Social Work England Courses: Online Courses for a Fitness to Practise Concern and CPD

Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, MBBS, MRCS, MRCGP, Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics · Updated 4 November 2026

How a Social Work England concern runs, and where a course fits

Social Work England’s fitness to practise guide describes four stages:

1. Triage. Staff decide whether there are reasonable grounds to open an investigation, looking at how serious the concern is, the evidence, whether it is a single event or repeated, and any action already taken. The aim is to finish triage within 12 weeks.
2. Investigation. An investigator gathers the evidence, with an aim of six months, and invites your comments early. Professional standard 6.7 asks you to cooperate fully with any enquiry into your fitness to practise.
3. Case examiners. Two case examiners, a social worker and a lay person, decide whether there is a realistic prospect that your fitness to practise would be found impaired at a hearing. They can close the case, with or without advice or a warning, propose an accepted disposal, or refer the case to a hearing.
4. Hearing. Independent adjudicators decide the facts, the grounds and impairment, and the outcome. What happens on the day is in our guide to a Social Work England hearing.

An accepted disposal is an outcome agreed without a hearing. You have up to 28 days to consider the proposal, and you must accept that your fitness to practise is impaired for it to close the case that way. It is not available if you dispute the key facts or a hearing is in the public interest.

A course matters at each point where you can send evidence: your comments to the investigator, what the case examiners read, and your bundle for a hearing. Social Work England’s guide says a finding of impairment is unlikely where the social worker recognises what went wrong and takes action to prevent it happening again. The investigation itself is explained in our guide to a Social Work England investigation.

Which standards a concern is measured against

Social Work England’s professional standards have applied to every social worker in England since 2 December 2019. They are set out in six groups of “As a social worker, I will” statements, and group 5 lists what you will not do. The parts that come up in a concern include:

• 2.1 be open, honest, reliable and fair;
• 2.3 maintain professional relationships with people and make sure they understand the role of a social worker in their lives;
• 2.6 treat information about people with sensitivity and handle confidential information in line with the law;
• 3.11 keep clear, accurate, legible and up-to-date records, documenting how you arrive at your decisions;
• 5.2 do not behave in a way that would bring into question your suitability to work as a social worker, at work or outside it.
• Every Social Work England remediation course, with the courses grouped by the type of concern, is on one page: Social Work England remediation courses.

Which Social Work England course fits which concern?

Add the Module on Insight or Module on Reflection (£49 each, 1.5 CPD hours) when you need to write about what you understand now and what you have changed.

How the courses count as Social Work England CPD

Recording CPD is a requirement for renewing your registration every year. Social Work England asks you to:

• record at least two different pieces of CPD each registration year;
• reflect on what you learned and explain how it has changed, or will change, your practice;
• include a peer reflection with at least one of the pieces;
• anonymise what you record, removing details that could identify people;
• record it by the renewal deadline of 11.59pm on 30 November.

Social Work England sets no minimum hours, and CPD can be any activity that helps you learn, improve and reflect. An online course with its certificate and your written reflection is one piece of CPD; talk it through with a colleague or your supervisor and it can carry the peer reflection too. How a fitness to practise course counts for every UK regulator is in our guide to the fitness to practise CPD course.

What to do: five steps after a Social Work England letter

1. Get advice first. Contact your union, a defence organisation or a solicitor before you reply.
2. Read the concern against the standards. Note which statements the concern touches.
3. Take the course that matches. Use the table above, and keep the dated certificate.
4. Write your reflection. What happened, what you understand now, what you do differently and how you check it.
5. Send it at the right point. Your adviser decides what goes to the investigator, the case examiners or a hearing; the same course and reflection go into your CPD record.

Our Social Work England courses and Bulk Buy

Courses that sit beside it

A team or employer buying for its social workers can use Bulk Buy: £200 for 3 courses, £300 for 5, £500 for 10. Not sure which course fits? Book a free 15-minute call or see which course do I need.

Guides that help

The CPD courses linked from this guide, Ethics and Ethical Standards for Social Workers, Probity for Healthcare Professionals, Ethical Boundaries with Patients and Colleagues and Ensuring Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice, are by Probity & Ethics, written by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service (provider no. 13197) and offered since 2020.

Questions and answers