This free workplace issues webinar on March 18th will answer your questions about health and safety challenges in social work.
Do you ever think ‘this job is killing me’?
Health and safety risks at work are not limited to extreme situations of physical danger or incidences of high risk of visible injury or fatality. Yes, as social workers we can be at risk of situational physical harm. However, more of us are increasingly experiencing harm to our mental health because of prolonged exposure to stress.
The Health & Safety Executive define stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them.”
Excessive pressures have become broadly accepted in social work environments and workplace cultures – but should not always be acceptable. Long-term exposure to stress can significantly impact on our personal lives be causation of health issues such as heart disease and diabetes, worsen symptoms of existing conditions, affecting overall mortality.
Experiences of stress can be heightened because of work demands or, on a more personal level, how we might be treated at work which is sometimes linked to being treated unfairly or victimised because of a protected characteristic (Equality Act 2010).
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places legal duty of care on employers to protect employees from the risk of stress at work. Adequate assessment and reasonable adjustments may be required to counter the impact of working conditions out with your control.
If you would like to hear more or ask questions about challenging or managing harmful work environments in social work, please do join us for Talk to SWU on World Social Work Day. This free webinar will be held online on 18th March 2025 from 6-7pm. Be sure to register your place beforehand.
More about the Talk to SWU workplace issues webinar series
All social workers and social work students in the UK are welcome to attend these free online advice and representation sessions. This upcoming session will focus on health and safety challenges in social work.
It will be held online on Tuesday, 18th March 2025 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm and is a safe space where questions can be asked anonymously. Our panel of Advice & Representation Trade Union Officers will be on hand to answer live questions from attendees about any social work workplace issues they are experiencing.
You have until 12pm (noon) on March 18th to register your place for this Talk to SWU webinar.
Interested in seeing what a Talk to SWU webinar is like? You can watch the previous session you YouTube:
Can I submit a question ahead of time?
If you would like to submit a question in advance you may include it when you fill out the registration form for the webinar. Please ensure that questions are concise and avoid going into very specific details.
If you are a SWU member with a complex workplace issue that requires a longer discussion, we encourage you to call the Advice & Representation Service and speak to one of our duty initial response team.
Support available to SWU and BASW members
The BASW and SWU Advice & Representation (A&R) team has developed 46 new guidance sheets to support our social worker members from their first day of membership. These documents cover a wide range of employment law matters and on fitness to practice processes.
BASW members become eligible for telephone advice after just one month of membership. If you opt-in to SWU at the same time as joining BASW then you will also be eligible to receive representation from a SWU Trade Union Official after the one-month qualifying period. Please note that to qualify for advice and / or representation, the issue cannot have been a known pre-existing issue or active during the one-month qualifying period.
You can read here about the benefits of being a member of SWU including access to GFTU training, the majority of which is free to SWU members – so remember to opt into SWU with your BASW membership!