rated “inadequate” or
“requires improvement” by Ofsted.
At the heart of this crisis is a workforce feeling increasingly
under pressure, with rising case loads and staff recruitment and
retention problems across the social sector. I pay tribute to
social workers and their vital work, as did the Minister. They
are being let down by an absence of leadership from this
Government, but the Opposition fully accept the need for
regulations to be updated to ensure social workers remain
accountable.
The changes the Government are bringing forward today will expand
the duties of Social Work England in a range of areas, including
disclosing information on applicants to the register of social
work to specified organisations including social work employers,
NHS bodies and fellow regulators when this is deemed to be in the
public interest. They will ensure that all fitness to practise
sanctions made against social workers, with the exception of
final orders, will appear immediately on the register.
The regulations will give the regulator discretion to grant
voluntary removal from the register where there are fitness to
practise issues, with such issues to be published, provided they
do not infringe on individuals’ rights. They also make changes to
the fitness to practise investigation proceedings, including
broadening the regulator’s powers to require disclosure of
information and to initiate interim orders. Among other changes,
they make provision for interim orders to come into force
immediately. The changes are supported by Social Work England,
and the majority of the 48 consultation responses were in
support.
As the Minister will know, important concerns were raised during
the consultation, including by trade unions, about the impact of
these measures on social workers and, in particular, the plans to
allow the regulator to publish details of orders before an appeal
has expired. When strengthening the accountability framework for
social workers, it is important that the new regulations do not
compromise due process and the fair treatment to which every
employee is entitled. I hope the Minister will engage with trade
unions and other concerned organisations and work to reassure
social workers of the intention behind the new measures. I hope
she will provide some assurance on this point today.
Finally, I would like to use this opportunity to press the new
Minister on the wider crisis in children’s social care. The
independent review of children’s social care starkly sets out the
pressures and challenges facing children’s social care and makes
a compelling case for change. In September, the then Prime
Minister committed to publishing a response to the independent
review and an accompanying implementation plan before the end of
the year. I appreciate that the Minister is new to her post, but
I hope it is clear that any further delay in bringing forward
reform of children’s social care will continue to let down the
country’s most vulnerable children and the professionals who work
to support them.
Will the Minister confirm that her Department still intends to
respond to the review before the end of the year? The current
system is clearly not working for either social workers or the
children they are supporting. While we are content to support
these measures today, we will continue to press the new
ministerial team to bring forward their plans for reform with
urgency.
2.40pm
I thank the hon. Lady for her constructive contribution, and I
look forward to her perhaps making more such contributions in
similar roles in the future. I think she is right to call out the
problem with inadequate children’s social care. The Department is
making good progress, and we have seen the number of providers
rated as “inadequate” come down. She is also right to highlight
wider reform. In my time in this role, I have already met with
Josh MacAlister. I am very passionate about children’s social
care, and I will be looking at publishing an implementation
strategy as quickly as possible. It will address some of the
challenges she has raised, particularly around the recruitment
and status of social care workers.
I note the shadow Minister’s concerns about the protection of
employees. We have ensured that public protection is paramount,
but we also want to make sure that social workers in this country
who do tremendous work feel respected in their profession. I
commend the regulations to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.
