Anti-Racism Resources - BASW England

See resources from BASW England and the BPS (Black & Ethnic Minority Professional's Symposium) around anti-racist social work practice, including webinars, podcasts and articles.

Over the years BASW England and the BPS (Black & Ethnic Minority Professional's Symposium), alongside BASW UK, have developed a number of resources around anti-racist social work practice, including webinars, podcasts, articles, and our anti-racism training presentation. We have coordinated these resources into one list so they are easy to access. Click the links below to explore and find out more.  

Find BASW UK's position statements on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, including our Anti-Racism position statement, here. 

Anti-Racism Resources by Type

Webinars

Anti-Racism and the AMHP Role || October 2023

This exciting webinar was delivered as a collaboration between BASW England and the Chief Social Workers Office, DHSC. It provides an excellent opportunity to learn about contemporary research, policy, professional anti-racist ‘lived experience’ perspectives in the context of AMHP Practice. Guest speakers include: 

  • Dr Caroline Leah, Manchester Met University
  • Husnara Malik/ Jacqui Dyer (NHSE)
  •  Neil Sanyal (AMHP) & Shantel Thomas (Professional SW Lead) 
  • Dr Colin King 
  • Jason Brandon MHSW Lead, Office of the Chief Social Work (DHSC)

Student Connect Webinar 95: Female Genital Mutilation led by Maureen Mguni (BPS) || October 2022

This webinar from Student Connect is on the important topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in social work. The webinar is led by the brilliant Maureen Mguni, who is a lecturer, doctoral researcher, practicing social worker and member of the BPS. For most of her career Maureen has worked with women and girls affected by gender-based violence, including forced marriage, honour-based violence and female genital mutilation. As well as an overview of FGM, this webinar looks at the legislation that surrounds it, as well as some strategies that can be used in the context of FGM as social workers. If you’d like to contact Maureen, you can find her on Twitter/X @maumguni, and by email M.Mguni@brighton.ac.uk 

Enter the BPS with Claudia Crawley || September 2021

‘Enter the BPS’ is an informal showcasing of diverse knowledge, skills and expertise of members from the Black and Ethnic Minority Professionals Symposium (BPS), an informal online space for Black and ethnic minority social workers.. The event is compered by Claudia Crawley who is an awarding winning mentor, executive coach, career coach and anti-racist consultant. Outside work, Claudia is a budding stand-up comedian, having trained at the Comedy School in London and later with Logan Murray, in 2018. Claudia became a regular on the London open mic comedy scene until lockdown. Hear from Claudia as she introduces the event and invites BPS members to share their social work backgrounds, reasons for joining the group, achievements, and insights. 

SMASHING the Glass Ceiling - Employment Skills || December 2020

An informal training event on employment skills for aspiring black and ethnic minority professionals (including students) in social work, social care and allied professions. This event was brought to you by the BASW Black & Ethnic Minority Professionals Symposium (BPS) in conjunction with Perrett Laver’s BME Leadership Network (BLN) led by Natasha Attipoe, Senior Consultant at Perrett Laver and Wayne Reid, BASW England Professional Officer and Social Worker. The event is tailored to black and ethnic minority professionals working in social work, social care, and related professions who wish to improve their employment skills.

The Triple 'A' Chinwag Series || November 2021

The Triple ‘A’ Chinwag is a BASW England pilot mini-series, where BASW Anti-Racism Lead and Professional Officer Wayne Reid explores “authentic anti-racist allyship” from the perspective of Andrew Thompson. Andrew is a retired Specialist Practice Teacher in Youth Justice, YOS Officer and Social Work Lecturer from Sheffield. He was instrumental in developing Sheffield's Juvenile Justice & Race Panel in the 1980s, which later became integral to the development of Sheffield Youth Offending Service. Andrew has a high profile in the social work community across South Yorkshire. The Triple 'A' Chinwag is an opportunity to understand and learn about Andrew's personal and professional outlook as an "authentic anti-racist ally".

BASW England anti-racism in social work presentation with Pam Shodeinde || October 2021

In this webinar we hear from Pam Shodeinde, social worker and member of the BASW Black Professional Symposium (BPS) and vice-chair of the Student and NQSW Group, Liz Howard (professional officer BASW England) and Wayne Reid (professional officer and anti-racism lead BASW England) as they explore the importance of anti-racism in social work, specific areas of anti-Black racism, the Black Lives Matter movement and allyship. 

BASW England & Think Ahead 'Anti-racism in Social Work' || June 2021

Anti-racism in Social Work: University of Derby presentation || June 2021

What Works Centre & BASW England: 'Anti-Racism in Social Work' || June 2021

‘Anti-racism in Social Work’ - a presentation delivered at Lewisham LA and Goldsmiths Uni of London || June 2021 

Articles/Blogs

What social workers need to know about FGM | Maureen Mguni, Professional Social Work Magazine, 31 October 2023

What's race got to do with it? | Dr Arlene P. Weekes and Maureen Mguni, Professional Social Work Magazine, 27 March 2023

Antisemitism is still here, it’s on the rise, and it’s up to all of us to fight it | Paul Shuttleworth, BASW Blog, 26 January 2022

Why anti-racism is needed in social work education | Patriche Bentick and Pamela Shodeinde, Professional Social Work Magazine, 20 October 2021

Voices for Black History Month…and beyond | Why we still need our safe place to talk about racism in social work | Pauline Seargant, Diana Onyango and Rachel Rooke, Professional Social Work Magazine, 17 October 2022

Anti-racist supervision matters (blog & video) | Shabnam Ahmed and Wayne Reid, Research in Practice, 2022

Why aren’t we calling out antisemitism? Reflections of a Jewish social worker | Victoria Hart, Professional Social Work Magazine, 29 July 2021 

BASW England Statement on Anti-Racism, Anti-Discrimination & Anti-Oppression in Social Work | BASW England Team, BASW blog, 27 July 2021

A conversation with BASW Anti-Racism Lead Wayne Reid | BASW Blog, 23 April 2021

Bid to banish 'oppressive' language in social work | Professional Social Work Magazine, 3 March 2021

Anti-racism in social work: 'the struggle is real and you are part of it' | Zoe Thomas, Professional Social Work Magazine, 2 March 2021 

'George Floyd's murder was the catalyst for my focus on anti-racist social work' | Wayne Reid, Professional Social Work Magazine, 9 February 2021 

Further articles in the Voices for Black History Month... and beyond BASW blog series:

Podcasts

See episodes of the Let's Talk Social Work Podcast discussing anti-racism below.

Talking Heads: reflecting on the role of podcasts as a learning resource || June 2023

This very special episode was recorded live in front of an audience on Monday 12 June, ahead of the BASW UK conference at Conference Aston in Birmingham. 

The theme of the discussion is exploring the role of podcasts as a learning resource. What do social workers gain from engaging in podcasts, what would they like done better, who is yet to be reached and what have the participants learned from making, studying and taking part in podcasts.

Joining Andy McClenaghan to discuss all this and more are Patriche Bentick—Senior Practitioner in Camden Council and friend of and regular contributor to Let’s Talk Social Work, Joe Hanley—lecturer with the Open University and Dr Sylvia Smith—host of the wonderful Social Workers Matter podcast.

Beauty, confidence & understanding || February 2023 

In this episode of Let’s Talk Social Work we explore the important, and unfortunately all too often overlooked issue of the needs of Black children in care. The episode begins by exploring a ground-breaking initiative run by Camden Council, to ensure all foster carers are able to meet the haircare and skincare needs of Black children and young people in their care. The discussion later widens out to look at other issues concerning cultural awareness. Host Andy McClenaghan is joined by friends of the podcast James Kargbo, Equalities Lead at Camden Council, and Patriche Bentick, member of the BASW Black & Ethnic Minority Professionals Symposium and Senior Social Work Practitioner, also at Camden Council and foster carer, Sarah Livingstone.

Why is anti-racism still crucial to social work practice? || June 2022

Members of BASW’s Black & Ethnic Minority Professionals Symposium, Pauline Sergeant, Patriche Bentick and Pamela Shodeinde join Andy McClenaghan to discuss how social workers can embed anti-racism as a cornerstone of their work. 

Paying particular focus to children’s services and mental health social work, this episode explores the issues social workers need to take into consideration to ensure they are challenging inequality and promoting anti-racist practice when working with Black children and young people and supporting Black vulnerable adults. 

The episode also explores unconscious and overt bias faced by Black practitioners and examines over-representation at fitness to practice hearings as an example of how structural racism discriminates against Black social workers.

During the conversation Pam refers to the book—The W Word: Witchcraft labelling and child safeguarding in social work practice. It can be accessed via this link https://www.criticalpublishing.com/the-w-word

Anti-Racist Allyship || November 2021

In this episode, Mit Joyner, President of the National Association of Social Workers (USA) and Shantel Thomas, BASW Anti-Racism Lead join host, Andy McClenaghan to discuss anti-racist allyship. They consider how individuals who are not negatively impacted by racism can support those who are affected in their efforts to dismantle the structures, cultures and attitudes that lead to discrimination and prejudice. In doing so they explore the concepts of white privilege and white supremacy, what performative allyship looks like, and what genuine allyship looks like and what it costs. 

Challenging Antisemitism in all its forms || October 2021

In this episode, Andy McClenaghan is joined by guests Sam Lethbridge, Incidents Manager at the Community Security Trust and Paul Shuttleworth, Professional Officer with BASW England to discuss antisemitism—what it means, what its impacts are and how social workers can stand against and address antisemitism across our society. 

Both Paul and Sam draw on their personal experiences as British Jewish people as they share their views on how antisemitism affects them and their communities.

Community Security Trust (CST) is a charity that protects British Jews from antisemitism and related threats. If you are the victim of an antisemitic incident or you have information regarding an antisemitic incident that happened to somebody else, please contact CST https://cst.org.uk/report-incident. 

The Care Review, Part 2 — Meeting the needs of Black & minoritised children in care || September 2021

In the second of two episodes exploring issues related to the independent review of children’s social care in England, Andy McClenaghan is joined by social workers Patriche Bentick, Senior Practitioner at Camden Council and James Kargbo, Fostering Team Manager, also from Camden Council. They examine issues facing Black and minoritized children in the care system, the extent to which matters of equality, diversity and inclusion have been considered in the Care Review so far and the need to decolonise social work education.

Exploring intersectionality in British Asian LGBTQIA+ Communities || June 2021

This episode, made for Pride Month 2021, explores challenges facing British Asian LGBTQIA+ and the ways in which social workers can better support this community. Andy McClenaghan is joined by Siddhi Joshi, founder and chairperson of British Asian LGBTI online support group, Khakan Qureshi, Founder of Finding A Voice and co-administrator of British Asians LGBTI and Narinder Sidhu, former Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead Officer with BASW.

Anti-Racism || May 2021

Andy McClenaghan is joined by Mit Joyner, President of the National Association of Social Workers in the USA, and Shantel Thomas, BASW Anti-Racism Lead to discuss the issue of structural and institutional racism in the UK and the USA.

The conversation explores the impacts of structural and institutional racism and considers the issue in the context of the murder of George Floyd, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Sewell Report, the Windrush Scandal and the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The episode concludes by examining how social workers can be agents of change by promoting anti-racist values and practice.

Challenging the last acceptable form of racism || April 2021

Dr Dan Allen from Manchester Metropolitan University and the award-winning storyteller, author and playwright, Richard O’Neill join Andy McClenaghan to discuss the discrimination experienced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities across the UK. They explore the changes that are needed to ensure social workers support these communities and address the prejudice and intolerance they face. For information on the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Social Work Association, please follow their twitter feed – @GRTSWAssoc

Other

BPS & School of Shabs | Relational & Anti-racist supervision form, social work student version, & guidance | 2022

BPS & School of Shabs | Anti-racism supervision template promotional video