The BASW Social Work Journalism Awards are open for nominations until April 28th

A golden star next to the text "The BASW Social Work Journalism Awards"

These awards will recognise outstanding reporting of social work and build on the new guidelines on media reporting of social workers launched by the Social Workers Union.

The BASW Social Work Journalism Awards are now open for entries! This is the UK’s first award scheme that seeks to recognise journalism that shows an outstanding understanding of social work and the role of social workers. This could include the complex issues practitioners and the people they work with face, the challenging context in which they work, and the difference social workers make to people’s lives.

SWU General Secretary John McGowan said:

“Positive reporting covering the complex world of social work ensures accurate, fair and balanced reporting and not just a negative narrative. We need more balanced reporting covering the role that social workers play in all media outlets to ensure more people know about what social workers can do or have done to help the most vulnerable in our society.

“Positive reporting can build trust and it’s vital to our profession. We all know that social work continues to be an incredibly challenging profession with high stress levels in the workplace and excessive caseloads, but social workers love their actual jobs and are highly engaged professionals.

“I would encourage journalists to enter the competition and to share it with friends and other journalists. I would also encourage social workers to nominate good journalism they think deserves recognition over this past year.”

The awards are supported by SWU which, together with Campaign Collective, published the new Guidelines on media reporting of social workers. The guidelines were developed through the SWU Campaign Fund in 2022 after members of SWU came forward with harrowing stories about the impact of poor media reporting about the profession. This guidance and advice was approved by press regulator IMPRESS and supported by Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Who can enter or be nominated for these awards?

Any UK journalist working in print or broadcast in the national, regional, and specialist media can enter or be nominated. The awards are for any report published or broadcast during 2022 up until the entry closing date of April 28th.

Nominations can come from individual journalists, media organisations, social workers, and members of the public.

Nominations can be received until 6pm on April 28th, 2023.

How do I enter or nominate someone?

All details can be found on the BASW Social Work Journalism Awards webpage.

Nominations should be sent to awards@basw.co.uk. Entries need to be made digitally which includes PDFs, URLs, or using a download link created on WeTransfer. URLs must be available until the end of June 2023 by non-subscription. File download links are acceptable. Please include a short description of no more than 250 words briefly explaining why you think the piece deserves to be recognised. If you have any queries email: awards@basw.co.uk

The awards are split across the three categories of mainstream print journalism, mainstream broadcast journalism (including podcasts), and specialist trade print. Each category contains two awards: one for news reporting and the other for more in-depth feature pieces.

Shortlisted winners will be informed on May 19th and invited to an award ceremony at BASW’s annual conference in Birmingham on June 13th, 2023. The winners will be announced at an evening awards reception.