UK Articles

From Newsletter #1 Spring 2010 Tony Taylor explains why practitioners have set up a campaign to put young person-centred practice back at the heart of youth work. Read More

From Newsletter #1 Spring 2010 Barrie Levine describes SWAN’s involvement in a campaign against cuts in Glasgow, and explains how this is shaping the focus of SWAN’s annual conference in September 2010. Along with the rest of local government across the country, Glasgow is facing massive cuts over the next few months.  Shamefully, the City Council have decided to shut 12 community centres along with a swimming pool and a library; cuts will be made in home care services and support to disabled people; welfare rights jobs will be lost and community workers cut by 50%; grants to voluntary and community organisations will also be slashed; it is estimated that over 600 jobs in the city will be lost.  These cuts in vital services will rip the heart out of already struggling communities and there is more to come over the next few years.   Read More

SWAN condemns the eviction of Travellers from the Dale Farm site now being carried out by police wielding batons and tasers following a long and high profile battle through the judicial system. Read More

Leftspace Internet Services is an Internet Service Provider established for 5 years providing website hosting and design and associated technology solutions to the Labour and Trade Union movement. Since establishment we have undertaken extensive work with a wide range of ... Read More

by Michael Lavalette, July 2011Monday of this week (4 July 2011) saw the publication of the Dilnot Report into the future funding of adult social care. It has been welcomed in some circles as a great step forward – with BASW suggesting that the report’s proposals to improve advice and information and introduce a national system of assessment and eligibility offer great opportunities for social workers (!) Read More

by Simon Cardy, West Midlands SWAN, April 2011 SWAN has been covered by the Community Care website following a protest against government cuts to services supporting child asylum seekers. The protest took place this Friday (8th April) outside the UK Border Agency's offices in Solihull. Please find the Community Care article here. Read More

SWAN held a conference entitled ‘Child Protection in the Aftermath of Baby P’ in early 2009. Footage from the conference can be accessed at the following link:http://socialworkaction.blip.tv/ Read More

1. Social Work Today Social work in Britain today has lost direction. This is not new. Many have talked about social work being in crisis for over thirty years now. The starting point for this Manifesto, however, is that the ‘crisis of social work’ can no longer be tolerated. We need to find more effective ways of resisting the dominant trends within social work and map ways forward for a new engaged practice. Read More

by Rich Moth and Dan Morton, December 2009 The UN summit to be held in Copenhagen this month (December 2009) will aim to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto treaty to tackle climate change. These talks have refocused the attention of the world on the issue of global warming. While there has been some discussion in the health and social science communities about the impact of climate change, so far there has been little discussion of the implications for social workers and people that use social work services. This article will outline some of the most significant impacts in this field and suggest strategies to enable social workers both to respond to the new risks and needs that will emerge and contribute to the fight against climate change. Read More

by Stephen Cowden, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Coventry University (June 2011) The recent BBC Panorama programme about the abuse of learning disabled people at the Winterbourne View Hospital run by Castlebeck is a moment in which we need to begin to start talking, yet again, about the way these issues have been facilitated by the privatisation of Adult Social Care. Read More

•The 6th SWAN National Conference 2011: This event has been organised in collaboration with In Defence of Youth Work and will have the theme of  ‘Building Alliances, Defending Services’. The conference will take place on Friday 15th April and Saturday ... Read More

by Rich Moth, April 2011 Last week, action by four disabled residents in the High Court successfully overturned Birmingham City Council's plans to raise their eligibility thresholds to critical. The council will be forced to go back to the drawing board with its adult social care budget plans. You can read more about this victory at the following links: Read More

From the SWAN Steering Committee, October 2010 Since coming to power in May 2010, the Con-Dem coalition has announced the biggest cuts in public spending since the Second World War. The figures are so large as to be almost incomprehensible. The cuts are a clear attempt to abolish what is left of the welfare state. The government are slashing a third of council spending by 2015. This will mean social work and social care services reduced and outsourced. It will mean poorer service for users, worse pay and working conditions for workers, and services which are less safe – the cuts affect us all. Read More