Annual Members Meeting 2026 (1st July 12:00-13:30)
Free Event (BASW Members Only)
This is your opportunity to learn more about the work BASW England has led on during the last year, share your perspectives and help shape our future activities. Speakers and more information will be shared soon.
By the Profession, For the Profession: How BASW members shape our resources (1st July 16:00-17:30)
Free for BASW members, £7.50 admin fee for non-members
Join us for this companion event to BASW England's Annual Members Meeting, launching two new resources shaped by BASW members - the Professional Capabilities Framework Refresh and the contribution of social workers to multi-disciplinary practice.
We'll hear a short presentation from contributors to each resource followed by a Q&A. We'll then have some time to discuss how to get involved with developing resources with BASW and hear your suggestions about potential resources we should create in the future.
This session will be chaired by Reshma Patel.
The PCF Refresh
The Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) is a framework for social work practice and learning in England. It promotes and underpins social work as ‘one profession’ across all specialisms and roles. The PCF supports social workers to meet the requirements of the professional regulator, specific guidance and policy for particular job roles and is aligned with the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) global definition of social work through the BASW Code of Ethics for social workers across the UK. It underpins our continuing professional development by helping us to identify and map learning and improvement through different career stages. Also, the PCF supports employers, workforce leads, managers and supervisors as well as individual social workers in developing social work careers and ongoing professional learning.
Since its inception in 2012, the PCF has been utilised widely and is deeply embedded across the sector – from qualifying training through to strategic workforce planning.
This session will launch the refreshed PCF, which has been developed “by the profession, for the profession”.
The contribution of social workers to multi-disciplinary practice
Ongoing policy developments across the English NHS and adult and children’s social care once again place multi-disciplinary working firmly in the spotlight. BASW believes this is a timely opportunity to highlight the longstanding role of social work within multi-disciplinary contexts, while also recognising the profession’s potential to make an even broader contribution in the future. While a range of resources already address multi-disciplinary and integrated working, there remains a need for a document that specifically articulates the unique contribution of social workers.
We'll hear from two BASW members who contributed to this publication, bringing to life the unique contribution that social workers make to social justice, ethical practice, person-centred approaches and co-production. This publication explores the shared social work values and approaches that span diverse multi-disciplinary settings and challenges common assumptions about the profession.
Speakers
Jade Daniels
Jon Hyslop qualified in 1994, and began his social work career developing and running community mental health projects as a part of the ‘community care’ initiative. He recently left academia after 14 years teaching on social work programmes, where he developed and delivered a module on community work. This engaged learners in forming and implementing proposals to meet the needs of local communities. It was broadly based around the type of work we’ve been doing with Community Glue CIC since we started in 2010.
Reshma Patel I am a person with lived experience of social work, I am a daughter, sister, auntie and great auntie living with a long-term disability since birth. I have a condition called Arthrogryposis (born with it); it affects all my joints and muscles and was diagnosed with Diabetes in 2012, blood pressure and cholesterol in 2022. Since 1998 to date, I have been employing my own Personal Assistants, initially through the Local Authority Direct Payments Scheme and then Continuing Health Care (CHC) Direct Payments and now through joint Local Authority and CHC direct payments. I have experienced services all my life and have shared every aspect from childhood into adult hood when training Professional social workers. Since 2005 I have been a Lived Expert by Experience at many universities. I joined BASW in 2017, I am a member of the BASW Adult Thematic Group, Social Work in Health group, one of the co-opted members on the England Committee and now (since 2023) the Co-Chair of BASW UK Expert by Experience Forum and sit on BASW Council. In addition to representing Experts by Experience on the England Standing Committee and Council, I support BASW with various conferences and projects to ensure Lived experience remains central to BASW’s work.
Polly Sykes is a registered social worker, practice educator and senior lecturer. She has worked with people who have a range of needs, spending most of her frontline social work career working with disabled children, young people and adults. Professional interests include placements and practice education, adult social care, and bereavement and loss. She is currently Head of Social Work at the University of York.
Gemma Webb is a qualified Social Worker with over 15 years of experience across frontline statutory services, higher education, workforce development, quality assurance, and practice learning. Her career has combined extensive frontline practice with strategic leadership in social work education and professional development, supporting the growth of students, newly qualified social workers, and experienced practitioners across the sector.
Gemma serves as Lead Practitioner for Students and ASYEs, and also works part-time at University of Bedfordshire, teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. She is currently undertaking a Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care, exploring how co-production within undergraduate professional programmes supports students’ transition into practice.