Social Work 2020-21 under Covid-19 Magazine

The SW2020-21 Covid-19 Magazine was a free online publication about social care released during the first UK lockdown in 2020. 

Five editions were published between the 9 April and 14 July 2020. There was also a special edition issue, linked to the calling of a Review of the English children’s social care system, published on 28 April 2021. All six issues are available here.

Background 

The magazine was initially set up as a forum for people to share ideas, thoughts, and experiences related to the Covid-19 pandemic and social work and care. 

It encouraged submissions from practitioners, activists, academics and people with personal experiences. These accounts included personal reflections, creative writing, art work, cartoons and journal articles.

The five editions in 2020 and the special edition in 2021 contain contained over 125 submissions by authors from across the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, China, Ireland and Israel.

The magazine was managed by a six-person editorial collective, which included Brid Featherstone, Anna Gupta, Christian Kerr, Gillian MacIntryre, Abyd Quinn-Aziz and Robin Sen. Five of these members are social work academics based in England, Scotland and Wales, and a social work practitioner based in England. 

For the special edition we were supported by a peer review team of Taliah Drayak, Lys Eden, Denisha Killoh, Jimmy Paul and John Radoux, all of whom have writing, campaigning and lived experience.

The editorial collective summarised some of the key pieces of learning from the SW2020 magazine in a journal article published in Social Work Education journal, which can be accessed here with a journal subscription. 

If you do not have access to the full journal article then please contact one of the editorial collective members for a pre-publication version of the article.

Magazine editions

About the magazine