He ara pūkenga, he ara tauwhiro, hei whakamana mātā waka 
The many pathways of knowledge, the many pathways of social work, upholding the dignity of all 

Once again, we have a varied and busy work programme at the SWRB as we head into the final working weeks of the year. While we continue with our annual cycle of activity – which currently includes the CPD audit – we also have some interesting events and initiatives in the calendar.

One such one-off opportunity was a visit to the SWRB by a delegation from South Australia last week. We were pleased to welcome Hon Katrine Hildyard MP, Minister for Child Protection as part of her recent visit. South Australia is in the process of setting up mandatory registration for all social workers in South Australia and it was a chance to share some of our reflections on the pathway to mandatory registration here in Aotearoa New Zealand. We also enjoyed hearing about their priorities and areas of interest – and what we in turn can learn from their approach.

This week saw the public hearing for the Social Workers Registration Amendment Bill and we attended alongside MSD as advisors to the Committee. The next from here is that the Bill will be reported back to the House, with several stages yet to go before it turns into legislation. We will keep you updated.

Other recent events included the ANZASW Wānanga, celebrating their 60th anniversary. We were fortunate that our Board Chair Shannon Pakura attended and was involved in the discussions, along with our SWRB social workers who represented us and who ran our stand! They appreciated the opportunity to be part of recognising the journey of ANZASW and its history, and to connect with social workers from around the country.  

As we move into the pre-Christmas busy period, I hope you can find moments to pause, take a breath and enjoy the longer evenings and brighter mornings.

Ngā mihi nui,

Sarah Clark

Chief Executive

CPD audit just launched

Last week we wrote to 5% of all practising social workers to ask them to participate in the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) audit of the 2023-24 practising year.

For the audit, we are asking social workers to record their CPD activities in MySWRB via the CPD tab. As a practising social worker, you are expected to:

• Link your CPD activities to the ten core competencies and ensure that your practice remains current and relevant
• Undertake CPD activities that support your competence to practise social work with Māori
• Complete a minimum of 20 hours CPD during the year.

There is a simple online form to record each CPD activity, which enables you to select the amount of time spent on each activity and to identify which competencies you have addressed.

You may include a critical reflection as part of your log, but the SWRB does not review the reflections as part of our audit.

Anyone with questions about the CPD audit is welcome to join our Zoom drop-in session on Thursday 21st November between 1 and 2pm. The zoom link is here:  digital Q&A sessions.

The SWRB’s Kāhui Ringa Rehe welcomes new member

Te Kāhui Ringa Rehe provides advice to the Board. This group of social workers and Māori public servants has extensive experience and knowledge of working in communities and the government sector. They support the Board in fulfilling their legislative requirements and support us to become an active partner with Māori.

The Kāhui Ringa Rehe has been undergoing a regeneration phase and was delighted to welcome new member Renata Watene to their hui last week. Renata is a Professional Teaching Fellow and doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Optometry and Vision Science at the University of Auckland. She is a leading figure in the field of optometry and Indigenous healthcare.

The Kāhui had a full agenda at their meeting covering topics such as the draft education and training framework, the overseas registration pathway, and recent developments in workforce planning. It was also an opportunity for them to spend valuable time with Shannon Pakura as she approaches her final months as Board Chair.

Kāhui members pictured (left to right): Graham Warren, Caroline Herewini, Renata Watene and Sam Bashira (Chair)

Celebrating 60 years of the ANZASW

The ANZASW 60 Years Celebration Conference a few weeks ago was a great success with lots of interesting talks, panel discussion and workshops on offer and the opportunity to meet social workers from across the motu. There were many inspiring superstar speakers including Dr Claire Achmad the Chief Children’s Commissioner and Jeremy Faumuinā, Kaiawhina Family Harm & Youth Prevention Social Worker.

SWRB Board Chair Shannon Pakura took part in a discussion panel with Dr Moana Eruera, CEO Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services; Sharyn Roberts, President ANZASW and Dr Leland Ruwhui, National Practice Advisor at Oranga Tamariki.

ANZASW life members Shannon Pakura and Rose Henderson (recently retired from the SWRB Board) caught up with two SWRB staff and social workers at the conference.

Photo of social workers at the ANZASW event (left to right): Emily Ranginui, Natasha Emery, Shannon Pakura and Rose Henderson.

Monitoring AI use in applications and submissions

There is no doubt the use of artificial intelligence is a live issue for us at SWRB, along with employers, agencies, educators, NGOs, and our fellow regulators. In discussions with other regulators, it is clear we are not alone in looking to respond to the challenges and opportunities AI raises.

There are ramifications for the social work profession (as with others), and we see this is an area that the profession will want to be thinking about.

In October, the Board approved policy principles to guide our response to the growing presence of machine-generated text. Public safety considerations are at the forefront of our approach.

It is important to ensure that our assessment of social workers’ competency to safely practise is accurate. In the next few weeks, we will require a declaration from all registration applicants that AI tools have not been used on material that is being submitted to SWRB. The required declaration will be similar to those used by some tertiary institutions. Further information will be provided to current applicants in the near future.

We are introducing an automated screening tool to assess application authenticity and verify original content, including on all competency assessments and pieces of written submission.

The automated screening tool has been carefully selected with privacy considerations in mind. It will be used to verify the percentage of original content in written material. No personal identifiers or confidential information will be entered into the verification system.

Where the screening process detects a high percentage of AI-generated material, applicants will be invited to resubmit their original content.

The use of AI has wider, long-term issues for the social work profession, and as a regulator, we want to help ensure safe practice, in this very dynamic space.

Tribunal Determination

The Social Workers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal considered a charge against a social worker at a hearing in September. We will share further information including a summary in a future Onboard.  

The full decision can be seen on the website: Tribunal decisions.

Published on 11 November 2024