Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to mitigate the impact of delays to fitness to practice final hearings on (a) the public and (b) social workers.

To mitigate the impact of delays to fitness to practice final hearings on the public and social workers, the department and Social Work England have made changes to legislation for operational efficiencies. In addition, the department has provided additional funds of £7.1 million to Social Work England to clear the backlog of legacy cases inherited from the previous regulator.

The department and Social Work England continue to work together to reduce delays to fitness to hearings through increasing the number of hearings held wherever possible.