Social workers urged to re-register with regulator

The call comes after the regulator revealed that 8,425 social workers failed to renew their registration by its deadline of 2 January. Those that did not renew their registration are not allowed to practise as social workers in England until they re-register.

The HCPC does not hold data on how many of those who failed to renew are working with children and young people. But figures from the Centre for Workforce Intelligence suggest that local authorities in the UK employ approximately 22,000 children’s social workers.?

The HCPC said that those who register by February 1 will not incur extra costs above the standard £152 two-year registration fee. But anyone re-registering after this date will face a fee of £267, which includes a £115 “administration cost” due to the extra paperwork involved, an HCPC spokeswoman said.

The HCPC spokeswoman said: “Not all of those who did not renew their registration will have to do so.

“Some did not because they have retired, some have perhaps moved into management roles, but there will be some that failed to do so and need to ensure they re-register so that they can practise.

“Where we have their employment details their employers have been written to so they can ensure they are not practising social work.”

The HCPC took on responsibility for registering social workers when the General Social Care Council (GSCC) was closed last year.

A College of Social Work spokeswoman argued that the number of social workers who did re-register is “actually fairly high”, since many who were on the GSCC’s books were not practising and therefore not required to register with the new body.

She said: “Some people kept their registration live in case they moved back into practising social work. And some others who were in senior roles, or had retired, chose to be registered as a mark of their pride in being part of the profession.

“It is not particularly surprising that some of these people have chosen not to transfer their registration.”

In total 80,049 social workers have renewed their registration with the HCPC. This represents 90.5 per cent of the profession.