There has been a huge rise in the number of fitness to practise concerns about social workers in England since the start of 2025, Social Work England has revealed.
The rise has been driven by referrals from members of the public, the overwhelming majority of which are rejected by the regulator at the initial triage stage of the process.
The higher volume of cases is absorbing the additional budget that Social Work England has deployed to tackle the significant level of delay at the triage stage, cancelling out improvements it had made to its performance in this area, the regulator said.
Huge rise in fitness to practise referrals
Social Work England said it was experiencing "a significant and sustained increase" in fitness to practise referrals, in its latest report to the regulator's board.At the start of the year, the regulator forecast it would receive 154 concerns per month, based on numbers referred over the past two years. However, since December 2024, the monthly average has been 189.
While the regulator increased its forecast to 185 per month in March of this year, monthly referral rates in April to June - 196 - exceeded this.
Social Work England said the data suggested that the rise in case volumes was an ongoing trend, rather than a blip.
Increase driven by concerns from the public
The increase has been driven by concerns from members of the public.Of 1,854 referrals from April 2024 to March 2025, 1,138 had a known source, with 730 (64%) being from members of the public, according to Social Work England's 2024-25 annual report.
This was up from 641 in 2023-24, when concerns from members of the public made up 55% of the total number of known referrals.
The share of concerns from the public also rose during 2024-25, making up 78% of known referrals in January to March 2025, according to separately published fitness to practise data.
Public referrals focused on social worker 'dishonesty'
The rise in the number of public referrals was itself driven by increasing concerns about social worker 'dishonesty', with the issue raised in 306 such cases in 2024-25, up from 236 in 2023-24.The next two biggest categories of public referral in 2024-25 were professional practice issues (262 cases) and concerns about poor or inappropriate communication (218).
By contrast, twice as many concerns raised by employers in 2024-25 were about professional practice issues (155 cases) than about dishonesty (80).
Most public concerns rejected
The overwhelming majority of concerns received from the public in 2024-25 - 96% - were rejected by Social Work England at the triage stage of the fitness to practise process, where it decides whether concerns about a social worker merit investigation.This was up from 93% in 2023-24, while the rejection rate seems to have increased during the year, with 98% of public referrals dropped at the triage stage during January to March 2025.
By contrast, 66% of concerns from employers received in 2024-25 passed the triage stage and proceeded to an investigation.
Even where concerns from the public are investigated, the vast majority of these - 81% in 2024-25 - are dropped by Social Work England's case examiners, whose role is to determine whether concerns could realistically be proven and, if so, whether the social worker's fitness to practise could be found to be impaired.
Of concerns from members of the public that led to a final hearing in 2024-25, just five resulted in the social worker's fitness to practise being found to be impaired, with three of these practitioners consequently removed from the register.
By contrast, 29 social workers were found to have impaired fitness to practise, 14 of whom were removed, on the back of referrals from employers, of which there were far fewer in 2024-25 - 228, compared with 730 from the public.
Budget boost to help cut fitness to practise delays
The case rise comes with the regulator striving to reduce longstanding fitness to practise backlogs, with the help of an increase of about 30% in its budget from 2024-25 to 2025-26.This comes from a £5.2m increase in Department for Education grant for the organsation and from the regulator's controversial 33% rise in practitioner fees, which kicks in later this year and is expected to raise an additional £1.1m in 2025-26 in fees compared with the previous year.
Among other measures, it is deploying the extra money by growing the size of its triage team, in order to process cases more quickly, and increasing the number of final hearings it can hold, something that was curtailed in 2024-25 due to budget constraints.
Rise in case numbers 'absorbing increased resource'
On the back of the increased triage resource, Social Work England said that the number of decisions it made in April to June 2025, the first quarter of the new financial year, was significantly up on performance across 2024-25.The triage team processed 515 cases during the quarter, compared with a quarterly average of 367 in 2024-25, while the average time taken to complete the triage stage was 29 weeks, significantly below Social Work England's quarterly target of 38 weeks, said the board report.
However, the regulator warned that the rise in case numbers was "absorbing extra resources brought into address the backlog [at the triage stage] and cancelling out performance improvements" it had made to this part of the process.
This was reflected in the fact that the number of cases open at the triage stage grew during the quarter, from 1,887 in March 2025 to 1,993 in June 2025.
Regulator 'committed to tackling unnecessary referrals'
In response to the figures, a Social Work England spokesperson said: "Since we began regulating in 2019, we have seen approximately 30% more referrals than originally predicted, and over the course of 2025 this has further increased by an additional average 23% . Whilst concerns from the public have increased, employer referrals have remained stable."We treat all concerns seriously and assess them consistently in line with our legal framework, regardless of their source, to ensure that only referrals which might require action by the regulator are taken forward.
"The majority of concerns we receive, approximately 82%*, are currently closed at the triage stage, which is the first stage of our fitness to practise process. Where cases pass this stage and further investigation is undertaken, we will then consider whether the case can then be closed, referred to a hearing or concluded through the accepted disposal process.
"We're committed to reducing unnecessary referrals by providing clear guidance and engaging with both the public and stakeholders to help them understand what is, and isn’t, a regulatory concern."
