Local authorities need to free social workers from their rigid organisational structures if the profession is to achieve its full potential, BASW Chief Executive Bridget Robb told a Labour party...
Independent columnist and author of Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class, Owen Jones, told a BASW fringe meeting at the Labour party conference that social workers have a major role to play...
One could be forgiven for thinking that social work is only about working with children and families. The Daniel Pelka serious case review (SCR) understandably monopolised headlines and as always...
As the Daniel Pelka Serious Case Review (SCR) is published, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) has expressed concern that all child protection workers are not being given a chance to...
Frontline, the fast-track training scheme for ‘high-flying’ graduates is to accept applications for its first cohort of 100 candidates from 30 September. The date was revealed at a major launch event...
A recent BBC interview in which "Esther W", a member of the "W" family at the centre of the 1991 Orkney abuse scandal said she blames herself for not revealing the identity of her abuser shows the...
A landmark legal ruling allowing a father to publish a video online of social workers and police removing his child under an emergency protection order has prompted the British Association of Social...
The Mental Capacity Act offers vital safeguards for people unable to make decisions for themselves but its implementation is patchy and some professionals continue to show “blatant disregard” for the...
Social workers who have had enough of dangerous working conditions and threats to their unique role have contributed to a record increase in membership of their professional association. Membership...
BASW is supporting the Social Worker of the Year Awards 2013 in England, which this year will feature a judging panel that includes the two new Chief Social Workers and Professor Eileen Munro.
Sue Kent, BASW Professional Officer,looks at research findings from the National Children's Bureau (NCB) and The Nuffield Foundation suggesting that Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) are...
BASW England report – September 2013 ... missing children, Daniel Pelka, IROs, Duty of Candour, Mental Capacity Act, NOPT Conference and Ruth Cartwright bids farewell ...
BASW has welcomed Peter Hay's honesty for telling Birmingham councillors an “honest culture” within the council’s child protection services is needed.
The decision to appoint Donald Forrester as Lead Professor for a new Frontline Academy as the Frontline HEI provider is clearly an important further step for this developing initiative. BASW will...
On the day that Magdelena Luczak, the mother of Daniel Pelka and her partner Mariusz Krezolek were both given life sentences at Birmingham Crown Court, BASW has urged that this tragic case not be...
Social workers are in desperate need of specialist training in how to spot the warning signs that a child is being targeted for sexual abuse online, a survey by the British Association of Social...
After a government-commissioned report said that children’s services in Doncaster should no longer be run by the council, BASW has cautioned that the initiative must not mirror current structures if...
In June, Nushra Mansuri attended the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Children, featuring the launch of a report called Are Children and Young People...
Commenting on Louise Casey’s speech to the Local Government Association about social workers “colluding with families”, Ruth Cartwright, England Manager for the British Association of Social Workers...
Managers are increasingly focusing on social workers with good admin and IT skills rather than their ability to do assessments, the Mayor of Derby warned at the opening of BASW's AGM.
The Mayor of the City of Derby, Councillor Fareed Hussain, will be speaking at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the city of the British Association of Social Workers, the UK's largest professional...
Responding to the publication of the Comprehensive Spending Review for 2015/16, BASW said
Ahead of Wednesday’s Comprehensive Spending Review, social workers warned their ability to protect families will be compromised and civil unrest could ensue if further cutbacks to social services are...
As the Care Quality Commission (CQC) hits the headlines for failing to properly inspect maternity and children’s services at NHS Morecambe Bay, and for suppressing a critical report, Ruth Cartwright...
One important aspect of the Social Work Reform Board’s work was the development of Employer Standards, which laid out how employers should support and deal with their social work staff. At one point...
BASW's Interim Chief Executive Bridget Robb challenges findings of a report claiming the future of the social work profession is "bleak".
Sensationalist and stereotyped reporting of sex offenders will not help us to comprehend their behaviour - instead it actually makes it harder to protect children, argues BASW's press officer in the...
Social worker Janet Foulds writes on the release of the PACT/ CEOP report Taken,which calls for a revamp of ‘stranger-danger’ warnings in the wake of findings which show that in 42 per cent of police...
Sadly child sexual exploitation is in the news wherever we look at the moment, whether in relation to criminal trials concerning the murder of young girls, the prosecution of gangs of men (Oxford...
BASW Chief Executive Bridget Robb offers some early advice to the two newly-appointed Chief Social Workers in England "The long awaited announcements of Lyn Romeo and Isabelle Trowler as the Chief...
BASW has urged the newly appointed Chief Social Worker for Adults in England, Lyn Romeo, to work closely with her soon to be revealed counterpart for children if she is to make the role a success. As...
The newly appointed Chief Social Worker for Children and a fast-track training model for high-flying graduates each have the potential to improve social work in England but must not go the way of...
Commenting on the New ‘Passport to Support’ for adopters, Nushra Mansuri, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers, said: “The new “adoption passport” is a step in the right...
As the Care Inquiry publishes its findings of an eight-month inquiry into the care system by eight leading children’s charities, including the Fostering Network, TACT and the British Association for...
Michael Gove has had a stupendously busy month, fairly cavorting his way over the top of one educational sacred cow after another. The Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts this week went so far as to describe...
A BASW survey suggests widespread lack of awareness of the Assessed and Supported Year of Employment (ASYE) in England, six months on from the launch of the scheme aimed at supporting newly qualified...
BASW professional officer Joe Godden on Labour’s plans to launch an independent commission led by former Department of Health specialist Sir John Oldham to investigate how best to integrate health...
As Alan Milburn and Baroness Shephard, chairman and deputy chairman of a new Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission call on Government to do more to meet the global 2020 target on child poverty...
None of us could have failed to have been moved last month as a verdict was reached in the Philpott trial where six children tragically lost their lives as a result of arson committed by Mick and...
BASW has described Ofsted’s decision to inspect local authority child protection and services for children who are looked after under a single, combined framework as “puzzling”, and urges the...
Following reports of the Department for Education’s (DfE) decision to pull funding from the Children’s Improvement Board (CIB), BASW has described it as a “callous move” that constitutes a major blow...
BASW statement on Sandwell council children's services being rated 'inadequate' by Ofsted.
BASW responds to the Philpott arson case sentencing.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has revealed a widespread lack of understanding among residential carers about the Mental Capacity Act and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, finding excessive...
Social workers have expressed concern that multi-disciplinary working in mental health services is being eroded under cost-cutting measures which are putting people’s health at risk. A snapshot...
BASW is urging members to take part in a survey to find out if new standards – setting out clear expectations of employers for helping you in your work – are operating effectively. The Advisory...
Write to your Member of Parliament to express concern in the loss of valuable expertise independent social workers bring to the family courts.
As the Government response to the Francis report into care failings at Mid Staffs hospitals is published, the Social Workers Union has echoed the call for whistle blowers to be protected, and said...
The vital role that social workers play in reducing inequality was the clear message sounded at BASW’s event to mark World Social Work Day in Westminster.
Speaking at a celebration event in Westminster later today, BASW Interim Chief Executive Bridget Robb will tell an audience of MPs and social work professionals that money is not the answer to all of...
As a new report from MPs claims the youth justice system is currently failing children in care and care leavers, BASW has reiterated the need to treat looked after children as individuals. The report...
Public sector cuts risk eroding social cohesion, warns BASW, following concerns raised by the highest judge in the land that cuts to legal aid may see people "take the law into their own hands".
BASW has endorsed a major report that lifts the lid on the lack of multi-agency understanding about how to tackle human slavery and called on social workers to “play their part” to stop this abuse.
BASW has said that difficult questions remain about the approach taken to staff involved in the Baby Peter Connelly case, following today's decision by the Court of Appeal to reject a claim of unfair...
BASW has responded to comments made by home secretary Theresa May that the Government “can only do so much” and that people must speak out against violence against women and girls, with a reminder...
Following the failings identified by the Jimmy Savile case and the exploitation of young girls by gangs, the director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer QC has called for a new approach to tackle...
BASW has responded to education secretary Michael Gove’s assertion that the current social work reform agenda will enable social workers to spend the time they need with at risk children by calling...
The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) has issued strong support for today's comments by Baroness Butler-Sloss, Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on Adoption Legislation, who has...
The need for a relationship-based approach to social work practice is greater than ever but public sector cuts are reducing the role of social workers to little more than one of “managing crisis”....