"Not another one!"....why BASW does public affairs
If you're not familiar with Brenda from Bristol and her viral reaction to Theresa May calling a snap General Election in 2017, you won't understand why it's a sound that has played on loop in my head for the past near 10 years. It's not just for the General Elections, but also the change of Prime Ministers (5 since Brenda's outburst), Secretaries of State for Health and Social Care, Home Secretaries, and Education Secretaries. The churn of new figures in these great offices cause public affairs executives across the country to groan and feel as if the work they've put in building relationships has all been for...well, nothing.
So why do we bother?
In short, it's too important to not bother. As frustrating as it is when key ministers that BASW works with change, it's also an opportunity to be heard from a fresh perspective and an open mind.
Public affairs is an art and a science. Put simply, it's influencing government decision makers to create and shape policy to a particular viewpoint. For BASW, this means getting government and political support for what we believe should happen in social work. This involves policy, campaigning, and communications. It's bringing the organisation together to identify what needs to change, and how it can be changed. It's not enough to tell politicians that working conditions for social workers are poor - we need to be explicit about the conditions, why this is a problem they should care about, and how we believe it can be fixed. All while considering the constraints on government spending. Asking for billions in social work spending will get us laughed at before our foot is in the door, but identifying policy changes (the cheaper the better!), can pave the way for real and meaningful change for social work.
We also need to be clear in how we communicate what the profession needs. I'm not a qualified social worker - I'm a political professional - and sometimes it feels like I need a dictionary or social work text book to understand what it is we're trying to say. Most politicians aren't social workers and will also not understand the language of social work. Part of the skill of working in public affairs is being able to translate jargon into plain English that connects with politicians, their staff, civil servants, and the wider public. Social workers will know what holistic, strengths-based, relationship-focused practice means, but your average politician doesn't. The challenge we have is focusing in on the outcome we want, identifying how to get there, and packaging it up in a way that decision-makers can understand. This is not easy, and no public affairs executive would tell you that it is.
What is BASW doing about it?
As a professional association for social workers, it is our responsibility to campaign on social work matters and change the profession and conditions for the better. For this to succeed, public affairs is an essential tool in our arsenal along with policy, campaigns, and communications.
We've had some excellent successes in our public affairs work, which have happened because we've been able to distil to decision makers why it's important. In the past couple of months alone, former Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged the positive case that social workers had made on earned settlement proposals. HMRC increased the non-taxable mileage rate that BASW had been campaigning on. We fundamentally changed the Terminally Ill Adults Bill to carve out a specific role for social workers. We are regularly invited to give oral evidence to UK Parliament Select Committees, because we have succeeded in speaking the language of politicians and decision makers, and we have something to say that is viewed as worth listening to.
BASW's public affairs moving forward
Social work is often confused with social care, or viewed as simply being about child protection. This is one of our biggest challenges, and a problem we encounter time and time again. Just as we make progress on developing the understanding of an office holder on how social work affects their brief, they are moved out and a new person comes in - and we have to start all over again.
If we are to succeed in improving social work for both practitioners and the people you work with, we need to be louder and bolder about what social work is and what social workers do. But we can't just scream from the rooftops and expect people to listen. Public affairs is about relationship building, persuasion, and compromise. This takes time, and government can move very slowly.
With a new Prime Minister and a new Cabinet, the cycle of education and relationship-building starts again. We'll be focusing on working conditions, including assaults on social workers, terms and conditions, and recruitment and retention. There are a maximum of three years until the next General Election, but who knows how any Prime Ministers we'll have in that time!
As ever, we are eager to hear from our members, and together, we'll keep social work on the political agenda.
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Stay informed with BASW's activity at Westminster all year round with our blog series here. You can also read about BASW's various campaigns across the UK here.
