Social Workers

Adult social care is part of our vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service that shifts care from hospitals to communities, with more personalised, proactive, and joined-up health and care services that help people stay independent for as long as possible. Social work professionals already work in and with the National Health Service and will be an important part of neighbourhood teams to help people stay independent for longer and play an enhanced role in rehabilitation and recovery. We recognise that in order to achieve this, cultural changes will be needed within the NHS and wider health and care system, and we are keen to strengthen partnership between the NHS and local government.

We support the supply of social workers with the right skills, knowledge, and values to support adults, children, and families. Strength-based and relationship-based approaches are fundamental to social work practice and are a key part of training and re-registration requirements.

In the NHS, social workers are classed as 'clinicians', having the same protected title, professional qualification, registration, and continuing professional development requirements as other professionals, meaning they develop similar clinical skills as other clinicians.

We engage and work closely with the social work sector including through the Chief Social Worker (CSW) for Adults. The CSW provides independent expert advice to ministers on social work reform and works with key leaders in the sector to drive forward the improvement and reform programme for social care, contributing to social work and social care policy implementation.