International recognition for BASW’s David N Jones

Long term BASW member and current International chair, Dr David N Jones,  received global recognition for his many years of service to international social work during the International Federation of Social Workers’ world conference in Dublin earlier this month.

The Andrew Mouravieff-Apostol medal is given every two years to two people who have made an ‘outstanding contribution to international social work’, and is named in memory of Andrew Mouravieff-Apostol, a long-serving former Secretary General of IFSW.

Jones qualified as a social worker in 1974 and attended his first global social work conference in Sri Lanka in 1994.  He was elected to the Global Executive of IFSW in 2000, taking on the role of Chair of the Policy Committee.  He was elected as IFSW Europe President and IFSW Senior Vice President in 2002 and World President in 2006, serving for 4 years. 

He continues to be involved in the development of global policies on social work and social development and edited the global report on the state of social work launched at the Dublin conference.

Jones spent a large part of his career working in child protection, including 9 years with the NSPCC, before taking on a series of national roles with BASW, Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work, Audit Commission, Department for Children, Schools and Families, Department of Health and Ofsted. 

He was also Chair of the Adult and Children Safeguarding Boards in Leicester for six years from 2010 and was awarded a PhD in social work by Warwick University in 2009 for research into the evaluation of the effectiveness of social work practice.

Jones has been involved in the global leadership of IFSW since 2000 and was instrumental in developing The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, which he helped to launch in 2010.

He been the global co-ordinator of the process since, working on behalf of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) and International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW).

Jones has written or edited several books and publications on international social work. Promoting community and environmental sustainability is his most recent publication, launched this month in Dublin, available as a free PDF download here.