BASW England Annual Members Meeting and Conference 2024

Vava Tampa is a qualified social worker specialising in mental health and in health inequalities. He works in a CMHT in London.

Originally from Congo, Vava is also an activist and a freelance writer with over ten years of frontline experience on peace building in Congo and in Africa’s great lakes region. His activism was dramatized in Adam Brace’s play “They Drink it in the Congo.” He featured in Paloma Faith’s “Warrior” video. Vava has also been blocked on Twitter by the Rwandan president Paul Kagame for his activism on impunity and accountability for Mapping Report crimes committed in Congo.

His essays, opinions and exposé which attempts to advocate for human dignity - with a particular interest in culture, decolonisation and Black Lives Matter[ing] - have appeared in TRT World, The Guardian, The Africa Report and in several other outlets including Al Jazeera, CNN International, Forbes Magazine and International Business Times.

Previously Vava worked in a Safe House, caring for victims and survivors of modern-day slavery. Before this, he worked in Anti-Human Trafficking. Vava has also worked as a Saturday school teacher as well as a professional essay writer for children of foreign politicians.

A book hoarder and an aspiring Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP), Vava studied at Queen Mary, University of London, and at Canterbury Christ Church University where he wrote his MA dissertation on mental health in the black communities in the UK.

A leading British-Congolese voice, Vava makes frequent appearances in British and international media. He is fluent in four languages, including English, French, Lingala and some Swahili. He is a firm believer that Kivu Coffee is the world’s best-tasting coffee. He lives in Hackney. He loves fumbwa, lasagna, social working and history. When he is not working or campaigning, Vava is reading, listening to rumba or enjoying comedy.

Twitter/LinkedIn: @VavaTampa

I am a qualified and registered social worker working currently in frontline social work as a Team Manager of an Adults Complex Team.

I qualified in 2008 having already worked in social care for 10 years initially as an administrator and then as a Community Care Worker (2002).

Becoming a Social Worker was a very precious moment, it is a profession which I had found rather than aspired too.  I also never imagined I would gain a degree.  Since qualifying I have worked with a number of groups of people, initially working with people over 65, going on to work with people between 18-65 across the spectrum including Learning Disability, Autism, Mental Health, Substance Mis-use, Homeless, Physical Disabilities.

As a practitioner I have always aspired to be the best Social Worker I can be, actively seeking extra learning and knowledge.  Throughout my career I have attended many BASW events and other organised events to network, seek knowledge about the profession.  Being a long standing member I consider BASW to by my club as a Social Worker.  In April 2017 I joined the Boot out Austerity Walk from Birmingham to Wolverhampton to make a stand against current austerity measures.

In my role as a Social Worker I have been asked to present to students to talk about BASW, represent BASW, and share my experiences and career pathway.  In 2017 I presented to a conference in relation to “Named Social Worker” conference.

I have facilitated classes for students in the subject of MCA & Best Interests.  I have taken my thirst for knowledge in the profession and drive to continue to learn and develop into my new role as a Team Manager presenting key concepts, theories and approaches as CPD sessions within supervision.

Prior to this role I had gained Senior Practitioner status having completed both Practice Educator Course (2011) and also Best Interest Assessor Accreditation (2016) I have had students successfully complete their placement one of which successfully gained a post within the council I work. 

I am passionate about Social Work as a profession ensuring that the profession gains the respect that it deserves.  I have always strongly encouraged development of professional identify and have worked in a Multi-Disciplinary Team working at the interface between health and social care.

I am in my new role continuing to learn I am seeking to attain a qualification in Leadership and Management in the next 12 months and continue to learn through literature and experience.  As a Team Manager I want to be the best that I can be in order that I can support my team members to be the best they can be.

I have been actively involved in this working group over several years, and most recently as the co-chair. This has provided excellent opportunities to collaborate with others to quality assurance and develop social work guidance and frameworks for social work education and practice. 

In addition to my role at BASW I am a practice educator, practice educator assessor, external assessor and tutor and assessor and am fortunate to work across several social work universities to carry out these roles. The connecting link across the work I am involved in is my interest in working with a diverse range of people, learning from them and passing on my skills, knowledge and experience to others.

My main interests outside social work are spending time with family, gardening, yoga, cooking and being at our home in Greece.

Maris has worked in adults and children’s services for over 30 years and has held a variety of operational and strategic leadership roles both in the UK and overseas. Maris is passionate about human rights and the role of social workers in promoting and safeguarding rights, within diverse contexts including emergencies and disasters. Maris has worked for Save the Children in Bosnia Herzegovina as a Child Protection Advisor, British Refugee Council, Director for The British Red Cross, Nottinghamshire and managed integrated services across children and adult services including disability services, residential and respite services, children in need, safeguarding and children in care services. 

Embedding equality, diversity, inclusivity and ‘right’s-based approach in social work policy and practice reform is a key priority for Maris in her role as BASW England National Director. She has also led on the development of resources for social workers to support and develop their skills, and to prepare them for emergency and disaster response.  She is also co-editor of ‘Out of the Shadows’ the first book to be published focusing on the poignant and personal stories of people with lived experience and social workers directly affected by disasters, sharing their reflections, and learning for the future. 

Maris is a registered social worker and has a Master of Laws in Human Rights awarded by the University of Nottingham.

Dr Ruth Allen has been Chief Executive of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) since April 2016.  In April 2024 she was also elected as President of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) – Europe Region.   She represents IFSW and has a leadership role within the Council of Europe’s International NGO section (CINGO). 

Previously, Ruth was Director of Social Work at South West London & St Georges' Mental Health NHS Trust, a researcher with St George’s University of London, and Director of Social Care at Hertfordshire Mental Health NHS Trust. She started her social work career in east London in 1994 as a practitioner and latterly a manager in integrated health, social care and homelessness services and has held a range of practice, development, leadership and policy roles. Throughout her career Dr Allen has promoted co-production with people using services, family members and carers (Experts by Experience); improving working conditions, wellbeing and development opportunities for social workers, equity and social justice. 

Dr Allen holds a BA Hons in Geography from Oxford, a CQSW and Master’s degree in Social Work and a Professional Doctorate in Professional Education all from the University of Sussex, and post-graduate diploma in applied systemic practice. She is currently undertaking training in leadership coaching.

Mark Nicholas is a Clinical Director and Chief Social Worker in the Transformation Directorate at NHS England, and currently has clinical responsibility for the NHS App and Child Protection Information Sharing. He is the NHS England social care lead and national Head of Profession for Social Care Informatics. Mark has a long career working in local government and the NHS, spanning safeguarding, mental health and preventative services. He was a Sure Start Programme Director, opening the first fully operational Children’s Centre in the country and negotiating information sharing protocols between local stakeholder organisations. He set up the national Digital Social Care Advisory Group with the Local Government Association to steer investment in technology for the social care sector, commissioned research into digital capability for social care professionals and helped to facilitate an inclusive approach to digital leadership across the NHS and social care systems.

Tommy is the lead social worker at the Digitising Social Care programme. He has worked across social care for over 15 years both for local authorities and the not-for-profit care provider sector. He now works for the Digitising Social Care programme across NHS England and DHSC supporting adult social care with digital transformation.  Having worked both locally and nationally, Tommy is focused on ensuring that those drawing on care and support as well as those who work in social care have the skills they need to engage with technology. In addition, he is a trustee of youth engagement charity, Grow UK, in Sheffield and loves anything related to sport, music or food

Amanda Taylor-Beswick has an extensive background in mental health social work and working with D/deaf children and adults in Ireland. Her passion for social work education led her to pursue an academic career in England, where she has dedicated herself to developing innovative teaching methodologies. Professor Taylor-Beswick is widely recognized for her contributions in several areas, including 'Social Media in Social Work Education,' 'Digitalisation and Social Work,' 'Digital Professionalism,' 'Digital Transformation,' 'Digital Pedagogy' and 'Phenomenography.' After spending three years advancing her research on digital intersections and digital teaching and learning methodologies at Queens University Belfast, Professor Taylor-Beswick transitioned to a new role in June 2022, as founding Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation at the University of Cumbria. In 2024 moving into the Institute of Health, to focus on digital and social science research and the contemporisation of pedagogy and practice for professional groupings.

Caroline Bald is registered social worker with a twenty year background in criminal justice social work in both adult and children's services in case manager and leadership roles. Her practice experience is primarily in workforce development, risk assessment and management, serious further offence reviews and practice improvement. She has been an academic since 2016, joining the University of Essex in February 2020. She teaches across BA & MA programmes encompassing ethics, human rights and critical issues in contemporary practice. Caroline successfully defended her doctorate in July 2024 which critically examines social work education admissions decision-making in England. Until June 2024, she was research fellow on a two-year NIHR grant funded project to develop a national brain injury social work education platform. She is the co-chair of the BASW England Criminal Justice group.