England

Introduction

This page contains information on higher education and social work regulation in England, grouped into the following four categories.

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Key Government Departments for England

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), established in 2007, aims to create a dynamic, knowledge based economy, linking the nation's strengths in colleges, research, science and universities. Higher Education is central to policy and development at DIUS, and DIUS leads the Government’s response to the Leitch Review of Skills, the results of which include the final report 'Prosperity for all in the Global Economy: World Class Skills' (2006) and the interim report 'Skills in the UK: The long term challenge' (2005).

Higher Education Organisations in England

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) distributes public money for teaching and research to universities and colleges. It aims to promote high quality education and research and plays a key role in ensuring accountability. Some key areas in teaching and learning on which HEFCE is currently working include:

Performance indicators for higher education institutions (England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland)
Teaching Quality Enhancement
The Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL)
The Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP)
Teaching Quality Information, available from 2007 at Unistats, to include the The National Student Survey
An e-learning strategy
A widening participation strategy (including AimHigher)
Work on employer engagement in higher education provision
Work on Foundation degrees
Flexible learning(including fast-track degrees)
Developing higher education in Further Education Colleges and the higher education role in reform of 14-19 education

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) operates a system of Institutional Audit in England and Northern Ireland, to meet the public interest in knowing that universities and colleges have effective means of:

Ensuring their awards and qualifications in higher education are of an appropriate academic standard
Providing quality learning opportunities
Enhancing the quality of educational provision, including an internal quality assurance mechanism
Maintaining appropriate academic standards and enhancing the quality of postgraduate research programmes

From 1993-2001 the QAA also ran a scheme of Subject Review in England and Northern Ireland. Current QAA work in England includes:

Review of Foundation Degrees in England and Northern Ireland
Review of Postgraduate Research Degree Programmes (England & Northern Ireland)

Social Work Education in England

The General Social Care Council is responsible for regulating and supporting social work education and training in England. They accredit universities to offer social work qualifications at both qualifying and post-qualifying levels, set standards, approve programmes and quality-assure all social work courses. The GSCC inspects and reports on programmes annually, publishing an overview report called the Social Work Education Quality Assurance Report (SWEQAR) giving a national picture of social work education in England for the year.

In 2009 the Department for Children, Families and Schools and the Department of Health launched a joint Social Work Taskforce, with the remit to ‘undertake a comprehensive review of frontline social work practice,’ which will include recommendations for reforms to social work education. To facilitate communication about this SWAP has a Social Work Taskforce: implications for social work education web-page, where documents and links related to the work of the taskforce insofar as it relates to social work education can be accessed.

Qualifying programmes

The degree in social work was introduced in England from 2003. More information is available from the GSCC.

Post-qualifying programmes

A revised post-qualifying framework for social work education and training was introduced in England in 2005 by the GSCC. The framework allows social workers to continue their education and training in a flexible and modular way. There are three levels of awards, each corresponding to a stage of professional and career development:

Post-Qualifying Award in Specialist Social Work
Post-Qualifying Award in Higher Specialist Social Work
Post-Qualifying Award in Advanced Social Work

Nationally agreed standards for specialist areas have been produced by the GSCC for:

Practice Education
Mental Health
Adult Social Care
Children, Young People, their families and carers
Leadership and Management

Key documents on the PQ framework are available from the GSCC.

Skills for Care takes a strategic lead in the development of new, employer-led, regional PQ planning frameworks.

Sector Skills Councils for England

Skills for Care and Development, the Sector Skills Council for social care, children and young people’s workforces in the UK is the umbrella body within which responsibility in England for the skills agenda in social care is shared by the Children’s Workforce Development Council and Skills for Care.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council’s work includes areas that impact on social work education, including:

The Sector Qualifications Strategy
The Integrated Qualifications Framework - A map of policy development (PDF, 187KB) in relation to Integrated Children’s Services has been prepared for the Integrated Children’s services in Higher Education Project (ICS-HE)
The Common Core
Foundation Degrees (see also Foundation Degree Forward )

Skills for Care’s areas of work of special relevance to social work education include:

Work-based learning and assessment
The National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC), which aims to give a complete picture of the social care workforce to help to plan for future training, qualifications, funding and policies to develop the social care workforce

Policy and Regulation