BASW & SWU Member Testimonial

We were delighted to receive the following feedback from a member after our team supported them through a fitness to practice case. While the member wished to remain anonymous, they have given us permission to share their feedback.

If you're a BASW member, please refer to our Advice and Representation page for access to free telephone support and over fifty guidance sheets designed to assist with resolving workplace or regulatory issues.

And if you're not a BASW member yet, what are you waiting for? We have membership categories for all stages of your professional journey. Discover how membership will protect, develop and advance your career here.

__________________

Without my representative’s impeccable support in regards the Fitness to Practice proceedings, I can honestly say that I would not be here today to write this piece.

My representative had extensive working knowledge of how SWE’s Fitness to Practice Team operate, what they would be focussing on and the responses they would be looking for. Without the advice of my representative, I would not have had a clue where to start. She helped me immensely with writing my statement and preparing me for the hearing.

This was the first time I had seen my representative ‘in action’ and I was highly impressed. She was extremely professional and polite, but appropriately assertive.

My representative supported me in writing statements for each review, prepared statements herself, put together and presented the evidence in professional bundles, and attended all the reviews I chose to attend.

I knew that my representative believed in me and that she was as passionate about gaining justice as I was; this made a tremendous difference. Although I took the lead on writing emails and sourcing evidence, etc, my representative would step in whenever appropriate. 

I cannot fault my representative’s representation during these meetings. Her presence not only gave me the confidence to defend myself, but she would add anything I forgot, direct attendees to relevant evidence and stop the investigator from diverting from fact. By this stage, she knew my case inside out and actually had a clearer recall of everything than I did. Although my representative was a huge emotional support throughout and highly passionate about my case, her professional role enabled her to have an emotional distance which I did not. 

My representative supported me all the way through the process, from advising me, assisting me to prepare my statement, organising and presenting evidence, through to attending the entire hearing and representing me at it. My representative’s cross examination of the witnesses brought by SWE was excellent; she remained highly respectful to the individual’s she was questioning, yet managed to highlight to the panel that some of what they had reported was either not based in fact, contradicted previous statements they had made, or contradicted the reports of other witnesses.

I can honestly say that my experience was truly outstanding. I would 100% recommend any social worker to be a BASW member and to pay the negligible amount it costs to join SWU. When I went into social work, I could never have dreamt that I would end up in the position I did. Even at the point I whistle blew, I had no idea that this would lead to the horrendous ordeal that followed.