Social workers gather to debate bureaucratic burden

eSocial workers have organised a special conference to share their concerns about the state of the profession.

The Social Work Action Network event, titled “I didn’t come into social work for this!”, invites practitioners and academics to debate the problems caused by regulation, privatisation and general bureaucracy.

The conference takes place at Coventry University on Saturday 7 November, from 11am to 2pm.

Conference line-up

Speakers include Professor John Harris from Warwick University, and Jim Board, branch secretary of Doncaster UNISON, who was suspended by Doncaster Council in September after speaking to Channel 4 News about the case of two brothers in care who attacked another two children.

BASW slams government

The announcement follows a headline-grabbing debate at the National Children’s and Adult Services conference in Harrogate last week, in which Hilton Dawson, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, who attacked children’s secretary Ed Balls for allowing social workers “to spend 80% of their time serving the bureaucratic machine”.

For more information about the SWAN conference email swanwestmidlands@googlemail.com

Related articles

Taskforce survey: Social workers feel ‘tied up in bureaucracy’

Survey reveals social workers’ poor working conditions

Further event information

The Task Force and Beyond: Rising to the challenges – Community Care’s conference is on 3 December in London