General Election 2024: Guide to Contacting Candidates

A brief guide for social workers and students to contact their local candidates for the General Election.
General Election

Candidate nominations for the 2024 General Election closed on 7 June, which means you will have a full list of confirmed candidates standing in your local area to be your next MP.

Find your candidates

‘Who Can I Vote For’ is a reliable website you can use to find your local candidates and their contact details.

Keep a look out for election materials- such as leaflets or letters- that come through your letterbox. They will often have a candidate’s email details on them. If you’re lucky, a candidate might even knock your door for a chat!

Social media is a useful way to see who is standing in your area. Search your constituency name and candidate profiles will often appear.

Contacting your candidates

BASW has a template letter you can use to email your candidates. 

Our template focuses on our manifesto for social work- urging candidates to support our asks for a better support profession, improved working conditions, and a fairer society, and calling on them to commit to working with us in the next parliament to deliver them. 

You may prefer to write your own email or letter to candidates. In which case, here’s our top tips:

  • Include your address so the candidate knows you are their constituent.
  • Be concise- one side of A4 if a letter, or maximum 500 words for an email.
  • Be polite, even if you disagree.
  • Make sure you put forward a clear ask of them.
  • Mention your BASW/SWU membership- it helps raise our profile with candidates too!

If you do want to highlight BASW’s manifesto, we have nation-specific versions depending on where you are based across the UK.

Attending Hustings Events

Public hustings events will usually be organised in your local area by community groups. They are an opportunity to ask candidates questions on specific or general topics. 

Hustings will have different formats depending on who is organising them, but they will normally invite questions from the audience. Here’s some suggested questions:

  • What will you do to support social work and social care in the next parliament?
  • Will you commit to working with BASW and SWU to improve working conditions for social workers and achieve a better supported social work profession?
  • One of BASW’s manifesto asks is {CHOOSE A POLICY ASK}, do you agree with them and how will you make it happen?

Keep an eye on local newspapers, social media and community groups for details of hustings events. You might also want to email candidates directly to ask when they will be.

Let us know how you get on!

We would be very interested to hear any responses you receive from your candidates- particularly if they pledge to support any of our campaign asks and want to work with us in the next parliament.

We will follow up with any candidates elected as MPs after the election who adopt our manifesto asks and/or express a wish to work with us. Your support in making this happen is appreciated!

Please contact our Political Affairs Lead, Kerri Prince on kerri.prince@basw.co.uk