Almost a year ago today Community Care revealed the College of Social Work was to close due to a lack of funds.
The closure came after the government rejected proposals from the College’s leaders that it should be given responsibility for additional functions, such as post-qualifying training, which would have secured much-needed income.
Ministers made the decision to withdraw support having been presented with the findings of a warts and all review that revealed the College was in significant financial difficulty. This review was carried out by the College. A copy of it was leaked to Community Care and we reported on its findings last year. The report itself was never published by the College or the government.
Today, with permission from a source, we make the report available to download in order to inform the debate around the College’s closure.
An article we published on the closure this week has drawn criticism from a former College board member for being “really poor and badly researched”. The crux of the article was based on the College report and the piece quotes from it. The information on finances is based on the section featured below.
Other figures referenced in our article come from The College’s published accounts. These show the government invested £5m in start-up funding for the College and, during its two years in operation, the organisation received more than £2.5m in additional government funding for projects and £792,000 in membership fees. The accounts also show the College had committed to a ‘non-cancellable’ property lease worth £199,704.
With the report sent to ministers now available, social workers can hopefully gain a fuller picture around the closure of their first professional college.
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Bullet point 1.2: ”…. nearest competitor…”
It shouldn’t have been in competition but since it chose to be it deservedly lost.
No tears from me.
Could it be that Ministers simply didn’t believe TCSW ?
I’ll never forget the meeting BASW had with them in November 2010 where we agreed to work together towards merger with the College on the basis that our concerns about Unison and its potential to undermine the independence of the new organisation were fully explored and resolved.
A few days later we were sent a press release announcing the deal that had been done with Unison.
At that moment we realised that BASW was in a battle for its existence – and much more importantly – to retain an independent voice for social work .
I do not fully understand Hilton Dawson’s comments. I recall my concern being that I wished to continue to be a member of a professional body, BASW, of which I was proud and which I had found helpful over a career in social work lasting more than 25 years, and also maintain my membership of a union – then UNISON – where I added my voice to those of others working in social care and could influence the working rights and conditions of those who were often less well paid than social workers – and that is saying something!.
I did not like the drive towards one body aiming to fulfil both functions, which was what I thought the College was trying to do. I chose to have nothing to do with it.