Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Social Workers Registration Act 2003

Competence and fitness - Competence

38A: Professional development for practising social workers

You could also call this:

"Social workers must keep their skills up to date with training and courses to do their job well."

Illustration for Social Workers Registration Act 2003

The Board helps social workers keep their skills up to date. You can do this by passing exams, getting practical training, or taking a course. The Board decides what types of training are good for social workers.

The Board can tell some or all social workers to do a particular type of training. They can also say some social workers do not have to do certain training. When the Board makes these decisions, they think about whether the training will cost too much for social workers or their employers.

The Board wants to make sure social workers are competent, which means they have the right skills to do their job. You can find out more about how the Board publishes some of its decisions in Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

The Board has to make sure social workers meet the standard of competence for their job. This standard is what you would expect from a social worker who is doing their job correctly.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS166228.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Job licensesHealth and wellbeing > Mental health
Previous

38: Competence to practise as a social worker, or

"Proving you're good enough to work as a social worker"

Next

38B: Mandatory requirement for employers to report to Board if social worker believed not to be competent, or

"Employers must report social workers who are not doing their job properly to the Board."

Part 3Competence and fitness
Competence

38AProfessional development for practising social workers

  1. For the purpose of maintaining, examining, or improving the competence of all practising social workers, the Board must, from time to time, recognise ways of undertaking professional development, including any of the following ways:

  2. passing any examinations or assessments, or both:
    1. completing a period of practical training:
      1. completing a period of practical work experience:
        1. undertaking a period of supervised practice:
          1. undertaking a course of instruction:
            1. undertaking a systematic process for ensuring that a social worker’s practice, or the practice of each of the social workers in a class, meets an appropriate standard of competence.

              1. The Board may require a specified social worker, a specified class of social workers, or all social workers to undertake a particular form of professional development, for example, a particular course of instruction.

              2. The Board may exempt any social worker or class of social workers from any professional development requirement under subsection (2).

              3. When recognising ways of undertaking professional development or requiring that a particular form of professional development be undertaken, the Board must be guided by the principle that professional development should not impose undue costs on practising social workers or their employers.

              4. In this section, appropriate standard of competence, in relation to a social worker, means the standard of competence to be expected of a social worker practising under their individual scope of practice.

              5. The following are secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements), unless they apply only to 1 or more specified social workers:

              6. requirements under subsection (2):
                1. exemptions under subsection (3).

                  Notes
                  • Section 38A: inserted, on , by section 58 of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Act 2019 (2019 No 3).
                  • Section 38A(5): inserted, on , by section 59 of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Act 2019 (2019 No 3).
                  • Section 38A(6): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).