We are delighted that Professor Fiona Verity will be one of our keynote speakers at our Tomorrow’s World Annual Conference in Cardiff, 19 March 2025! Her session will look at:
Beating hearts: progressing community social work and prevention
In the context of the current UK focus on prevention in social services, the community social work pulse is beating again. BASW has a Community Social Work Interest Group, and there are hopeful signs for this social work approach across the UK. In these critical social, economic and political times the move in this direction is a positive development. There are synergies with the International Federation of Social Work’s 2020-2030 Global Agenda, which calls on social workers to work alongside communities, for ‘social and economic equality’ and ‘community and environmental sustainability’. But lessons of history have repeatedly shown the tensions, challenges and contradictions in prevention and community development in social work, in walking alongside and supporting diverse communities taking action in their own terms.
How, and by whom, are these concepts and practices defined? How to move from ‘rhetoric to reality’, and in making a difference in the wider power relations that shape institutions and the issues people face. Social care in Wales operates in a market-based system; what does this mean for progressing community social work and prevention? These issues will be considered in order to contribute to the debate on advancing a Tomorrow’s World for Social Work.
About Professor Verity
Professor Fiona Verity (Brunel University) completed her social work qualification in Australia, where she worked for 16 years in various community-based roles; local council community development worker and community development and management roles in the community health sector. After working in universities in South Australia, she moved to Wales and took up the position of Professor (Social Work) at Swansea University (2016-2023). She has been active in projects such as the Developing Evidence Enriched Practice Programme (DEEP), and the evaluation of the implementation of the Social Services and Wellbeing Wales Act (2014). She is currently a member of the team undertaking the national evaluation of the Welsh Government’s Regional Integration Fund for Health and Social Care. Fiona has a deep commitment to community development and preventative work, a continuous theme in her university teaching and research.
