On 14th March 2013 Andrew Sackville, Emeritus Professor at Edge Hill
University, Lancashire talked about his research into the history of
professional associations of social workers.
Professional associations began to form in the decade before the Great War,
when more full-time, paid posts appeared in the welfare services. Among the
early associations were the Women Sanitary Inspectors, the Hospital
Almoners, Probation Officers, Women Housing Managers, Relieving Officers
and Industrial Welfare Officers. These early associations were concerned with
identifying and protecting their own work-territory, rather than joining together
as social workers, and early attempts at forming a single association in 1917 –
a Federation of Professional Social Workers – came to an early end in 1922.
The 1920s saw the growth of an Association of Mental Welfare Workers
(established in 1924); and an Association of Psychiatric Social Workers
(established in 1929). The introduction of International Social Work
Conferences in 1928 encouraged social workers to share their experiences
and to seek to influence developing social policy in the UK. A British
Federation of Social Workers was formed in 1935, and this was particularly
active during the Second World War, when it advised Central Government on
the effects of child evacuation, and the problems of social reconstruction
which faced post-was Britain. Prior to the establishment of the National Health
Service and the expansion of local authority social work in the late 1940s, the
professional associations depended on the patronage of their Presidents to
influence government. Andrew told a lovely story of how in 1947, the British
Federation of Social Workers was saved from financial ruin, when their
President – Lady Cynthia Colville, who was a Lady in Waiting to Queen Mary
(the then Queen Mother), persuaded her son (the private secretary of
Princess Elizabeth) to suggest that some of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding
present money from the people of Southampton, should be donated to the
Federation. This financial donation “saved” the Federation in the short term,
although in the longer term – the Federation ceased to exist in 1951!
During and after the Second World War a number of other professional
associations of social workers were formed – the Moral Welfare Workers
Association (1940); the Association of Family Case Workers (1940); the
Association of Child Care Officers (1949) and the Association of Social
Workers (1951). During the 1960s these associations began to cooperate with
each other in a number of activities, and eight associations came together to
form the Standing Conference of Social Workers in 1963. Although the
National Association of Probation Officers decided in 1969 not to join a single
Social Worker Association, the other seven associations, together with a
sizeable group of Probation Officers did come together to form BASW in
1970.
Andrew suggested that all the associations had been involved in a number of
activities, which influenced the development of social work. These included:
 Defining social work as an occupation.
 Influencing the recruitment and training of social workers
 Affecting standards of practice
 Engagement with the setting of salaries and conditions of service
 Influencing social policy.
Alongside these activities, the professional associations also had to deal with
internal issues within their association:
 Membership – what criteria should be used?
 Internal government – how could members be involved and
represented in decision-making in the association?
 Dealing with conflict and promoting consensus within the association.
Andrew concluded by suggesting that the influence of the professional
associations had waxed and waned in the different areas of activity over the
lifetime of the associations; but any history of social work – without a full
consideration of the role and impact of the professional associations would
only be a partial history.
If you are interested in any of these ideas, the full paper delivered is available
online at the Social Work History Network site.