SWAN - The Social Work Action Network

Welcome to SWAN's new website. We hope you like features such as regional webpages, improved discussion forum & social media integration. Please sign up & join the debate on our forum.

SWAN is a network of social work practitioners, academics, students and social welfare service users united in their concern that social work activity is being undermined by managerialism and marketisation, by the stigmatisation of service users and by welfare cuts and restrictions.

SWAN promotes a model of social work and social care practice which is rooted in the value of social justice. This model seeks to advocate alongside, and on behalf of, service users and carers. It values both individual relationship-based practice and collective approaches.

It works towards these objectives through regular conferences and campaigning activities, and to strengthen the radical voice within social work practice, education and wider social policy debates.

SWAN works alongside existing social care, service user and carer organisations, including UNISON, to promote strong collective organisation and, wherever possible, to campaign jointly.

Social Work in Danger: Re-imagining Social Work

Public meeting in Bristol - supported by SWAN, Unison and Bristol Anti-Cuts Alliance

Please come along to this meeting on Thursday 23rd June at 7:30pm. It is a chance for social workers, colleagues and service users to share experiences from the frontline of budget cuts and plan how to work together to respond.

 

Venue:

5th Floor Hamilton House,

Stokes Croft 

BS1 3QY

 

Speakers:

Rich Moth, SWAN Deputy Convenor

Liz Brown, Unison Activist (voluntary sector)

A third speaker from Bristol Older People's Forum

  

 

SWAN is a democratic, grassroots organisation – policy making and elections take place at the AGM during the annual conference’

Social Work Manifesto.

Social work in Britain today has lost direction. We need to find more effective ways of resisting the dominant trends within social work and map ways forward for a new engaged practice…

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History.

SWAN developed from the Social Work Manifesto written in 2004. It launched a popular defence of social work in the aftermath of the Baby Peter tragedy in 2008. It continues to hold successful conferences and campaigns; the 7th national SWAN conference will be held in Liverpool in March 2012.

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Recent topics

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SWAN Conference 2012

Is a College of Social Work relevant?


SWAN and its work with the service user movement

SWAN social media

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Meet and network with SWAN members on Facebook.

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Change the course of social work

 
 

The next SWAN national conference is the seventh. It takes place in Liverpool at Hope University on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st March 2012. We will regularly update the SWAN website with information about speakers and booking. You can find these pages in the Conference 2012 section. Please also see the Liverpool Hope University Website for further information about booking.

SWAN is proud to announce that the key note address will be given by Professor Danny Dorling from the University of Sheffield. Danny has recently written two books that look at the impact of the recession and the Government’s austerity measures on Britain’s poor communities. 'So you think you know about Britain?' and 'Bankrupt Britain: An Atlas of Social Change' both provide detailed analysis of growing levels of inequality across Britain and build on his earlier work 'Injustice' to argue that a different world and a different set of Government priorities are necessary.

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SWAN address & email

Social Work Action Network (SWAN)
PO Box 29521
Glasgow
G63 0WS

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