Returning to social work practice

If want to return to work as a social worker but you’ve never been registered with us, or haven’t been practising for a while, you might need to provide evidence that you meet our requirements. 

You need to:

• apply to register with us, and ask the appropriate person to endorse your application
• put together a portfolio of evidence to show you're fit to practise.

When you submit your portfolio, you’ll need to pay a £200 fee to have it assessed, along with your application fee.

Activities

You can include examples of:

• formal study or training through courses or accredited programmes
• private study, including research and relevant reading
• seminars
• teaching
• other activities, which could reasonably be expected to advance the professional development of a social worker
• supervised or shadow practice, including project work, shadowing social work, relevant voluntary work, and reflection and analysis of social work practice.

If you decide to include supervised or shadow practice, you need to have an agreement in place with your employer. This is a formal agreement, which should:

• describe which activities you’ll be doing
• include how long the agreement and the placement is for
• make sure there’s a supervisor to oversee your placement
• make sure you’re properly supervised and have opportunities to reflect on your learning
• make sure there is no unsupervised contact with people who use care and support or carers
• include confirmation by your employer of your placement and activities.
• If you’ve worked as a qualified social worker before, you can use private study for up to 50 per cent of your portfolio.
• If you’ve never worked as a qualified social worker, you can use private study for up to 25 per cent of your portfolio.

Documents

Your portfolio should include:

• certificates to show you’ve completed or attended courses
• testimonies or brief evaluations from shadow practice or other practice
• a list of the books you’ve read for work to develop your practice.

Your portfolio needs to show your learning is relevant to current social work practice. You’ll also need to show how your learning considers:

• the key roles and national occupational standards for social work
• the knowledge and understanding you need as a social worker
• the skills you need to have as a social worker
• current legislation, policy and social work practice.

The amount of evidence we need to see depends on how long you’ve been off the Register:

• if it’s been less than three years since you were registered as a social worker, you don't need to provide evidence to return to practice, but you do need to apply to register
• if it’s been between three and six years since you were registered as a social worker, your portfolio needs to show 180 hours of professional knowledge and understanding
• if it’s been more than six years since your registration expired and you haven’t been registered since, your portfolio needs to show you’ve spent 360 hours updating your professional knowledge and understanding
• if you’ve never been registered and you qualified as a social worker more than six years ago, your portfolio needs to show you’ve spent 360 hours updating your professional knowledge and understanding.

We’ll look at your evidence and use the criteria to decide if it shows appropriate current knowledge and understanding for us to proceed with your application.

We’ll let you know if we need to see more evidence.

If you qualified after 1 April 2016, you’ll also need to complete the Consolidation programme for newly qualified social workers, if you haven’t already done so.

If you qualified outside of Wales, you can use an equivalent qualification such as the assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) programme.

If you have any questions about returning to practise, email our registration team: enquiries@socialcare.wales.