Registering if you qualified outside the UK

If you’ve ever been registered with:

• Social Work England
• Scottish Social Services Council
• Northern Ireland Social Care Council

you must email internationallyqualified@socialcare.wales before you apply to let us know you want to apply with us. You won’t need to have your qualification assessed for a second time.

You must:

• already hold the certificate for your qualification in social work
• have evidence of at least 130 days of supervised and assessed social work practice or post qualifying social work experience.
• We’ll check that your qualification and social work experience fits the Welsh degree framework and the UK agreed subject benchmarks for social work.

We don’t need evidence of your English language proficiency for registration. But employers may have their own requirements, so discuss this with them directly.

If you’re returning to social work practise after three years or more, you’ll need to:

• show your knowledge and understanding of contemporary social work practice
• meet the requirements of returning to practise.

If you decide to work outside of Wales, you will need to contact the regulatory body for that country.

In the UK these are:

• Social Work England
• Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC)
• Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).

If this is your first time registering in the UK, you’ll need to complete the qualification equivalency form.

Make sure you provide the full details of your:

• supervised and assessed practice placements
• post qualifying social work employments.
  

The information should include contact details for the supervising and assessing social worker from your placements. Alternatively, this could be a contact from your qualifying university.

Complete the application to register

You need to create an account on our SCWonline website to complete the application to register.

Documents

You need to:

• get copies signed and dated by a recognised individual who’s seen the original versions
• provide confirmation that you intend to practise in Wales
• if possible, provide evidence of your most recent criminal records check
• pay the fee of £350.

You must upload or email copies to your SCWonline account of your:

• verified ID documents
• verified qualification certificate
• verified course transcript
• verified supporting evidence
• qualification equivalency assessment form (if not already done).

Make sure you read our endorsement guidance.

If you’re already working in Wales the online application asks you to select the person who will verify your identity documents and endorse your application. This is from a list of approved individuals.

If you’re not already working in Wales you’ll need to enter your endorser’s details manually. You’ll need to print the application form and take it to your endorser to check, sign and date. Then scan and upload this signed version to your SCWonline account.

You’ll need to pay a fee when you apply to register. Find out more on our fees page.

This information may be helpful to you if you have an overseas social work qualification and want to apply to register as a social worker in Wales.

This is a list of overseas social work qualifications that we’ve assessed and consider to be the same standard as approved UK qualifications. The information in this list is advisory and is subject to updates and revision.

You can access the list here: List of overseas social work qualifications

If you think your qualification appears on the list, you’ll need to provide a copy of both the certificate and course transcript (or similar) so that we can assess your qualification against those in the list. We’ll check your qualification against our existing records to make sure they match.

Some qualifications require us to also assess additional social work training and experience before we can accept them. You should provide details about any additional qualifications or experience you have in your application to register. Some applicants will also need to complete an aptitude test to assess whether they meet the standards required for registration. Other applicants may be asked to complete a period of adaptation where they have supervised practice or training.

We may need to ask your education provider for more information to make sure the information you’ve provided is accurate and meets the required standards.

If your qualification isn’t on this list, we’ll need to do a full assessment. You can find out more information here.

As part of our work, we may share information with third parties such as UK ENIC. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

Since 1 October 2022, we've:

• received 453 applications from individuals who qualified outside of the UK
• registered 214 individuals who qualified outside the UK. Please note these individuals may have applied before October 2022.

There are 356 people who qualified outside the UK on the Register.

If you have a question, email: internationallyqualified@socialcare.wales.