Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the value for money of the services provided by Social Work England.

The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).