Criminal records and public sector professional education: The role of criminal background checks in admissions to social work courses in England
| Author | Caroline Bald,Aaron Wyllie,María Inés Martínez Herrero |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505221116037 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Criminal records
and public sector
professional
education: The role
of criminal background
checks in admissions to
social work courses in
England
Caroline Bald and Aaron Wyllie
University of Essex, UK
María Inés Martínez Herrero
Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Spain
Abstract
Over 11 million people in England and Wales have criminal records, with men, peo-
ple from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and people from poorer com-
munities being over-represented. A gatekeeping discussion is developing across the
social work profession regarding the role of criminal records in decision-making at
the point of admission to social work programmes. Balancing risk, representation,
and the right to move on, who becomes a social worker is an issue of debate
among practitioners, educators, and policy makers, where notable instances of
media and political focus on social work failure has led to public mistrust, and
moral panic about the state of the profession. Whilst internationally many social
work education providers have moved away from interview gatekeeping, in
England this has continued, alongside wider checks including for criminal records.
This discussion article reviews what social working with a criminal record represents
in the profession and why course admissions is a site for restorative justice and the
human right to move on.
Corresponding Author:
Caroline Bald, School of Health and Social Care, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK.
Email: caroline.bald@essex.ac.uk
Article The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2022, Vol. 69(3) 337–352
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505221116037
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
Keywords
criminal records, inequalities, social work education, gatekeeping, human rights
Introduction
In many ways, social work is a unique profession. Holding itself to “principles of
social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities”
(International Federation of Social Work [IFSW], 2014, para.5), the profession
also labours with a conflicted public perception, concern for risk management
and working with the most challenged individuals and communities. Social work
sets itself the task of both protecting those experiencing vulnerability and disadvan-
tage and acting as an enabler of rights and justice for those experiencing disadvan-
tage (British Association of Social Workers [BASW], 2021). Moreover, in seeking to
work in partnership with communities, the social work profession is ethically commit-
ted to the pursuit of a workforce which reflects the diversity of these communities
(BASW, 2021; Crisp and Gillingham, 2008). Additionally, social work education
in England is in a unique position. While criminal justice was historically part of
social work and thereby social work education, Aldridge and Eadie (1997) detail
a separation of probation education from social work, while James and Raine
(1998) linked this development to a “new politics of criminal justice”(p. 23).
Raynor and Vanstone (2016) note changes in organisation, education and research
have “contributed to a separation between probation research and the mainstream
social work literature”calling for a greater appreciation of criminal justice social
work in wider social work literature. While not in the scope of this paper, there is
cause for review as to the impact education separation has had on understanding
of criminal justice –and specifically risk assessment and rehabilitation.
In this paper we explore how the current use of criminal record checks (CRCs) as part
of social work course admission processes in England reflects an ongoing tension
between the above aims and values. We argue that the way in which CRCs are currently
used to gatekeep entry to the profession is closely linked to a broader shift away from
social work’s inclusive and restorative ethos, and towards a narrow, marketised vision
of ‘suitability’. We begin by providing an overview of the current regulatory context gov-
erning social work education in England and highlight the critical function that course
admissions decisions play in shaping the social work workforce. We then contextualise
the use of criminal record checks in admissions decision mak ing processes in social work
courses in England against the backdrop of their use more broadly, before developing
ourargumentagainstthisalongthreelines.
First, we argue that the current use of a criminal record as an indicator of individ-
ual suitability fails to account for the structural inequalities produced by the criminal
justice system, and thus risks reproducing rather than challenging racism, sexism,
and classism. Secondly, we suggest that the partial and retrospective account pro-
vided by criminal record checks enables a false sense of security and detracts
from other potentially more effective and meaningful approaches to determining suit-
ability for practice. Finally, we argue that the blanket use of criminal record checks
338 Probation Journal 69(3)
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