Promoting anti-racism in social work
Published:
This presentation examines key issues around racism and inequality, which invites us to reflect on our own thoughts, feelings and behaviours as practitioners, leaders and allies.
Wayne Reid, BASW England’s Professional Officer, Social Worker and Anti-Racism Visionary shares his work on anti-racism in social work in 2021. This presentation examines key issues around racism and inequality, which invites us to reflect on our own thoughts, feelings and behaviours as practitioners, leaders and allies.
Following this presentation, Wayne and Research in Practice Director Dez Holmes took part in a podcast discussing racism, intersectionality, privilege, power, fragility and allyship.
Talking points
This presentation poses the following questions:
- What is anti-racism?
- How is anti-racism relevant to social work?
- How much of a priority is anti-racism in social work?
- How does workplace racism play out?
- What is anti-black racism and how does it manifest?
- What are the barriers to meaningful organisational change?
- How do organisations typically respond to racism?
- What needs to happen nationally?
- What might an anti-racist working environment look like?
- How can managers change the culture of their organisation?
Resources mentioned in this presentation
- 7 A's of Authentic Allyship
- Anti-Racist Commitment Framework
- BASW Code of Ethics
- BASW comments on the Commission for Race and Ethnic Disparities Report March 2021
- BASW Statement: George Floyd
- Becoming Anti-Racist
- Gurnam Singh’s White Identities Table
- How To Be An Antiracist
- How to Change a Culture: Lessons From NUMMI
- The Four Dimensions of Racism
- The “Problem” Woman of Colour in the Workplace
- The Social Work England Professional Standards
Related Research in Practice resources
- Black, Asian and minority ethnic leadership matters
- Thinking about the impact of racism
- Towards a fairer future – addressing inequality in recovery: Leaders’ Forum 2020
Reflective questions
Here are reflective questions to stimulate conversation and support practice.
- How does your organisation respond to racism?
- Which anti-racist actions can you embed in your practice?
- How can you be an effective ally to fellow Black and Minority Ethnic practitioners?
Professional Standards
PQS:KSS - Relationships and effective direct work | Communication | Child and family assessment | Analysis, decision-making, planning and review | Organisational context | Promote and govern excellent practice | Developing excellent practitioners | Shaping and influencing the practice system | Effective use of power and authority | Confident analysis and decision-making | Purposeful and effective social work | Emotionally intelligent practice supervision | Lead and govern excellent practice | Creating a context for excellent practice | Designing a system to support effective practice | Developing excellent practitioners | Support effective decision-making | The role of social workers | Person-centred practice | Effective assessments and outcome based support planning | Organisational context | Professional ethics and leadership | Values and ethics | Assuring good social work practice and development | Developing confident and capable social workers | Promoting and supporting critical analysis and decision-making | Effective use of power and authority as a practice supervisor
CQC - Caring | Effective | Safe
PCF - Values and ethics | Diversity and equality | Rights, justice and economic wellbeing | Critical reflection and analysis | Intervention and skills | Contexts and organisations
RCOT - Communication | Identify needs | Understanding relationship
