UK Articles

SWAN is clear in it's stand against the privatised education schemes Frontline and Step Up. Deliberately undermining existing social work courses, and drastically reducing the scope of education upon which practitioners can base their practice, SWAN is deeply concerned about the growing moves to prioritise these courses above all others across the UK. As debate grows apparently preparing the way for a permanent split between Adult and Children and Families social work education, one social worker reflects upon the role of rounded education: Read More

This budget by Chancellor George Osborne will continue the attack upon Social Work by undermining its future. The statistics are extremely worrying. Read More

I am a frontline child protection social worker in the South East. The Tory budget which was announced today has left me feeling incredibly worried for the families on my caseload. Read More

The executive of the University & College Union representing over 90,000 academics & educators in the UK unanimously passed the following motion at its June meeting: Read More

Imran A. Mohammed is a social worker for older people and an Adult Faculty member of TCSW. Imran has written many articles reflecting upon social work and has recently developed the confidence to share them. Read More

The Conservative government has recently demonstrated its commitment to legislation that criminalises social workers "who lack, “the professional curiosity to explore the underlying reasons for challenging behaviour, or who knew abuse was being ignored and did not speak out.”" (CommunityCare.co.uk 17.6.2015). Such plans are an unprecedented attack upon the public sector, and those workers striving to safe lives in the face of massive cuts and huge workloads. Swan has produced a letter that you can use as a guide for writing to your MP, requesting an inquiry into and a block of this legislative bill.  Read More

SWAN RESPONSE TO THE CLOSURE OF THE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK: 19.6.15 The Social Work Action Network condemns the decision to close The College of Social Work which seems to reflect the Government’s hostility to the social work profession. Read More

SWAN is pleased to share the following article written by Holly Luther, Final Year Social Work Student at the University of Bath - it is a great take on what radical practice has to offer social work with adults today. Holly's ideas and passion for this topic and article stemmed from her second year placement spent in a community team for adults with learning disabilities, and teaching from now retired lecturer, Mark Baldwin. Radical social work is one of many social work theories that provides an insight into the causes of hardship for individuals and offers ways in which we could approach these problems and support the people we as social workers come in to contact with. This article will provide an overview of radical social work, its history and development as well as its place in reintroducing a framework for social work practice today. Read More

After a hugely successful 2015 conference attended by over 430 people, one of the conference speakers, adult mental health practitioner Raksha Sidhu, reflects upon the sense of hope engendered there despite the devastating changes being enacted upon the social and health care sector: "The western world we currently inhabit is changing at an alarming rate. 'Change' is the buzz word everywhere, in the media, in the corporate sector and now in the social and health care sector. In fact, the changes are so rapid there is no time to reflect on the impact of these changes, and who they are really benefitting. Social care polices are made and dismantled at a speed which beguiles reason. The Care Act 2014 has come out, promising even more services to greater numbers of people, with precious little resources to match these promises. Read More

SWAN supporters will already be familiar with the SWAN endorsed Mental Health Charter which was launched in 2014. The Charter critiques the crisis in mental health services in the context of austerity and calls for an end to the cuts while proposing radical alternatives. Recently the Mental Health Charter responded to the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Independent Commission into the state of Inpatient Adult Psychiatric Care as part of its call for evidence. Read More

Jeremy Weinstein of SWAN London reports from the recent 'Crisis in Mental Health' meeting on 8th November. The day was a packed and enthusiastic affair, following on from similar conferences in Bristol and Oxford. The hall we met in was packed and a second room had stalls from DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts), CoolTan Arts, Unison and a Bookmarks bookstall. Amongst the audience were practitioners from nine London boroughs and a range of service user groups, the most prominent being DPAC, several MIND groups and the Movement for an Adoption Apology. Read More

Nick Clegg pronounced, in his speech to the LibDem conference, that there was ‘outrageous discrimination’ in how the NHS responded to individuals with mental health problems and promised new funding to breach the gap between physical and psychological treatments. According to the Guardian (8.10.14) ‘mental health campaigners’ welcomed this as ‘a significant advance’. Read More

A social work member of SWAN Ireland traveled with a group of people to the West Bank in recent weeks. The group wrote a letter to the Irish Times about what they witnessed and it was published today! Check it ... Read More