Of more than 2,000 social workers randomly selected for CPD audits in September 2014, 78.6% had their profiles accepted. Ten per cent deferred their re-registration, most commonly citing health reasons or maternity leave, 4.6% opted not to renew, 0.5% had their profiles subjected to further assessment and 0.3% – six practitioners – were removed from the register.

Of those who were removed from the register as a result of the audit, five failed to submit a complete CPD profile and one failed to submit further information requested by assessors despite several requests, the HCPC said. None appealed the decisions.

The HCPC, which regulates social work alongside 15 other professions, carries out audits of 2.5% of registrants from each profession every two years as part of re-registration. The September 2014 audit was the first to include social workers and the results were published this month in the regulator’s CPD audit report for 2013-15.

A second round of social worker re-registration is currently open and a random sample of professionals will be audited.

The average age of social workers selected for audit who did not renew their registration was 53 years. The average age of social workers who did not renew their registration in the profession as a whole was 52 years.

The HCPC said its initial analysis showed that there were “no significant differences” between audit outcomes in different professions.

The report said: “Approximately 75–85 per cent of CPD profiles submitted for audit were accepted…The quality of the CPD profiles we have seen so far is high and continues to improve with each round of audits. The majority of profiles continue to demonstrate links between ongoing learning and benefits to practice and service users.”

Source: Community Care