Covid 19 Inquiry News Report

BASW welcomes today the critical rigour of the UK Covid Inquiry First Report from Lady Hallet. Focusing on preparedness and contingency planning for a pandemic, Lady Hallett found UK government 'failed their citizens' in the decade before Covid. Austerity in public services and lack of action against identified risks from pandemics left UK government dangerously and systemically unprepared. Many more people died as a consequence.

Social care is acknowledged to have been particularly vulnerable with no effective plans to protect people in care facilities. Staff were left unguided and unprotected.

BASW CEO Ruth Allen said: “We knew from the earliest days that social care was scandalously exposed and people were avoidably put at very high risk.  We heard it in the 2000+ first person accounts sent to us throughout 2020 and 2021. The inadequacy of pandemic planning was evident as government scrambled for advice and adopted untried or inadequate methods at haste and ineffectually. 

"When they sought advice, government didn’t properly include social care and social work, and didn’t include the the views of people reliant on social care and social work and at elevated risk of death, nor the care and social work staff who valiantly continued to provide support in residential and community settings. 

"We are very pleased to be involved in the inquiry and our input will be rooted in our professional perspectives and in what we have heard directly from social workers, people receiving care and support and their families since 2020."

For more reflections from BASW staff, members and other contributors about the important of contingency planning for disasters and the role of social workers, see the BASW England book Out of the Shadows from Critical publishing.

BASW will engage with the inquiry throughout and will be a core participant in the Adult Social Care part due in 2025.