Social work leadership: we must do better

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 22 June, 2022

More work needs to be done to improve the quality and diversity of leadership in social work, delegates at BASW’s annual conference were told.

Weaknesses were identified across the four nations of the UK during a session on Leadership and Social Work led by Robin Miller, Professor of Collaborative Learning at the University of Birmingham.

Social work leadership was considered distinct from other types of leadership because of its adherence to professional values, its connection to times of crisis, and its emphasis on co-production.

Robin said: "Leadership in social work is perhaps not as understood and developed as it could be. It's often poorly defined, and there's very few definitions of what leadership looks like."

BASW and the University of Birmingham undertook a literature review to find out what has been published in policy, practice and research.

A review of leadership in the nations was also undertaken, and academics and practice leads were consulted.

It found a lack of published research into leadership. The consensus of a round table discussion was that “nobody’s got this right yet”.

Delegates contributed their own perspectives on leadership, observing that weaknesses in social work leadership are often more apparent than strengths.

A lack of diversity was observed, with very few Black and ethnic minority staff members making it into senior roles.

England's recently published Independent Review of Children's Social Care calls on the government to invest in leadership development programmes to "ensure leadership is rooted in practice and address the racial disparities across children’s social care leadership".

Among its recommendations is that social work managers, leaders and academics should have to complete 100 hours of direct practice in order to retain their social work registration.