The regulator responsible for the professionals whose assessments feed into family court decisions has failed its fitness to practise standard for the fourth consecutive year. Parliament mandated a statutory review. Kate Markland submitted evidence to it.

Social Work England is currently undergoing an independent statutory review of its operations and of the broader social work regulation framework. The review is led by Dame Annie Hudson, a former chief executive of The College of Social Work and former chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel. It is mandated by section 64 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017.

The review began in November 2025 and is scheduled to conclude by spring 2026. Its purpose is to assess the effectiveness and impact of Social Work England — specifically its ability to protect the public, maintain professional standards, and uphold public confidence.

This is a statutory review. It is not optional and it is not informal. Parliament has required it.

The context in which it is taking place matters. And the context is now well documented.

The Professional Standards Authority, which oversees Social Work England and has a statutory duty to report to Parliament on the regulator's performance, published its 2024/25 performance review in March 2026.Social Work England failed Standard 15 on fitness to practise timeliness for the fourth consecutive year. As a result the PSA has written to the Secretaries of State for Education and Health and Social Care under its formal escalation policy.Social Work England also failed Standard 13 on continuing professional development— the regulator stopped reviewing CPD records submitted by social workers entirely, replacing them with checks the PSA described as very basic and insufficient to satisfy itself that social workers continue to be fit to practise.

Out of 18 standards assessed, Social Work England met 16. It failed two.Both relate to the fundamental question of whether registered social workers are being held to the professional standards they are required to meet.

The scale of the fitness to practise challenge is significant.In 2023/24, Social Work England was receiving an average of 154 referrals per month. By 2025/26, that figure had risen to an average of 213 per month —a 38% increase.At the hearings stage, SWE began the period with 421 cases outstanding and ended with 441. Despite making more decisions than in previous years, the backlog is growing.

The UK Parliament's Public Accounts Committee concluded in September 2025 thatthe family court system — which relies heavily on social work assessments — is causing harm to families. The committee specifically identified poor accountability and systemic weaknesses in social work assessments as contributing factors.

Kate Markland submitted evidence to the Social Work England independent review in November 2025. The submission was accepted. It drew on the same evidence base already accepted by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee — the institutional reports, the peer-reviewed research, the documented systemic patterns.

The review is ongoing. The PSA has escalated its concerns to the Secretaries of State. The independent review led by Dame Annie Hudson is yet to publish its conclusions. We await them.

It is worth noting the sequence. The review is required by a law passed in 2017 — it was always going to happen. It is not a direct consequence of the PAC family courts inquiry. But the PAC report was published in September 2025. The SWE review commenced in November 2025. It covers the period during which the harms the PAC identified were occurring. Kate's evidence, which drew on the PAC's own conclusions, was submitted to both processes. That the two inquiries were running simultaneously, examining overlapping failures in the same system from different vantage points, is a matter of public record.

The questions being examined are not new. The MOJ Harm Report asked them in 2020. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner asked them in 2023. The UN Special Rapporteur asked them in 2023. Parliament asked them in 2025 and reached a formal conclusion.

Social Work England is now being asked the same questions about itself. The regulator responsible for the professionals whose assessments feed into family court decisions — assessments that the state has acknowledged are producing harmful outcomes — is under statutory review, with the PSA having escalated concerns to government, to determine whether it is fit for purpose.

References

Monitoring report Social Work England 2024/25 - https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Monitoring%20Report%20-%20Social%20Work%20England%202024-25.pdf

Government announces Dame Annie Hudson will conduct an Independent Review of Social Work Regulation https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/news/government-announces-dame-annie-hudson-will-conduct-an-independent-review-of-social-work-regulation/

Independent review of social work regulation: call for evidence https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/independent-review-of-social-work-regulation-call-for-evidence

Social Work England Professional Standards https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/media/1640/1227_socialworkengland_standards_prof_standards_final-aw.pdf