The Outgoing Chair’s Reflections
Reflecting following a second retirement (the first being from over 30 years in Social Services work) after a decade as a Trustee, for the Social Workers Benevolent Trust, (which I hope you have heard of, as it is the only charity that supports Social Workers in the UK when times are difficult); and for the majority of those years I have been either a co-chair; or the chair, my main view is that it has been a period of tremendous change for the Trust and its Trustees.
The changes are the expected ones of changes in Trustees; changes bought about by Covid i.e. learning to cope with virtual meetings; moving from having applications sent out by post to read, to applications being read online. Then more significant changes with the number of applications moving up from 20 -25 received, to between 70 – 90 received per bi-monthly meeting. This being particularly difficult as there has not being a corresponding increase in income for the trust.
Reasons for requests have also changed over time with prominent reasons being domestic abuse, including coercive control, often leading to poor living conditions caused by the need to move out of the abusive situation; low income having changed from two incomes to one; and mental ill health caused by all these factors.
Mental and physical ill health; and disabilities, of themselves, or their children or relatives are major factors in situations which lead social workers to feel the need to ask for support with their finances. Many applicants state how they have struggled to ask for the help the Trust may provide.
The level of debt that some of the applicant families face must increase risks to the children in those families as they are clearly living in poverty, which as social workers we know can exacerbate and cause trauma; and increase the risks of many types of harm to all the family members.
My argument being that some social workers themselves are facing the kinds of difficulties that they are managing in their caseloads on a day-to-day basis.
My finale is to include in this a plea to ask that you consider the Social Workers Benevolent Trust in your monthly; annual; one off giving’s and perhaps in your will to make a donation in support of your colleagues; friends; and team members @ SWBT.org.
Su Roxburgh
Outgoing Chair
The Social Workers Benevolent Trust
June, 2025