Raising standards in social work education

Part of our role as the regulatory body for social care in England is to regulate and promote high standards in all qualifying and post-qualifying social work education. We do this by:

• setting standards for education;
• approving courses; and
• carrying out inspections to ensure that the education offered in England is of good quality and consistent at both degree and post-qualifying level.

The GSCC played a key role in the introduction of the degree in social work in 2003. We have ensured that social work enjoys the longer training periods associated with degree-level professional courses. More recently, we have introduced a revised post-qualifying framework for social workers to continue their professional development.

We ensure quality by providing advice and guidance to universities and colleges when they seek to get a new course approved. In addition, once a course is up and running, the GSCC will inspect and report on it each year to make sure that standards are being met. After each annual cycle of reports, we publish an overview report - called the Social Work Education Quality-Assurance Report (SWEQAR) - which gives a national picture of social work education in England for the year. Click here to download the latest report (for 2007).