(Re)constructing ‘witness vulnerability’: An analysis of the legal and policy frameworks of the statutory regulators of social work and social care professionals in the UK

Abstract

Abstract This article explores how the legal and policy frameworks of the statutory regulators of social work and social care professionals in the UK approach the question of whether a witness at a Fitness to Practise hearing should be considered as ‘vulnerable’, and the steps that may be taken in response. Our focus is on witnesses who are service users, their families, and wider publics and, in some circumstances, colleagues. This novel socio-legal comparison between the four countries of the UK draws on literature that critically considers how vulnerability is used in the social work and welfare context and feminist vulnerability theory in order to analyse how witness vulnerability is constructed in these texts. We argue that these constructions can be, at the same time, too narrow, too broad, and potentially stigmatizing, and further sit uncomfortably with a social model of disability. We call for a more holistic textual approach to how witness vulnerability is framed and suggest how this may be operationalized in policy and law. Our findings have wider application, beyond the regulation of the UK-wide social work and social care workforce, where regulatory processes designed to protect the public rely on witnesses coming forward to provide evidence.