Social Work Registration Fees Increase ten fold over the cost of living!

Social Work England (SWE) are increasing social worker professional registration fees for this registration year and the following three annual cycles.

Social Work England (SWE) conducted a public consultation on raising social worker professional registration fees by 33% in 2025 and a further 1.85% in each of the following three annual registration cycles. UNISON opposed these increases as unreasonable at a time of stagnant wages and heavy workloads and urged members and employers to respond individually to SWEs consultation.

SWE have now published the outcome of their consultation and despite overwhelming opposition have decided to increase their fees to the levels set out in their consultation proposals. They believe these increases will ensure SWE have a more balanced and  stable funding base aligned to the true cost of their operation and will enable positive change in social work.

SWE will be increasing fees for social workers and applicants for the upcoming registration year which runs from 1 December 2025 to 30 November 2026. They will then increase fees each year by 1.85% until 2029. This means social workers renewing their registration from 1 September 2025 will be required to pay a £120 registration renewal fee for the upcoming registration year. Initial registration, restoration, and scrutiny fees will also increase from 1 December 2025.

Full details are here Social Work England will increase fees for 2025 to 2026 SWE will be emailing everyone on their social work register to let them know the consultation outcome and the upcoming fee increases.

SWE's decision comes as no surprise in paying lip service to feedback received and implementing what they consulted on. Their decision represents a kick in the teeth for social workers, given 96% of respondents to SWE's consultation said they disagreed or strongly disagreed with this year's 33% increase in renewal fees, and 87% disagreed or strongly disagreed with the proposed further increases in renewal fees in 2026-29.

The reasons respondents gave in their responses mirror UNISON's view, and we applaud those members who responded to SWE individually. We know from SWE that this consultation response was the biggest they have received to a consultation by far. There were over 8,000 responses.

UNISON will be producing a joint statement with BASW expressing anger and disappointment at the failure to listen to the voice of social workers.

As part of our campaign opposing the increases UNISON conducted Freedom of Information (FOI) research to establish how many employers reimbursed social worker registration fees. This revealed that 60% of responding councils paid their social workers fees in full or in part, which in headcount terms amounted to 39% of social workers. Regions have been sent the FOI findings for their region's councils.

UNISON expects employers to continue to reimburse social worker registration fees. We note SWE say they did not receive any employer feedback suggesting they would not continue to reimburse registration fees if these were to increase. For some social workers, the fee reimbursement might be a contractual term.

Cambridgeshire do not reimburse Registration fees, and the last time we asked, the answer remained unchanged.