As social workers and trade unionists we are passionate about making a difference. Below we highlight some of SWU’s current campaigns and activities.
The Social Workers Union (SWU) and the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) have launched a wide-reaching campaign to improve professional working conditions for social workers across the UK. The campaign comes in response to years of research by BASW, SWU, and others showing deteriorating conditions for social workers.
This joint campaign “Strong Social Work, Stronger Lives” will focus on:
- Improved mental health and wellbeing support for practitioners
- Adequate and safe staffing
- Sustainable workloads
- Proper funding and investment in social work services
- Better services through better professional development
- Recognition and respect for social work expertise
To find out more or to support the campaign to improve professional working conditions for social workers please visit: https://basw.co.uk/about-basw/campaigning-and-influencing/improving-working-conditions-social-workers
SWU and BASW are coordinating and jointly providing the secretariat for the new Cross Party Group for Social Work.
This group is formed of MPs and Peers and will provide a forum whereby the views, ideas, and experiences of frontline social work can be directly heard and understood by policy-makers. It will serve as an effective mechanism for relaying the challenges and areas needed for improvement across everyday social work practice to those in parliament who can effect change.
Initially, the group will focus on three main areas:
- Social care reform
- Workforce
- Anti-poverty
The SWU Campaign Fund supports our activist members by providing them with access to professional support for issues and causes they’re passionate about, and is managed by Campaign Collective. Since its creation in 2021, the fund has supported over a dozen member led campaigns across a spectrum of issues that intersect with social work. Any SWU members who would like to run their own campaign are encouraged to submit their idea for funding.
The Austerity Action Group (AAG) is funded by SWU and was created to tackle the issues of poverty and inequality that continue to negatively affect people who use social services. SWU and BASW supported the AAG to launch the new Battling the Cost-of-Living Crisis: Campaign Action Pack (2024) and encourage social workers to make use of this toolkit for activism. AAG is also lobbying against the harmful impact of Universal Credit, specifically the two-child cap.
The AAG would love to hear your feedback! Please let us know what you think of the new Campaign Action Pack: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17I-IxBL9x5u967FsH3SKNHPD3tr_t8e9GMKNAT1YkHk
The Social Workers Union (SWU) and the Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW) are calling on social work employers to embrace flexible working. With recruitment of social workers still proving challenging for employers, now is the time for concerted action.
A new “Flexible working in Scottish social work” report by SASW and SWU outlines why flexible working arrangements are an important employment tool to support employee wellbeing and aid staff retention and recruitment.
SWU and the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), in partnership with Bath Spa University, are leading a Professional Working Conditions campaign for improved working conditions for social workers. This research into the working conditions of social workers was first launched in June 2017 and this growing body of research is now the largest investigation of social worker working conditions and wellbeing ever conducted.
SWU and Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) have launched the Reflective Supervision: A Best Practice Guide (2024) which was co-developed with social workers across the UK.
Please let us know your feedback on the Reflective Supervision Guide here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/147CdFiYPzZCoMAry915vYHQaySZ0jptPxDLVJ1N8RLk
Each year the union runs a SWU Assignment: World Social Work Day essay competition in which we pose questions about current issues in social work.
The competition is open to undergraduate and postgraduate social work students & apprentices studying at UK universities and the winning entries are each awarded a grant of £500.
