Unison seeks membership deal for College of Social Work

Unison is in talks to negotiate a joint membership deal that could see more than 40,000 of its social work professionals become the founding members of the College of Social Work.

To operate effectively, the College of Social Work will need a critical mass of members, so it can offer value-for-money continuing professional development, among other services.

But social workers who already pay fees to a union could be unwilling to pay full price to sign up to the college.

Helga Pile, national officer for social work at Unison, told CYP Now that a joint deal would make it more cost effective for  social workers for children and families to be members of both organisations.

“The college is going to have to have some attractive offers,” she said. “We obviously would like to support anything that’s going to strengthen the profession and there clearly is a lot of logic in looking at a partnership, but cost is the bottom line for social workers.”

Meanwhile, the College of Social Work has appointed two interim chairs, Maurice Bates and Professor Corinne May-Chahal.

Bates is former interim director of children’s services at North East Lincolnshire Council and former director of adult and children’s services at Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council. May-Chahal is professor of applied social science at Lancaster University.

Moira Gibb, chair of the Social Work Task Force, headed up the interview panel for the College of Social Work.

She said Bates and May-Chahal have “a wealth of skills from both the social work and academic sectors” and will be “a major resource to the development of the college”.

Bates, who started his career as a social worker, said: “I look forward to using my strong leadership skills and experience to provide clear leadership to social workers and will strive to create a college that the profession can be proud of,” he said.

May-Chahal added: “I will draw on my extensive experience of social work research and education to ensure that the college is founded on standards that social workers, the public, government and academics can trust.”

Both candidates will take up their posts on 1 August.