Resources

During the re-energising 2014 national conference in Durham, SWAN was pleased to announce that the following motion was passed unanimously regarding a Mental Health Charter (which you can download at the foot of the page). Read More

In 2013, SWAN wrote of Tory ConDem cabinet member and Education Secretary Michael Gove’s attack on social work. Many academics involved in SWAN and others issued a joint letter rejecting his claims in the immediate aftermath. SWAN also released the pamphlet, 'In Defence of Social Work: Why Michael Gove is wrong'. Read More

SWAN London, with assistance from a number of supporters including WinVisible, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group and the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust have produced this latest edition to the SWAN practice notes series. The topic on this occasion is a radical response to welfare reforms and benefits. Please download and distribute this workplace tool! Read More

Critical and Radical Social Work is an exciting new journal that will promote debate and scholarship around a range of engaged social work themes. The journal publishes papers which seek to analyse and respond to issues, such as the impact of global neo-liberalism on social welfare; austerity and social work; social work and social movements; social work, inequality and oppression, and understanding and responding to global social problems (such as war, disasters and climate change). Read More

The West Midlands Social Work Action Network have produced a useful aid to radical social work practice entitled 'Investigating cuts in children’s social care: an activists toolkit.' As councils set their budgets for 2013-14 and impose yet further cuts to essential services, this timely guide provides the tools for activists to investigate cuts to children’s social care services. Produced by activists involved in the West Midlands Social Work Action Network, it draws on experience of researching and fighting cuts. Read More

A new publication, Critical and Radical Social Work: An international journal, is being launched by Policy Press Journals in early 2013. The journal is edited by Social Work Action Network (SWAN) steering committee members, Michael Lavalette, Associate Professor of Social Work, Liverpool Hope University and Iain Ferguson, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy, University of the West of Scotland. It will have two editions per year, usually each March and September. Read More

SWAN North East are pleased to share the link for their YouTube channel which they have set up in advance of their first conference in November. You can view the channel here – footage will appear shortly. Read More

Raymondo, member of Kilburn Unemployed Worker's Group and Social Work Action Network London, shares with us his Work Capability Assessment Survival Tips...The Work Capability Assessment is the test by which people claiming the out of waged work benefit Employment and Read More

Download the SWAN N30  'On Strike' poster for use in your workplace below. Includes 'on strike' text in a number of different languages! Read More

If you would like to use a QR code for the SWAN website on SWAN flyers or other resources you can find the image for download below. Read More

SWAN put together a booklet on debates and issues raised by the Baby P events in 2009. The booklet runs to 116 pages and includes contributions from leading social work academics (including Peter Beresford, Sue White, Chris Jones), frontline workers, service users and trade union officials (from both Unison and Aspect). The contributions are all a response to a lead article by Iain Ferguson and Michael Lavalette. Read More

This section contains a variety of valuable resources for practice and campaigning. Newsletters. You can access copies of the previous SWAN newsletters which are attractively laid out and provide a flavour of SWAN’s regular activities. Please note that you can ... Read More

SWAN is pleased to announce its 'Practice Notes' series. These are campaigning advice leaflets which provide guidance and strategies to social workers for challenging cuts to social care. Practice notes will be available for download from this page. The first, based on the campaign in Solihull against cuts to the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children's budget, is available below. Read More