Professional Regulation for social work: A comparative examination of equity, transparency and control

Abstract

This paper examines the personal and political changes that the recent and ongoing transitions in UK social work professional regulation – particularly around fitness to practice - have invoked. Between 2012 and 2018, social work in England will have had four different professional and regulatory bodies guiding and structuring its operations in an unprecedented era of central government control. Placing these changes in a European context, the paper focuses on how professional regulation around fitness to practice is constructed across Europe and what level of comparability in terms of experience and disposal can be determined. Building on a trio of published peer reviewed journal articles, utilising external desk research, government and freely available public data, we outline the historical shifts of regulation, as the UK profession made its journey via the General Social Care Council, The College of Social Work, Health and Care Professions Council and the forthcoming Social Work England body currently under construction. Examining data (including notes of hearings) from the professional body website, we explore the ‘make-up’ of those social work practitioners subjected to fitness to practice proceedings where organisational issues (as opposed to personal behaviour) led, or were linked to referral, identifying common themes and attributes to the cases. Using data collected from semi- structured interviews with practitioners subjected to thematic analysis, we shall then report on the personal impact of these proceedings, including the considerable emotional toll which led to almost half of the respondents either to consider suicide or have suicidal thoughts. What learning can we take from these experiences for professional regulation? From there, the second half of the paper will examine the political context of professional regulation as, in England, central government work to develop a new body: Social Work England. How ought our experiences thus far, as a profession, influence this transition? Placing this in a European context, facing Brexit, we can examine what characteristics social work professional regulation takes on across Europe - and to what extent comparable practice issues are dealt with in an equitable way in different countries. In particular, three themes will be explored across key European settings; the role of organisational issues within the working structures of social work practice (the link, for example, between workload pressures and fitness to practice), the cost and efficacy of representation for those going through these proceedings and the emotional toll taken on those threatened, through these processes, with the removal of their licence to practice. Our conclusions seek to identify good practice in regulation to inform future transitions in social work professional regulation.