Social work students and apprentices be sure to submit your entries by the end of day Saturday 14th June 2025 for the chance to win £500.
The Social Workers Union (SWU) is pleased to announce that Jessie Hoskin, Ann Marie Hayes, and Andrew Reece will be marking this year’s SWU Assignment essay competition. Our judges are really looking forwards to reading the responses from social work students and apprentices from across the UK to the question:
“What are the most important things social workers should get from their professional training? What type of social work practice would they like to be involved in as they begin their professional careers, and why?”
Up to four of the most compelling arguments within the word limit of 750-1000 words will win a grant of £500 each. Further details and winning essays from previous years are available on the SWU Assignment webpage.
Click here to see the flyer with the 2025 competition details.
Without further ado, let us introduce you to the markers of the SWU Assignment 2025!
Jessie Hoskin
Jessie Hoskin is a National Organiser and Union Contact Manager for the Social Workers Union (SWU). Prior to joining SWU, Jessie worked in Parliamentary Offices for both the Labour Party and the Green Party before taking on the role of Director at the campaigning organization Zero Hours Justice.
Jessie’s extensive experience as a caseworker and then senior caseworker has instilled in her many of the same values, concerns, and drive for social justice that social work professionals share. Jessie’s career has focused primarily on systems change, initially campaigning against Universal Credit alongside disabled people and trade unions, before moving on to campaign against precarious work and the insecurity it produces.
Jessie was also elected as a councillor for her hometown, although she much prefers creating collaborative approaches to problem solving, working alongside communities, and now Social Workers.
Jessie commented, “I was probably politicised at a young age, not in the traditional sense that my parents were involved in activism, trade unions or party politics, but that I grew up in a single-parent household supported by benefits. Casework then felt like a natural fit; I often had more in common with the people I was supporting than the people I worked for. This taught me to really value lived experience. People who have politics done to them are so often the people who identify issues first, because they live it.”
“I started my career in the arts, going on to study an art and politics masters at Goldsmiths. I really enjoy seeing and reading how people express themselves, and look forward to reading your essays!”
Ann Marie Hayes
Ann Marie Hayes is a registered social worker who is also qualified as a systemic psychotherapist. She holds a masters level teaching qualification specially designed for university teaching staff.
Ann Marie joined the SWU Executive Committee in 2020 and continues to be inspired by the breadth and depth of work the union undertakes to meet the specific professional needs of social workers in the UK. She is committed to challenging the inequalities impacting both service users and the social workers working alongside them.
With a pre-qualifying wealth of experience in Youth and Play Work, Adventure Playground and Probation Hostel management, and in Secure Units and Residential Children’s Homes, Ann Marie has focused her social work life on supporting Children and Families. As a practitioner and manager, she has worked across Referral & Assessment, Child in Need, Child Protection, Court, Looked After Children, Youth Offending, Leaving Care, Inclusion, and Therapeutic teams. She developed and managed a Family Support Service, and offered specialist (reflective) practice support as a Professional Educator. She has always taken advantage of opportunities to expand her repertoire of knowledge, skills and experience in order to provide the best service and outcomes for those she works alongside.
Ann Marie is currently researching Critical Reflection in social work practice, a research interest generated during a working life spent supporting marginalised, vulnerable and/or oppressed individuals and communities in a range of settings. She enjoys exploring theories to enhance practice wisdom, and is especially interested in constructions and operationalisation of power and how wider discourses shape the nature and practice of social work.
She has a longstanding interest in ethics, social justice and human rights work affecting local and global communities and in the power of resistance to bring about social change and social cohesion. She is particularly passionate about Palestinian Solidarity and bringing Noam Chomsky’s words to life: ‘we do not become activists; we simply forget that we are.’
Andrew Reece
Andrew Reece is Professional Officer and Registered Social Worker with the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England Team, where he specialises in Social Work practice with disabled children. Before working for BASW England, Andrew was an active BASW member, sitting on their England National Standing Committee and supporting both their ‘Homes not Hospitals’ and ‘80-20: Time for Relationship Based Practice’ campaigns.
From 2016 to 2024 Andrew worked for Camden Council in London as Head of Integrated Learning Disability Services, providing Social Work and clinical leadership to Social Workers and health professionals in an ‘Outstanding’ rated service supporting adults with learning disabilities to live fulfilled lives in their local communities. He is proud that they were awarded both the Learning Disability Team of the Year by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2020 for their work to develop a Named Worker model of practice and the Adult/Multidisciplinary Team of the Year in 2022 by the Social Worker of the Year Awards for their work to support ‘Kasibba’ to escape nearly 50 years of inappropriate detention.