From Newsletter #1 Spring 2010

Martin Chapman outlines the concerns of social workers in Swansea that personalisation will be a Trojan horse for cuts

Over the last few years social workers and social work students have been attending the SWAN conferences across the UK. Whilst there had always been an intention to get something going locally it never quite happened. However as cuts loom across the council and with social workers continuing to feel dragged away from social work practice the situation has changed.

Social workers from the Hospital Team, the Community Mental Health Teams and the Child and Family Teams recently met in Swansea University with staff from the Social Work Department to launch a local SWAN group. Swansea City and County have just launched a personalisation programme. The first task for Swansea SWAN is to try and make sure that this does not become a Trojan horse for cuts and to ensure that it really does promote the needs and views of service users. Swansea SWAN are now organising a one-day conference in April 2010 to look at issues around Personalisation.