Ethics and Ethical Standards for Social Workers
CPD-AccreditedCertified byThe CPD Certification Service, UK
Remediation · Social Work England CPD Certified
Ethics and Ethical Standards for Social Workers
Facing a Social Work England or SSSC concern, investigation or fitness to
practise case — or recording CPD while one is open? Start here. An ethics course for
social workers, written to Social Work England’s professional standards and equally usable in
Scotland alongside the SSSC Codes of Practice. Covers allegations about
confidentiality and information sharing, professional boundaries and power imbalance, honesty
and integrity, social media, accountability, safeguarding and the duty of candour — and
the insight and remediation the regulator looks for.
Bulk buy — any 10 courses
Instant access · certificate on completion · CPD certified
Who this course is for
Social workers at any stage of a concern, or before one arises. The course is taken as often by people who are suspended, who have come off the register, or who are working towards returning.
A concern has been raised
By a service user, a family, your employer or Social Work England, and you need something behind your response.
You are recording CPD during a case
Your obligation has not paused, and this is 2 CPD hours you can complete and record now — while also being directly relevant to the concern.
The concern involves boundaries
A relationship that drifted over a long involvement, contact outside work, or the power imbalance that is structural in statutory social work.
Confidentiality or social media
Information shared without a basis, or something posted that the regulator says brings the profession into disrepute.
You are applying to return to the register
Evidence of what you did in the meantime is the heart of the application, and you do not need to be registered to take this.
Nothing has been raised
You want your practice to stand up to scrutiny, and verifiable CPD towards your annual requirement at the same time.
The concerns this course speaks to
Concerns about social workers have a shape of their own, because the work involves statutory powers exercised over people who often did not choose the relationship.
Boundaries over long involvements
Social work relationships can run for years. Boundaries erode by accumulation rather than decision, and the power imbalance never levels out.
Confidentiality and information sharing
Standard 2.6. Sharing without a basis, or failing to share where safeguarding required it — both directions generate concerns.
Social media and technology
Standard 5.6, which covers use that is unlawful, unethical, or brings the profession into disrepute — including conduct outside work.
Records and accountability
Standard 3.11 requires clear, accurate, legible and up-to-date records documenting how you arrived at your decisions. Case recording that cannot show what was decided or why is difficult to defend.
Honesty and integrity
Inside and outside practice. Social Work England expects ethical conduct in both, which is broader than some registrants assume.
Conduct in your private life
Personal matters, including those unrelated to work, where they affect public confidence in the profession.
What the course covers
Fourteen lessons, followed by a post-module assessment. Your certificate is issued on completion.
What ethics means in social work
The foundations, and why ethical judgement carries more weight in a profession exercising statutory powers over people’s lives.
The principles and expected standards
Dignity, autonomy, confidentiality, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, honesty, integrity and openness — and how each maps onto what Social Work England expects.
Confidentiality
Information sharing, when disclosure is justified, and the ethical use of technology and social media.
Beneficence and non-maleficence
Acting in the interests of the people you work with, safeguarding, and preventing harm.
Accountability
Being answerable for decisions taken under statutory powers, including decisions someone else disagreed with.
Honesty, integrity, openness and truthfulness
Inside and outside professional practice — Social Work England expects ethical conduct in both.
Duty of candour
Being open when something goes wrong, and what that means where the person affected may be a service user, a family or a court.
Professional boundaries
Managing the power imbalance that is structural in social work, and relationships that drift over long involvements.
Justice
Social justice, equality and non-discrimination as professional obligations rather than personal values.
Social Work England’s professional standards
The six standards, what they require, and how to write a response against the one actually engaged.
Breaches and their consequences
What follows a breach of the expected standards, for the people you work with and for you.
What to do if a breach happens
The practical steps: building insight, reflecting meaningfully, remediating, and rebuilding trust with service users, colleagues, employers and the regulator.
How this helps if a concern has been raised
In social work, the power imbalance is the job — not an occasional risk
Most healthcare professionals meet a power imbalance in the consulting room and can reasonably describe it as a feature of the setting. Social work is different: statutory powers are exercised over people who frequently did not choose the relationship and cannot end it. That changes what a boundary concern means. A patient who accepts a lift home is in a different position from a parent under a child protection plan who accepts one, and a regulator reading the file knows it.
Which is why a response that treats a boundary lapse as a lapse of judgement, without engaging with the power the practitioner held, tends to read as incomplete. The response that works names the imbalance explicitly: what the person could and could not refuse, why they might not have objected at the time, and what has changed in how you hold that line now. Name the standard too — Social Work England’s standards are numbered and written in the first person, and a response addressing standard 2.6 or 5.6 specifically is considerably more credible than one about professional values in general.
It is worth knowing that cooperation is itself a standard. Standard 6.7 requires you to cooperate with any investigation by your employer, Social Work England or another agency, and 6.6 requires you to declare anything that might affect your fitness to practise, including criminal proceedings or a regulatory finding anywhere in the world. Engaging properly is not merely good tactics; it is what the standards ask of you.
On completion you receive a certificate recording the course title, the CPD hours and the date — which you can record as CPD, and which, with your written reflection, is suitable for a remediation plan, an employer review or a submission to Social Work England. Anonymise anything case-related before you record it. For the wider picture see social work investigation courses.
Read Social Work England’s own standards and guidance:
The professional standards ↗
Professional standards guidance ↗
CPD guidance ↗
Peer reflection ↗
Guide for social workers under investigation ↗
SSSC: Codes of Practice (Scotland) ↗
SSSC: fitness to practise (Scotland) ↗
Ready to start? Social workers; registration is not required. Instant access, 2 CPD hours, certificate on completion.
Who wrote it
Course facilitator and author, Probity & Ethics
Dr Iqbal has designed and delivered ethics, probity and professionalism training for UK healthcare professionals since 2020, working with registrants of all nine UK healthcare regulators, online and face to face. He combines clinical practice with formal postgraduate training in healthcare law and ethics.
MBBS · MRCS · MRCGP · Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics, University of Dundee
Do you still have to record CPD while under Social Work England investigation?
Yes. An open fitness to practise case does not suspend your CPD obligation, and neither does a live sanction. Registration still has to be renewed annually and the recording requirement is unchanged.
People under investigation quite reasonably assume everything is on hold until the case resolves. It is not — and a lapsed registration on top of an open case is an entirely avoidable second problem. It also cuts the other way: CPD completed and recorded while a case is running is evidence of exactly the engagement the regulator is looking for, and standard 6.7 asks for that engagement anyway. Check the current requirement and the renewal date on Social Work England’s own CPD guidance, linked above.
What these words mean
The vocabulary a Social Work England concern is written in. The first is the one that changes what a boundary response has to contain.
Power imbalance
The difference in position between practitioner and person, which in social work is structural rather than incidental: statutory powers exercised over people who often did not choose the relationship and cannot end it. It is why apparent agreement at the time answers very little.
Professional standards
Social Work England’s six standards, published in July 2019 and in force since it went live on 2 December 2019. They are the threshold standards for safe and effective practice, they apply in all roles and settings, and they are written in the first person.
Peer reflection
A recorded conversation about your learning with a colleague, manager or another professional. It can be formal or informal, one to one or in a group. What you record is what you learnt from the discussion, not that the discussion happened.
Anonymised
Stripped of anything that could identify a person, including detail that makes them recognisable to someone who knows the case. It applies to your CPD record as much as to your case notes, and it matters most when you are reflecting on the case you are being investigated over.
Duty of candour
Being open when something goes wrong: telling the person affected, apologising, and explaining what happened and what you will do about it. In social work the person affected may be a service user, a family or a court.
Insight
Understanding what went wrong, why, and the effect it had on the people you work with and on confidence in the profession — together with what has changed as a result. It is what a response is read for, and it is shown rather than claimed.
CPD does not pause for an investigation
Four things worth knowing, and the fourth catches people out precisely when they are most likely to be reflecting on a difficult case.
It does not pause for an investigation
Being under investigation, or subject to a live sanction, does not suspend your CPD obligation. Registration renewal still happens annually and the recording requirement still applies.
Peer reflection is part of it
Social Work England asks for reflection recorded with a peer as well as the learning itself. A peer can be a colleague, your manager or another professional, and the conversation can be formal or informal. Its guidance on this is linked above.
Do not leave it to the renewal deadline
Rushed entries made in the last week produce the thin reflection that reads badly if anyone does look — and if a case is open, someone may well look.
Anonymise everything
All CPD must be anonymised — which matters especially if you are reflecting on the case you are being investigated over. Standard 2.6 on confidentiality applies to your CPD record as much as to your case notes.
The six professional standards
Written in the first person — “As a social worker, I will” — which is unusual among the regulators, and worth borrowing when you write a response.
Promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities
Establish and maintain the trust and confidence of people
Includes 2.1 be open, honest, reliable and fair, and 2.6 on treating information with sensitivity and handling confidential information lawfully.
Promote the safety and wellbeing of people, families and communities
Includes 3.11, which requires clear, accurate, legible and up-to-date records documenting how you arrived at your decisions.
Maintain my continuing professional development
The CPD standard, and the only one with a recording requirement attached. It runs to eight parts.
Act safely, respectfully and with professional integrity
Includes 5.6 on not using technology or social media unlawfully, unethically, or in a way that brings the profession into disrepute.
Promote ethical practice and report concerns
The standard this course is built around — and note it covers reporting as well as acting. It also carries 6.6 on declaring anything that might affect your fitness to practise, and 6.7 on cooperating with investigations.
What to change, and how to evidence it
Six things you can start this week, and one you must not do. They are shaped by what this regulator specifically asks for.
Before anything else: do not amend the case records
Not to clarify a decision, not to add the reasoning you know was there. Standard 3.11 requires records that document how you arrived at your decisions — written at the time, not reconstructed afterwards. An entry changed after a concern has been raised turns a records problem into an integrity one. If something genuinely needs adding, take advice and add it openly as a new, dated entry.
Keep recording CPD, and anonymise it
The obligation has not paused, and CPD recorded while a case is open evidences the engagement standard 6.7 asks for. Strip anything that could identify a person before you record it — including detail that would make them recognisable to a colleague who knows the case.
Name the standard and sub-standard in what you write
Not “I have always acted professionally” but “this concerns 2.6” or “this concerns 5.6”. The standards are numbered, and a response that identifies the one actually engaged is immediately more credible.
Write the power imbalance into your account
What the person could and could not refuse, why they might not have objected at the time, and what has changed in how you hold that line now. A boundary response that leaves this out reads as incomplete in this profession specifically.
Borrow the regulator’s own voice
The standards are written in the first person — “As a social worker, I will”. Writing your response the same way is a small signal that you have read them, and it forces the account into the active voice, which is where accountability lives.
Do the peer reflection with someone who knows the facts
A peer who has been told what is actually alleged can speak to what changed; one told a sanitised version cannot. It satisfies the CPD requirement and produces third-party evidence at the same time, which your own account of your own improvement never will.
Frequently asked questions
Do you still have to record CPD while under Social Work England investigation?
Yes. An open fitness to practise case does not suspend your CPD obligation, and neither does a live sanction. Registration still has to be renewed annually and the recording requirement is unchanged. People under investigation quite reasonably assume everything is on hold until the case resolves. It is not — and a lapsed registration on top of an open case is an entirely avoidable second problem. It also cuts the other way: CPD completed while a case is running evidences exactly the engagement standard 6.7 asks for. Check the current requirement and the renewal date on Social Work England’s own CPD guidance.
What are Social Work England’s six professional standards?
One: promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities. Two: establish and maintain the trust and confidence of people. Three: promote the safety and wellbeing of people, families and communities. Four: maintain my continuing professional development. Five: act safely, respectfully and with professional integrity. Six: promote ethical practice and report concerns. They were published in July 2019 and became the standards for all social workers in England when Social Work England went live on 2 December 2019. They are written in the first person — “As a social worker, I will” — which is unusual among the regulators and worth borrowing when you write a response.
Which standard does an ethics concern engage?
Standard 6 most directly — promote ethical practice and report concerns — but rarely that alone. Confidentiality sits at 2.6, technology and social media at 5.6, record-keeping at 3.11, and integrity across standard 5. Standard 6 also carries 6.6 on declaring anything that might affect your fitness to practise and 6.7 on cooperating with investigations. A response is considerably more persuasive when it names the specific standard and sub-standard engaged than when it speaks generally about professional values.
Does this course apply outside England?
Social work regulation is devolved, so the regulator differs: Social Work England covers England, the Scottish Social Services Council covers Scotland, Social Care Wales covers Wales and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council covers Northern Ireland. This course is written to Social Work England’s professional standards. The ethical principles it teaches — dignity, autonomy, confidentiality, boundaries, power imbalance, candour — are common to all four, and the course is equally usable wherever you practise, but write your response against your own regulator’s document. In Scotland that is the SSSC Codes of Practice for Social Service Workers and Employers, linked above.
I am registered with the SSSC in Scotland. Can I use this course?
Yes. The ethical ground it covers — confidentiality, boundaries and power imbalance, honesty, records, social media, candour — is the same work wherever you practise, and the certificate is CPD-certified independently rather than by any one regulator. What differs is the document you write your response against: in Scotland that is the SSSC Codes of Practice for Social Service Workers and Employers, not Social Work England’s six professional standards. One detail worth knowing if a concern is open: the current Codes came into force on 1 May 2024 and replaced the 2016 version, and the SSSC applies whichever Codes were in force when the events happened — so for allegations spanning that date, both may be engaged. Check which applies to yours before you quote a Code number.
I thought the HCPC regulated social workers. Has that changed?
It did, and it has. The HCPC regulated social workers in England from 2012 until 2019, when Social Work England took over as the specialist regulator. If you are a social worker in England, your standards are Social Work England’s six professional standards, not the HCPC’s ten standards of conduct, performance and ethics. It is worth checking anything you were given during that period, because training written before December 2019 describes a regulator that no longer holds your registration.
I am not currently registered — can I still do the course?
Yes. There is no registration check and no requirement to be on the register. The course is taken as often by social workers who are suspended, who have come off the register, or who are working towards restoration as it is by registrants responding to a live concern. If you are applying to return, evidence of what you have done in the meantime is the heart of the application.
What counts as a peer reflection?
A conversation about your learning with a colleague, your manager or another professional, recorded in your own words. It can be formal or informal and can take place one to one or in a group. What you record is what you learnt from the discussion — not that the discussion happened. If you are reflecting on a case, do it with a trusted peer and anonymise it. Social Work England publishes its own guidance on peer reflection, linked above.
Is this course approved or endorsed by Social Work England?
No. Social Work England does not approve, accredit or endorse courses from any provider, including us, and it does not keep an approved list. The course is certified by The CPD Certification Service, an independent accreditation body, under Provider No. 13197.
Can I record this course as CPD?
Yes. The certificate records the title, hours and date, and you record the learning in your Social Work England online account in your own words. To make it count fully, describe the impact on your practice rather than summarising the content — and if you discuss it with a colleague or your manager, record that as the peer reflection. Anonymise anything case-related before it goes into the record.
Does it cover power imbalance and safeguarding?
Yes. Social work involves statutory powers exercised over people who often cannot decline the relationship, which makes power imbalance a structural feature of the work rather than an occasional risk. The course covers it alongside professional boundaries, safeguarding, beneficence and preventing harm.
My case records are thin. Can I write up the reasoning now?
No. Not once a concern has been raised, and this is the single most damaging thing registrants do with entirely good intentions. Standard 3.11 asks for records documenting how you arrived at your decisions — made at the time, not reconstructed later — and case management systems log every amendment with a timestamp and a user. A note added after the event turns a records problem into an integrity one, which is the more serious category. What you can do is acknowledge plainly what the record does not establish, and change what you record from now on.
How do I evidence that my practice has changed?
By changing something specific and having somebody else confirm it. Keep recording CPD, anonymised, throughout the case. Name the standard and sub-standard in anything you write. Write the power imbalance into your account rather than treating a boundary lapse as a lapse of judgement. Then do your peer reflection with someone who knows what is actually alleged — that satisfies the CPD requirement and produces third-party evidence at the same time, which your own account of your own improvement never will.
Will completing this course resolve my case?
No. No course, from us or from anyone else, determines the outcome of a fitness to practise matter. What a course can do is help you build the insight and reflection your response needs, and give you a verifiable certificate to evidence it. Your employer, union or a specialist regulatory adviser should advise on your own case.
How long does it take?
It carries 2 CPD hours across fourteen lessons, with a post-module assessment at the end. It is self-paced, and you can return to it as often as you like.
Is it “fitness to practise” or “fitness to practice”?
Both are in use. In British English practise is the verb and practice is the noun, so the regulators write fitness to practise, and this page follows them. Most people searching for help type fitness to practice, and plenty of professional bodies use that spelling too. They mean the same thing, and nothing turns on which you use in your own response.
Courses that work alongside this one
How you conducted yourself, where this one covers how decisions were reached.
Standard 2.6 in depth: who may access information, when disclosure is justified, and on what basis.
Standard 3.11 in depth: records as evidence, and why they must not be amended once a concern has been raised.
Standard 5.6 in depth: technology and social media, and conduct that brings the profession into disrepute.
Dignity, equality and non-discrimination, where regulators’ expectations run wider than the law’s.
The element assessed in almost every case, and the one most often described as lacking.
How to write reflection that reads as understanding rather than regret — useful for your CPD record too.
Turning insight into concrete, evidenced change a panel can verify.
This course. Confidentiality, boundaries and power imbalance, honesty, candour, social media and accountability under Social Work England’s professional standards.
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Instant access on purchase. Certificate on completion, CPD certified by The CPD Certification Service.
endorsed by Social Work England. This course covers ethics and ethical standards for social workers.
No course determines the outcome of a fitness to practise case. This is education, not legal or
regulatory advice — if a concern has been raised about you, or you are applying for restoration
to the register, take advice from your union, professional body or a specialist regulatory adviser about
your own circumstances. Anonymise any case material before you record it as CPD, and do not amend your
case records.
