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Loading …Social workers in Wales will no longer have to show the regulator that they have completed 90 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) over three years in order to renew their registration.
Social Care Wales said the change, which takes effect today (1 April 2025), was designed to simplify the CPD process and underscore that “what’s most important is the quality and impact of [registrants’] learning”.
While practitioners will need to confirm that they have completed CPD and that their learning is up to date and in line with Social Care Wales’s code of professional practice for social care, they will no longer have to log their learning with the regulator or evidence that they have done a required amount.
Reforming system dating back to 2001
Previously, registered social workers and social care managers in Wales needed to show that they had done 90 hours of CPD over the previous three years at the point of renewal, and log what learning they had carried out, on the regulator’s SCWonline system. Registered social care workers needed to show evidence of having carried out 45 hours.
This system has, broadly speaking, been in place since the register opened in 2001, said Social Care Wales.
The regulator undertook a consultation on reforms in 2019 that found strong support for an outcomes-based approach to CPD, but implementation was delayed because of the Covid pandemic.
Social Care Wales learning requirements
Social Care Wales’s code of practice for social care, which all registrants must follow, states that they must must undertaking relevant learning and development to maintain and improve their knowledge and skills to ensure they are fit to practise, and contributing to the learning and development of others” (standard 6.9).
Practice guidance for social workers that builds on the code states that they must:
- routinely review and update knowledge of legal, practice, policy, regulatory and procedural frameworks;
- keep up-to-date with relevant literature and research;
- listen and learn from others, including people using the service, relatives, carers and other professionals;
- seek help with critical gaps in knowledge and skills;
- use learning to support improved outcomes for people.
It also says they should use a variety of methods to keep up to date, such as reading, attending courses, carrying out post-qualifying training, learning from visits and placements, contributing to professional forums and accessing or contributing to research.
Though registrants will no longer have to log their CPD, Social Care Wales said registrants “must keep records” of their learning and discuss it with their manager, and that it “may check a sample of records”.
