The panel is jointly run by the Scottish Association of Social Work, the Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser, and Social Work Scotland. The panel was created to bring together experienced frontline workers, newly qualified workers, students and policy makers in Government to address the issues affecting social work today. It is an opportunity to influence those policy makers and the future of social work with your experience and knowledge.
BASW’s Directors of Council are pleased to invite BASW members to attend an End-of-Year Q&A Meeting on Tuesday 16 December, 6:00–7:00 pm.
This is an opportunity for members to join BASW Council members and members of the executive leadership team to hear about BASW’s aspirations, operations, and future strategy. This is also an opportunity for members with any concerns or queries regarding the changes at BASW over recent months to ask any questions too.
BASW Independents Local Networks provide an excellent opportunity to build professional links with other self-employed social workers in your area. These meetings are currently virtual and held on MS Teams.
This group meets quarterly on the 3rd Thursday of the month.
BASW Independents Local Networks provide an excellent opportunity to build professional links with other self-employed social workers in your area. These meetings are currently virtual and held on MS Teams.
This group meets on the 3rd Friday of every month. BASW Independents Local Networks provide a space to create and nurture valuable professional links with other self-employed social workers in your region.
These informal meetings are fully member-led and supported centrally by BASW, with the opportunity to share hot topics and collaborate on wider activities.
The idea for this group has organically grown from the BASW Independent Social Worker online FaceBook group, where people have been reaching out within the forum to share information, seek advice and guidance. Showing the need for a platform to discuss the positives and the issues impacting the fostering world. The responses have been very heartfelt and demonstrate the necessity of having a community support group, with a common theme of fostering assessments and the evolution of this work.
The BASW Southwest Regional Branch would like to welcome you to this session presented by Tommy Henderson-Reay from the Digitising Social Care Programme.
Decision-making is central to the role of an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP), especially in Wales where the practice is shaped by both UK-wide legislation and devolved Welsh policies. AMHPs are expected to uphold human rights and ensure that any intervention is the least restrictive option. Their decisions protect individuals from unnecessary or inappropriate detention. AMHPs make decisions about whether someone should be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. These decisions have serious implications for a person’s liberty, autonomy, and treatment.
This training course to help social workers better understand the trials and tribulations of stepfamilies. The course is aimed at exploring the key differences, thinking about how and why stepchildren are harmed and what social workers can do to support these families. Offering insights into spotting early warning signs to prevent abuse, neglect and child deaths.
A successful practice placement depends on good preparation.
This is your chance to hear about the real experiences of recent students and learn about some of steps you can take to ensure you not only survive your placement but thrive too.
You will hear about how good preparation will support you to make the most of the breadth of learning and development opportunities you can benefit from while on your placement.
BASW Independents Local Networks provide an excellent opportunity to build professional links with other self-employed social workers in your area. These meetings are currently virtual and held on MS Teams.
This group meets on the 3rd Friday of every month. BASW Independents Local Networks provide a space to create and nurture valuable professional links with other self-employed social workers in your region.
These informal meetings are fully member-led and supported centrally by BASW, with the opportunity to share hot topics and collaborate on wider activities.
The mindfulness-based social work and self-care (MBSWSC) programme focusses on improving social work practice and self-care. It is a programme which has developed a strong evidence base for its effectiveness at reducing stress, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation of service users, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and improving well-being and a range of social work practice skills and competencies.
This is an exciting opportunity to hear first-hand from Teresa Hills Director of Operations Luton Borough Council children’s service on the experience as a Family First Partnership Pathfinder, exploring how, as part of this government programme, Luton is creating the opportunity to be relational in culture and practice and what difference this is making to the loves of children, families and social workers.
Find out about:
• The learning and impact from the Luton journey so far.
Research findings and practice experience provide compelling evidence that animal abuse in the context of domestic abuse is a tactic of coercive control and an act of animal cruelty (Arkow, 2014; Barrett et al, 2017; DeGue et al, 2009; Fitzgerald et al, 2019; Newberry, 2017; Richards, 2009, Wakeham, 2025). Although the link between domestic abuse and animal abuse is uncontested, it is an issue that is often not translated into practice.
In this session led by Soyeb Aswat, we will explore different approaches to working with people experiencing a mental health crisis, which consider their spiritual needs, alongside traditional western social or medical intervention models.