Founding purposes

This free online magazine was produced during the first peak of the Covid-19 crisis in the UK from April to July 2020, and returned in April 2021 for a special edition calling for a review of the English Children’s Social Care system.

SW2020

SW2020 focussed on issues of interest to those who were using social work or social care services, those who provided them and those who were undertaking teaching or research around them. 

Some of those issues were related directly to Covid-19 (policy analyses, thought pieces, personal experiences), but there was also space to raise issues related to other areas of social work and social care that contributors felt needed airing during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

SW2021

SW2021 was a one-off special edition focussed around the English Children’s Social Care Review, which included hopes and concerns relating to the English Review findings and processes. 

The SW2021 edition also includes a far wider set of concerns – from analysis of elements of the children’s social care system which need reform, suggestions for practice and system changes, the wider politics of undertaking this Review or similar reviews elsewhere, and examples of hopes, challenges and realities from other jurisdictions from which England might learn. 

Background

The basis for the magazine arose out of a belief that there was much going on of high relevance to social work and social care during Covid-19, and much was being said and written about it. The goal of Social Work 2020-21 was to bring some of these discussions together and present them in an accessible format. 

The content of Social Work 2020-21 under Covid-19 falls somewhere between Twitter threads and detailed blogs: it may be best thought of as a collection of blog-like articles about social work and social care during the Covid-19 crisis. 

The content of the magazine also provides an archive of issues raised in respect of social work and social care during this period and will be, we hope, of continuing use and interest.

Agenda

In making our original call for articles we noted that we would particularly like to include: “articles describing and analysing policy, policy applications and practices during the Covid-19 crisis in any of the four countries in the UK – both those raising concerns and asking questions and those highlighting positive practices with transferable lessons; articles which critically analyse the response of big business and private capital in respect of the caring professions, during the Covid-19 crisis; articles which underpin solidarity between those using and providing social work and social care services, and with other allied professionals and workers; articles on personal experiences or reflections about receiving or providing services, or lived daily experience in the Covid-19 crisis; any international contributions with learning for the UK around the social work and social care response to the Covid-19 crisis; creative pieces based on experiences under Covid-19; relevant book and film reviews; and, articles which raise issues in social work and social care that are being forgotten about during the Covid-19 crisis (whether or not directly related to Covid-19).” 

In this call we did not anticipate the international interest the magazine would generate. By the final edition we had published articles from authors based in Australia, Canada, China, Ireland and Israel, as well as all four UK countries. In addition to this interest we had site visits and messages from readers in Egypt, Finland, France, India, Netherlands, New Zealand and the USA.

The editorial collective and peer review team were committed to representing constructive and critical engagement around the responses of big businesses, governments, as well as governmental and non-governmental agencies. We were also committed to plurality of voice and perspective and included articles from different perspectives, so long as they were consistent with our understanding of core social work values.

The selection process

Articles were assessed for inclusion by the editorial collective and a small team of peer reviewers with lived experience. If we had more articles than we could reasonably include for the special edition.

The criteria used to select articles included: 

• currency and timeliness of the issues raised

• insightfulness 

• plurality of issues raised in the article (ie, did it raise substantively different issues other articles, particularly in the same issue?)

• plurality of voice (we were keen to see articles from the widest range of people who used, provided, taught and researched around social work and social care)

• consistency with social work values as per the IFSW Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles (https://www.ifsw.org/global-social-work-statement-of-ethical-principles/)

• between 500 – 2000 words.

Where members of the peer review team or editorial collective themselves submitted articles those pieces were assessed and managed by at least two other members of the collective or peer reviewers, and judged by the same criteria.

Authors were encouraged to keep academic references to a minimum, and ensure they respected the confidentiality and anonymity of people using services and colleagues providing direct services. It was up to the author whether to name their organisation, or not. We were also happy to consider articles written under pseudonyms where writing under an actual name was difficult.

Best wishes, good health and solidarity,

The SW2020-21 Covid-19 Editorial Collective and Peer Review Team.

12/02/21

With thanks to

Daniel Villalba Algas for technical support

Bianca Palazzi for the logo designs