Read our questions and answers concerning TCSW's discussions ...

Questions and answers concerning TCSW’s discussions with BASW
Why couldn’t you agree to merge?
We are different organisations with different functions, different histories and different
cultures. It is really hard to bring organisations together to make common cause when
they have different functions, different bases for their income, different governance
structures, and very different operating models, and we have not found a way to do this
after two years.
It is very risky because each might have to give up their business model, for an unproven
model. BASW will not agree to this. It is also very costly because we may have had to
invest heavily in new and compatible IT systems (we have different membership
databases, different websites, different accounting packages, etc). TUPE may have
applied, and this could be very expensive in terms of possible redundancies.
Have you just walked out of talks as BASW say?
No. We have explained to BASW Council and Executive that there is no quick fix, and
that in order to continue any negotiations they need to come back to us with a model of a
College that does not have the Social Workers Union embedded in it. The letters we
have written are published on our website, and on the BASW website.
The Education Select Committee hearing meant that we are now very careful about
ensuring that social workers can belong to a trade union of their choice, or none, and so
it is not possible to put a trade union within a College for us.
But will social workers pay for membership of so many organisations?
We know you have to pay for registration with the HCPC. You will also want to be a
member of a Trade Union, which might be one of a number representing social workers,
including UNISON, which represents around 40,000 social workers, or BASW’s Social
Workers Union (SWU). We have deliberately kept our membership subscriptions low, so
that you can afford to join your College as well. And we are asking employers to pay for
your membership to try to ensure it is affordable for you.
Is it really about Hilton Dawson?
No. BASW Council Honorary Officers and Executive staff are jointly leading these
negotiations and they discuss these with the whole of BASW Council.
Note that Hilton is currently suspended while allegations of misconduct are being
investigated. Any possible merger partner would of course be nervous about the
implications of this, and would want to proceed cautiously until the investigations are
complete.
How are the organisations so different?
TCSW is the centre of excellence for social work, the guardian of professional standards
and provides resources to its members to uphold and strengthen standards of
professional practice. It is responsible for taking forward social work reform. These
functions are all for public benefit (and not individual member benefit).
The College of Social Work | 2-4 Cockspur Street | London | SW1Y 5BH
Tel: 020 7024 7777 | Fax: 020 7024 7651 | www.tcsw.org.uk
TCSW is a Company Limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales No.07499397
Trading as The College of Social Work, a not for profit organisation

TCSW came into being as a recommendation of the Social Work Task Force that
followed the death of Baby Peter, and the attacks on social work that followed. TCSW
therefore sees itself as having a pivotal role in improving public confidence in social
work. To do this effectively, TCSW holds the professional standards for social work and
is working hard to embed these at all career levels and at initial education and post
qualifying education and training. Our mission as the voice of the profession derives its
authority from the fact that social workers already work to very high professional
standards and aspire to be better still. As the voice of the profession, we will explain how
social work works and why it matters. All our membership services are designed to
support social workers to continue to develop as professionals, just like those of Colleges
for other professions.
BASW provides Advice and Representation and the Social Workers Union (SWU) to
individual members. It can therefore support them and represent them to employers and
to the regulator and it can offer commentaries on its members’ experiences as
employees. TCSW does not do this; our focus is on the profession and its development
– collectively for the benefit of people who need social work.
TCSW has benefited hugely from membership involvement and participation in all our
work; and has actively sought this. For example, our media spokespeople and our
professional mentors for social workers are our members, not our staff. Our helpdesk
experts are our members, not our staff.
TCSW, like other colleges, has developed working relationships with people who use
social work services and carers, and with the organisations that represent them. TCSW
has a commitment to having two lay representatives on its Board, and to ensuring that
people who use services and carers participate actively in its Professional Assembly and
working groups.
TCSW and BASW services have very little duplication because we have different
functions.
Most other professions have a regulator, a College to uphold standards and an
association and/or trade union(s) to provide advice and representation for individual
members of the profession. Social work’s recent move to a more generic regulator (the
HCPC) which does not hold professional standards (it holds proficiency standards for
public protection) means that it is The College which now holds the professional
standards for social work in England. This in turn assures the independence of
professional standards from Government intervention and enables the profession itself to
develop and enforce its own standards.
The College of Social Work | 2-4 Cockspur Street | London | SW1Y 5BH
Tel: 020 7024 7777 | Fax: 020 7024 7651 | www.tcsw.org.uk
TCSW is a Company Limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales No.07499397
Trading as The College of Social Work, a not for profit organisation

Why do you say your and BASW’s services are complementary?
We offer different services and we have different functions. The only duplicate offer is
insurance cover. You need to select the offer that best meets your needs. BASW offers
individual advice and representation and the Social Worker Union (which is recognised
by only 2 employers). It covers the UK. TCSW covers England and offers services
designed to help you maintain and improve your professional practice throughout your
career.
TCSW’s professional practice services include:
Knowledge @ The College online help desk
As a member of TCSW, you can submit any professional practice questions and
dilemmas, with a guarantee that you will receive a researched and detailed answer,
compiled by our approved panel of social work experts and making use of up to date and
referenced evidence.
CPD ePortfolio
An e-portfolio for members to plan and keep good records of all continuing professional
development (CPD) activity and outcomes in line with Health and Care Professions
Council (HCPC) registration requirements which maps onto the PCF so that it supports
your career development;
Access to eBooks and Journals
Access to academic journals and a wide range of e-books to support evidence informed
practice and professional development. The selection of journals and e books is specific
to TCSW members and not the same as that offered through SCIE.
Communities of Interest
Our Communities of Interest provide online communities to share practice, exchange
ideas, network, access resources to support good practice, as well as an opportunity to
contribute to practice debates.
Monthly Social Work Matters eMagazine
Our eMagazine keeps members up-to-date with the latest professional news, good
practice highlights, topical policy issues and debates.
Peer mentoring
Access to our expert peer mentoring service, supporting and helping you to grow as a
professional.
Insurance cover
£2m Professional Indemnity insurance cover for members in local authority and
organisational employment
£2m Professional Indemnity and £5m Public Liability cover for self-employed members
The College of Social Work | 2-4 Cockspur Street | London | SW1Y 5BH
Tel: 020 7024 7777 | Fax: 020 7024 7651 | www.tcsw.org.uk
TCSW is a Company Limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales No.07499397
Trading as The College of Social Work, a not for profit organisation

We have offered to collaborate with BASW, and have suggested a joint membership
scheme for BASW England members: see our proposals here.
What is the problem with being a trade union as well as a college? Isn’t that what
you were proposing with Unison anyway?
We had never proposed to be a trade union. Our proposals with UNISON were aimed at
securing joint membership, so that social workers could have the protection of a trade
union quite separately from membership of a college. We would simply have collected
the fees for UNISON and passed them on, but this proposal is no longer on the table.
The problem of being one and the same is that there is both an actual and a perceived
conflict of interest between providing individual support to a social worker who may not
have met professional standards and upholding the highest possible professional
standards. The profession needs both, and social workers can of course join a trade
union of their choice, or none.
Doesn’t the Royal College of Nursing succeed in offering both professional college
and union services?
Our situation is very different from that of the RCN, which has a long pedigree. It began
as a professional college and only much later became a union. Unlike them, we would be
in the impossible position of simultaneously trying to establish ourselves as a
professional college and as a union, trying to prove our worth on two very different and
often conflicting fronts at the same time. This would be a recipe for disaster. There are
already several existing unions that represent social workers well.
What about the corporate offer? Won’t that just mean you are in the pockets of
employers?
No, it won’t. Employers are being offered a chance to buy discounted membership for
their individual employees, each of whom will choose t whether to take it up. Employees
will become voting members and therefore be able to influence and indeed decide on the
role of The College. Their employers will not. Employers are doing this in order to make
sure that the social workers they employ are supported to meet high professional
standards.
What about the rest of the UK?
Social work is organised and regulated differently in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland. Any UK wide College needs to take into account devolution and the wishes of
social workers in each of the devolved countries. Membership income from each country
is unlikely to be sufficient to cover the costs of running offices in each country. TCSW
was established to respond to what was widely regarded as a crisis for the profession in
England and that has been our priority so far.
The College of Social Work | 2-4 Cockspur Street | London | SW1Y 5BH
Tel: 020 7024 7777 | Fax: 020 7024 7651 | www.tcsw.org.uk
TCSW is a Company Limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales No.07499397
Trading as The College of Social Work, a not for profit organisation

BASW say you are not independent of government. You have funds from
government so they seem to be right about that.
We have received government funding because government accepted the
recommendation of the Social Work Task Force that a college of social work was
needed, to be a college for the profession of the kind other professions have. They
provided start up funds and then some funding to support us to lead key aspects of social
work reform.
However, we are an independent body. We have our own legal status, we have our own
governing body, we have our own vision, mission, values and objectives, and we make
our own decisions. We ensure that our members can be actively engaged in our work.
We take positions on policy issues informed by the active engagement with and view of
our members, and these are independent views. Being independent does not always
mean being confrontational. Sometimes the best way to influence and ensure positive
changes and developments is about working alongside policy makers, helping them find
solutions to the problems they face, and helping them to identify problems and solutions
to issues they were not aware of. This is how we have been working.
Who is running TCSW?
TCSW is governed by a Transition Board; we are arranging for elections to the Board in
early 2013. Professional leadership at TCSW comes from our Faculty and Professional
Assembly structure and elections for the Assembly will be arranged for early 2013. Day
to day management is by the Chief Executive; we will be recruiting our first permanent
Chief Executive now through an open recruitment process. In the meantime, the Board
has appointed Dorit Braun as Interim Chief Executive.
Why should I join any of you?
An important part of being a profession is membership of your professional body. We
urge you to join a professional body as a symbol of being a social worker, and as a way
to get involved in actively shaping your profession. We will provide you with excellent
resources to maintain and further improve your standards of practice.
In time, we expect that as for other professions, employers will expect social workers to
be members of their college which will provide reassurance that you are up to date with
professional development.
You’ve got hardly any members. You’re not going to survive so it’s best not to
join you.
It has taken BASW 42 years to get 14,000 members across the UK. In the 6 month
period that we opened for paying membership we’ve got almost 2,400 paying members.
We have a further 9000 prospective members. We think we are doing pretty well in the
circumstances. And of course the sooner more people join, the stronger we will be.
The College of Social Work | 2-4 Cockspur Street | London | SW1Y 5BH
Tel: 020 7024 7777 | Fax: 020 7024 7651 | www.tcsw.org.uk
TCSW is a Company Limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales No.07499397
Trading as The College of Social Work, a not for profit organisation