This Week in Westminster – Friday 13 November

There are calls from across Parliament to recognise that people living in care and health settings need to see their loved ones through family member and social worker visits.

By Kerri Prince, Public and Political Affairs Lead at BASW

This was a great week for BASW in Parliament, with Parliamentarians from several parties raising the issue of social workers needing access to people living in care and health settings.

Daisy Cooper MP named BASW and gave us and other organisations her full backing in our support for the necessity of family members visiting their loved ones.

Leeds North West MP Alex Sobel in his speech made representations on behalf of BASW about why it was so important that social workers had access to people we are there to safeguard.

Whilst this was only a Westminster Hall debate - so it does not obligate the Government to do anything on the issue - it does show that there are calls from across Parliament to recognise that people living in care and health settings need to see their loved ones through family member visiting and how social workers should have safe access, to promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people.

Maris Stratulis, England’s National Director and I also met with Alex Sobel MP earlier this week to discuss the importance of social workers having access to health and care settings.

The Immigration and Social Security (EU Withdrawal) Bill has passed the House of Lords and now goes for Royal Assent. The UK Parliament Human Rights Committee also published a report on ‘Black people, racism and human rights’, with commentary accompanying the release that the human rights of black people are not equally protected.

Next Tuesday, Health and Social Care Questions are taking place in the House of Commons chamber, and we’ll be on the lookout for questions from MPs to the Health Ministers about anything that impacts the work of social workers.

There will also be a General Debate on Covid-19 on Wednesday, as well as a debate on International Men’s Day on Thursday. All these debates will be streamed live on Parliament TV.