A 'Thank You' letter from BASW England

As 2020 draws to a close, BASW England has released a 'Thank You' letter to social workers across the country.

You can read the full letter below and you can also download the letter in PDF format.

Dear All,

On behalf of BASW England we would like to thank you for your individual and collective hard work, dedication, passion, and commitment throughout 2020. It has been an incredibly challenging year, filled with sadness, joy, kindness, surprises, creativity, loss, the birth of life and so much more - who would ever have thought we would live and work during a pandemic. The pandemic has starkly highlighted inequalities globally, across the UK and nationally. Sadly, we have lost colleagues during this year, including to COVID-19 and our thoughts are with their families, friends, and other loved ones. The brutal murder of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter Movement, the impact of COVID-19 for Black and ethnic minority citizens, communities and the ongoing health inequalities and disproportionate high death rates of adults with a learning disability and autistic remains abhorrent and unacceptable. Poverty has increased and the gap is getting bigger, we will continue to campaign, influence and challenge racism, discrimination and oppression and will support the Bereaved Families of COVID-19 Justice campaign now and in 2021.

As ever, social workers have adapted and responded as flexibly as possible to new ways of working, kept on working with children, families and adults in the best way possible – with kindness, humility and compassion. Members and BASW England staff have worked incredibly hard to provide individual support to our members, colleagues and people with lived experience, including creating safe space forums, joined partnership coalition campaigns, influenced and challenged government responses to COVID-19 and highlighted ethical and moral social work dilemmas. We have created more CPD opportunities online, ensured ongoing support for members and continued to focus on our core workstreams. Celebrating and promoting the rich, diverse and valuable contribution of social workers and our social care colleagues has been integral to our work.

Branches and groups have continued to hold important meetings and events, responded to consultations, influenced practice and policy and continued to connect with members and communities at a local, regional and national level.

We would like to thank you for everything you have done to promote all that is good about social work, the profession and BASW England, thank you so much.

We also appreciate that for many of you, this will be a very different type of festive break and many of you will also be working over Christmas and the New Year - thank you.

We hope you get an opportunity to rest and spend some time with loved ones (virtually or other) and we will continue to hold the memories of those that have died pre and during the pandemic close to our hearts.

Wishing you a healthy and happy New Year – together we can make a difference.

Take care and best wishes,

Maris Stratulis - National Director, BASW England

Andy Gill, Chair, BASW England

Angie Bartoli, Vice-Chair, BASW England