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Social Work England is set to miss two of its 2025-26 fitness to practise performance targets, following a surge in concerns about practitioners.
The regulator said it was unlikely to hit its end-of-year targets for the average time taken to complete triage – where it determines if a concern merits investigation – and for the duration of cases concluded at the case examiner stage, in a report to its latest board meeting.
Cutting significant delays in concluding fitness to practise cases is a key 2025-26 priority for Social Work England, backed by increased funding from the Department for Education (DfE) and income from social worker fees.
However, its progress has been undermined by it receiving substantially more concerns about social workers than expected. As a result, cases that completed the triage stage in July to September this year took an average of 38 weeks – almost nine months – to do so, with 85% of these resulting in no further action.
Fitness to practise concerns received per quarter
- January to March 2024: 492 (164 per month)
- April to June 2024: 437 (146 per month)
- July to September 2024: 454 (151 per month)
- October to December 2024: 498 (166 per month)
- January to March 2025: 546 (182 per month – up 11% year on year)
- April to June 2025: 587 (196 per month – up 34% year on year)
- July to September 2025: 655 (218 per month – up 43% year on year)
Team’s mounting caseload despite increased output
Social Work England received 29% more concerns in the first nine months of 2025 (1,788) compared with the same period in 2024 (1,383), with the number made growing in each of the past five quarters.
Its triage team has responded by increasing its throughput, from an average of 367 cases per quarter in 2024-25 to 535 per quarter in the first half of 2025-26, aided by investment in several new roles.
However, this has not been enough to keep pace with the number of concerns, resulting in the number of open triage cases rising from 1,887 at the end of March to 2,134 at the end of September this year.
Triage target ‘unlikely to be met’
Cases that completed the triage stage in July to September 2025 took an average of 38 weeks to do so, up from 30 weeks in the previous quarter and above the quarterly target of 34 weeks.
Social Work England’s objective is for this to fall to 26 weeks by the end of 2025-26, however, its latest board report said it was “unlikely to meet” it.
In a statement to Community Care, the regulator said: “We continue to receive significantly more referrals than forecast. The number of referrals we are receiving has continued to increase by approximately 29% each month which will impact on our overall performance for triage for the year. We are consistently concluding higher numbers of triage cases compared to last year to tackle this demand.”
To tackle the surge in concerns, Social Work England said it was recruiting for a further five fixed-term roles, in addition to 10 posts already brought into the triage, while it was also making “good progress” on a review to streamline its triage and investigations processes.
Rising share of cases result in no further action
As the number of concerns has risen, so has the share that were closed at the triage stage, which was 81% in 2024-25 and 84% in the first six months of 2025-26.
This reflects an increase in the proportion of concerns from the public, the overwhelming majority of which are rejected at the triage case.
While the public accounted for 64% of referrals for which a source was known in 2024-25, this rose to 72% in the first half of 2025-26.
Investigations being concluded more quickly than target
By contrast with triage, fitness to practise investigations were concluded more quickly than target in July to September 2025, lasting 50 weeks on average against a quarterly objective of 62 weeks.
This was also down on the 63-week average achieved in April to June 2025, as well as being ahead of the end-of-year target of 54 weeks.
Also, the number of cases open at the investigations state has continued to fall, from 471 as of 31 March to 441 at 30 June and 434 as of 30 September.
Vacancies affect performance at case examiner stage
However, the regulator has faced challenges at the subsequent case examiner stage – where pairs of staff determine whether concerns could realistically be proven and, if so, whether the social worker’s fitness to practise could be found to be impaired – due to having three vacancies.
Though cases took an average of 13 weeks to conclude in July to September – just above the 12-week target – the regulator completed just 78, similar to the 81 concluded in the previous quarter but well below the 2024-25 quarterly average of 108.
As a result, the number of cases open at the case examiner stage rose to 129 at the end of September, up from 120 in June and 80 in March.
Social Work England said it had now filled the three roles and that the new recruits would start work in December.
Case outcome target likely to be missed
However, the regulator is set to miss another of its end-of-year targets, regarding the average time taken from receiving a concern to there being an outcome at the case examiner stage, either through the case being closed or through a so-called accepted disposal.
These occur where case examiners determine that the social worker’s fitness to practise is impaired, but there is no public interest in the case going to a final hearing, allowing them to decide on an outcome, including a sanction, so long as this is agreed by the practitioner.
Cases concluded at the case examiner stage from July to September took 113 weeks – two years and two months – up from 104 weeks in the previous quarter and well above the quarterly target of 96 weeks. The end-of-year target for this metric is 92 weeks, and Social Work England said it “[looked] unlikely” that this would be met.
Hearings backlog continues to mount
A key challenge for Social Work England over recent years has been in holding sufficient final hearings to tackle the backlog of cases at this stage, including due to a lack of budget. On the back of this year’s funding boost, it has set itself the target of holding 92 final hearings in 2025-26, up from 70 last year.
However, the hearings backlog has continued to mount, with 449 cases sat at this stage at the end of September, up from 440 in June and 412 in March. Social workers involved in hearings cases completed at the hearings stage in July to September waited an average of 227 weeks – four years and four months – for an outcome.
The regulator said that, despite concluding just 19 final hearings in the first six months of the year, it was “still on track” to hit its target of completing 92 by the end of the year.
“While we continue to allocate funds to conclude cases within the year, we have also designated additional budget to focus on case progression,” a spokesperson added. “This approach will ensure that we have a higher number of cases actively progressing towards a final hearing in future years, alongside closures within the year.”