SASW Team Weekly Roundup

Find out what the team in Scotland have been doing on behalf of members this week

We penned an open letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf MSP, warning of the significant pressure on justice social work services in the midst of the community service backlog, recommending an urgent reduction in unpaid work hours. Read our press release, including a link to the letter, here. 

BASW Council held their "Away Day", giving SASW the opportunity to build relationships across Council with the aim of supporting BASW UK to fulfill its 2025 Vision. There was discussion of the three areas of the 2025 Vision: social workers, social work, social justice, and also some of the major risks around our work: Covid, Brexit, the hostile environment. 

This week is Book Week Scotland! On Monday, we held our webinar, "Social Work Past, Present & Future: Changing Desks", which featured poetry and discussion about the past, present and future of our profession. On Thursday, we supported with the Poetry Helps Workshop, with published poet Samuel Tongue. 

We launched two key discussion events, including Self-directed support: fit for the future? and a special Children & Families Community of Practice Engagement Event to find out your thoughts on the updated. National Child Protection Guidance.

We met with BASW's Professional Support Service Planning Group and re-strategised on more localised communications approaches to the service. You can find out more about the PSS and the benefits it brings, here. 

We have been in contact with universities to arrange inputs for students across the country. 

We finalised planning on our Community of Practice for social workers working in Justice Services, this session will include an input from Rania Hamad, Professional Justice Social Work Adviser to the Scottish Government, for a discussion about ways forward for Justice Social Work through the pandemic. Register for this event, here. 

We prepared the finishing touches to our very first *virtual* Mental Health Officers Conference, Gathering Apart, Thriving Together, which is being held on Tuesday the 24th of November. Find out more about the event, here.