Social workers on the front line

Behind nurses, social workers are the second biggest client group in my caseload. Regulation of social workers transferred from the HCPC to Social Work England (“SWE”) in December 2019. Members of the public would be shocked, I think, to hear that cases that originated with the HCPC have still not been resolved by SWE. Yet, that is the unfortunate truth.

This week I represented a social worker in a fitness to practice hearing at SWE, on a case that was referred to the HCPC in March 2019. This, by the way, is by no means the longest running case I have ever dealt with - not even the longest case this year!

I have to say that I detest dealing with SWE and the firm who represent them, Capsticks.

As regulators, I find their approach to social workers incomprehensible. From my experience, the role of a front line social worker is awfully difficult - and SWE do not in my view demonstrate any appreciation of that in the way they treat registrants who have been referred. They have a lot to learn from the well-established regulators, such as the GMC and NMC.

So it was with great pleasure that I succeeded in bringing my client’s case this week to an early close (1 day early) with the panel deciding that my client’s fitness to practice was not impaired. Given my client was accused of and admitted behaving dishonestly towards a service user, this was an outstanding result and in part testament to my client’s hard work in implementing all of the advice I had given them. It was also an example of how a case can be turned around even when I am instructed close to the hearing - this client came to me less than six weeks before the final hearing.

A while ago I had the realisation that as much as I do not like dealing with SWE and Capsticks, it must be that much more difficult for registrants. So, with this case successfully concluded, I look to the next one and we go again.