Abstract
Since 2000 social work has been a regulated profession throughout the United Kingdom with a requirement for individual social worker registration, regulatory bodies overseeing standards of practice, a disciplinary framework allowing suspension and removal of social workers from the register, and inspection and validation of educational programmes set at degree level throughout the UK. In this account of social work education in the United Kingdom we begin with a brief historical introduction to the development of these national arrangements for social work and social work education in the UK before discussing some contemporary challenges. Whilst a general structure for social work regulation was established across the UK, there are regional divergences. Accordingly, in this chapter we also give an overview of arrangements throughout the regions of the UK. This regional view is necessary as the devolved government in the regions of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales accounts for increasing local control and divergence in the arrangements for social work throughout the UK. After accounting for developments in the UK regions we consider contemporary issues in England and the UK more generally with respect to the national government and professional regulation and discuss their implications for the professional social work curriculum in a closely regulated environment.
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Lucas, S., Acar, H. (2021). Social Work Education in the United Kingdom. In: Laging, M., Žganec, N. (eds) Social Work Education in Europe. European Social Work Education and Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69701-3_11
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