In 2011/12 the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) and Skills for Care worked in partnership to support the Social Work Reform Board (SWRB) in developing proposals for the Assessed and Supported Year In Employment (ASYE) for new social workers.

Views and information were gathered from employers, higher education institutions and the profession to develop these proposals and analyse them against the experience and views of those implementing the existing newly qualified social worker (NQSW) programmes.

The process included:

  • Running three workshops with employers and higher education institutions (HEIs) to discuss the draft ASYE capability statements and potential approaches to assessing NQSWs' progress against the capability statements.
  • An online survey to ask these employers to tell us about their current approaches to assessing NQSWs, the types of tasks and evidence requirements they used and what their strengths and weaknesses were, and what they considered were important for use in an ASYE.
  • Visits and phone calls to a number of employers to find out how they were implementing the current NQSW programmes and what lessons we could learn about how ASYE might be implemented.
  • Testing the draft capability statements with employers, frontline practitioners and managers at a range of events and via websites during autumn/winter 2011.
  • Consultation with the sector on the development of the ASYE via a detailed proposals paper in autumn/winter 2011.
  • Gathering advice and guidance throughout the development process from an ASYE technical group, including representatives from employers, HEIs, practitioners and professional bodies from across children’s and adults’ social work.

The proposals for ASYE were continually developed, refined and tested with employers, HEIs, social workers and service users. Throughout the process the SWRB, its Careers Working Group and its Chairs’ Group were kept informed and provided feedback on developments and emerging products.

On 21 March 2012 the Social Work Reform Board approved proposals for the implementation of the ASYE from September 2012.

Contact details

Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) Team
Email: ASYE.SG@education.gsi.gov.uk