Respecting diversity through joint social action

The theme of 2023’s World Social Work Day, ‘respecting diversity through joint social action’, is a call for everyone in social work to pull together to embed equality, diversity and inclusion in the profession.

Social Work England’s new strategy for 2023 to 2026 explains that, as the regulator, we are guided by 2 main principles:

1. equality, diversity and inclusion must be integral to and embedded in all we do.
2. we must always listen to, engage with and co-produce alongside those who are directly influenced by our work.

These 2 principles can only work effectively in tandem. In our statement of intent and action plan, we set out that equality, diversity and inclusion must be a thread throughout everything we do. To achieve this, we must gain a true understanding of the diversity of the sector, by effectively engaging with everyone and co-producing change.

In a sector that directly affects the lives of millions of people, and includes hundreds of organisations, the potential for joint social action through engagement and co-production is powerful. It’s also challenging. The urgency for joint social action has been accelerated by national and international events and movements, a pandemic and a cost of living crisis. The social work profession is facing growing demands and rising vacancies. When resources are stretched, the best laid plans and intentions can struggle to move beyond conversations and meeting minutes.

By the very nature of their jobs, social workers are individually and collectively taking action to address inequality in society every day. There are many awe-inspiring initiatives around the country that are spearheading inclusivity, anti-racism and fairness in individual communities. However, as a sector it sometimes doesn’t feel like we’ve quite yet found our collective voice in this area. Or, perhaps, we all say the same things, but struggle to effect that joint social action.

As the regulator we will continue to push for a whole profession approach to address this. We will continue to engage the sector at every opportunity to harness the potential of our shared expertise and energy. World Social Work Day presents the perfect opportunity for every organisation to reflect on how they could contribute to joint social action. So that equality, diversity and inclusion becomes one of the hallmarks of how the social work sector pulls together effectively.

We should also use the day to reflect on the successes of joint social action so far. Here are some examples:

Understanding the diversity of the workforce

A lack of data about social work has always been an obstacle to driving transformative, evidence-based change. We will use our position as the specialist regulator to work with everyone in the profession to build a complete picture of social work in England. A successful example of this was the joint effort to gather data about the diversity of the workforce – something that had never been done before.

We wanted this data to find out:

• if social workers were representative of the people they were supporting
• get a better understanding of the challenges social workers may face
• help us to identify any inequalities in our regulatory processes.

We asked social workers to voluntarily share their data in a campaign backed by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Social Workers’ Union, UNISON, ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Services), and ADCS (Association of Directors of Children’s Services). We would like to say a huge thank you to the organisations that supported this drive and over 96% of social workers who have now shared information on at least one aspect of diversity.

These included ethnicity, disability, religion, sexual orientation and gender registered at birth where different to current gender identity. We have included an initial analysis of the findings in the Social Work in England: State of the nation 2023 report and are now undertaking more detailed analysis of the data. This will help us identify any trends or differences in outcomes for people in relation to their backgrounds and ensure our policies and processes are fair and equal to everyone. This information will also support other leaders and policy makers to ensure their processes are equitable too.

Ensuring equality in education and training

Our new education and training standards include an increased focus on equality, diversity and inclusion and more involvement of people with lived experience of social work in the design and delivery of courses. Through our education quality assurance work we are working with the providers of almost 300 social work courses to make sure they are inclusive.

Our new approach to education and training also aims to ensure that students from all backgrounds can access the right course, successfully complete it, and qualify ready to practise. This will only happen through the joint action of everyone involved in social work education and training. We have recently held a consultation and launched a new advisory forum to enable this.

Collaborating for change

Other examples of joint action to embed equality, diversity and inclusion include:

• Social Work Week: We created this annual event for thousands of people to share diverse experiences, insight and learning from all areas of social work. The event has been co-produced with our National Advisory Forum.
• the Anti-Racist Steering Group: this brings together key stakeholder organisations and individuals committed to understanding and driving forward the anti-racism agenda in the social work workforce.
• we are leading a national roundtable on workforce issues. Leaders from across the profession will consider the role of equality, diversity and inclusion in recruitment and retention pressures.
• using our influence to identify, understand and address wider inequalities as part of several forums including:
  • the UK social work and care regulators equality, diversity and inclusion forum
  • the joint healthcare regulators’ equality, diversity and inclusion forum
  • the association of chief executives equality, diversity and inclusion forum.

As we embark on our new 3 year strategy, we look forward to more conversations on equality, diversity and inclusion with the social work profession, key stakeholders and those with lived experience of social work.

More importantly, we look forward to working with the sector to turn those conversations into joint social action. As we strive to embed equality, diversity and inclusion into every aspect of how we regulate social work, we hope the sector will take joint action to bring these values into every aspect of social work.