Join us for this year’s flagship SASW Conference, bringing together social workers, students, educators, and policymakers from across Scotland and beyond to reflect, share, and create change.
This one-day online event explores the role of activism in social work. Activism comes in all shapes and sizes. Our conference will showcase communal acts of overt political activism and hear from people who have used their role to drive strategic and structural change within their communities and organisations. But equally importantly, we will invigorate our everyday social work practice by asking what matters to the people we support and how we can use our professional and organisational resources to act with creativity and integrity to make a real difference in people’s lives.
FREE to BASW members and ALL social work students
£48 for non-members
| Welcome | Dr Jane Shears | National Director BASW NI & SASW Conference Chair | 10:00 |
| Can activism drive forward rights-based, inclusive, and equitable social work practice? | Charlie McMillan | Director, Human Rights Consortium Scotland, Chair, Dates’n’Mates Scotland, Co-Chair, Scottish National Action Plan for Human Rights, Chair, Global Leadership Exchange Advisory Group for Disability | 10:10 |
| The Power threat Meaning Framework – Implications for Social Work and for Activism | Phil Wiltshire | Social Worker, Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust | 10:30 |
| Iona Colvin | Chief Social Work Adviser | 11:05 | |
| Panel | Iona Colvin, Chief Social Work Adviser; Charlie McMillan, Humans Rights Consortium; Phil Wilshire, Social Worker; Caroline McDonald, Co-chair SASW National Committee | 11:25 | |
| Workshops x 6 | See workshop list | 13:00 | |
| Workshops x 6 | 14:00 | ||
| Prospects for the 2026 Scottish Parliament Election | Prof Sir John Curtis | Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde | 15:05 |
| Panel - Building Campaigns for Change | John Dickie, CPAG: Monica Lennon MSP; John McGowan, SWU; Alison McGrory, NHS Highland; and Pete White, Only Just | 15:30 | |
| Final Thoughts | Toyin Adenugba & Caroline McDonald | Co-Chairs SASW National Committee | 15:50 |