“Everyone wants to feel supported”: Dave Callow is standing for SWU GS

Ballot papers are being despatched this week for Social Workers Union (SWU) members to vote in the important election of the union’s leader.

SWU is a registered, independent trade union in the UK, specifically run by and for qualified social workers.

The SWU General Secretary role is similar to a Chief Executive Officer, acting as a decision-maker on the Executive’s behalf.

Voters can choose between Dave Callow, currently SWU Chair (interviewed in this article); and Calum Gallacher, current Assistant General Secretary. You can find Calum’s interview here: https://www.socialworktoday.co.uk/News/our-strength-comes-from-the-ground-calum-gallacher-is-standing-for-swu-general-secretary

The ballot return deadline is midday on April 29, with election results to be announced by SWU on April 30.

Q. So Dave, what is your current role within SWU? How long have you been part of SWU?

“My current role in SWU is I'm SWU Chair and I was elected as SWU Chair in 2022 and then re-elected in 2024. The SWU Chair is responsible for chairing the Executive Committee that meets every two months to guide the conversations and the discussions that are relevant to the operations of the union.

“Prior to that, I was on the Executive Committee myself as a member, which was 2020. And going back a little bit further, I was a trained and became a union contact in 2019, and went on to the phase two union contact training in 2020. My first connection with SWU was in 2018.”

Q. What would be your three priorities for SWU as General Secretary?

“As you can imagine with any union, the union is only as healthy as its membership. So firstly, we need to increase our membership. We've taken a bit of a knock in terms of our relationship with BASW and, you know, we can factor in a cost of living crisis within all that. But there has been a loss in membership and SWU has to respond to that.

“For me, it's about creating a healthier membership. Now, what that looks like is essentially: you want as many social workers out there within the profession, within different teams across local authorities and in charities and in hospitals that are the voice and the eyes, the ears of the membership and of the union. So membership has to be developed. I think we do that by developing the union contact programme.

“Everyone wants to feel supported and everyone wants to feel like they belong to something. Everyone wants to feel like they matter.

“It can be a very lonely job and I know that from my own experiences as a child protection social worker for a few years in different teams that it can be a very isolated lonely experience – when you’re up against the pressures that we're all aware of, and then the media which doesn't portray us in a particularly positive manner.

“It might seem little to us, but I think it'd be nice to recognise our union contact champions and experienced members and that they receive some recognition in the [Annual General Meeting] itself, as well as invites to conferences where their voice is really welcome and appreciated.

“And thirdly, it's about what does the future look like for SWU? […] At the moment, we are in a cooperation agreement with BASW. I think that the last year or so, with the knock to the membership and a very challenging world where there’s costs of being a BASW and SWU member, people are thinking about that.

“We need to look at what their future may be and how that cooperation looks. Does it look positive? Are we equal partners in that? Are we very social media present, which of course is where everything happens these days. But equally, campaigns: are we kind of really joined up with BASW? I think it's about identifying the gaps, but equally where we're going to go with that. And if there is a future that where SWU needs to consider what it does and maybe takes an alternative route, then we need to look at that and consult that with the members because that's a very, very big decision to take.”

Q. At the most recent AGM, a motion was put forward to explore the possibility of separation from BASW. I just wondered what your thoughts on it are now?

“I think it's something that any organisation always considers its options, isn't it? The ideal option being that BASW and SWU will remain in a partnership and we've got a lot to offer each other and though it's a professional association, it's really important to have that equally as well as the representation from SWU. So that process is ongoing.

“I think it's just a reasonable, considered response to our future within social work, which is that it's never going to be static. I mean, social work is the last sort of profession that you've ever considered to be something that's going to stay static.”

Q. What is your social work background and what skills and experience do you bring to the table with this?

“My social work background is in child protection. My particular area that I found a skill in was working with families in crisis. So I found very quickly that I could work with people doing desperate things for desperate situations and desperate reasons, sometimes. And how you respond to that is as critical as anything really.

“For me, it was developing a clear, honest, respectful working relationship very quickly, which is difficult in child protection because you may only be involved for a short time.

“It was that skill of mediation, of being able to remain calm in difficult situations, and there were some very difficult pressured situations, but to be able to communicate clearly and to be transparent.

Q. Tell me about the SWU Skills Test*. I wanted to get your thoughts on this and its importance and relevance to the election.

“I believe that any role you apply for, […] you have a particular set of tasks that are either essential or you need to take part in. So for me, it was extremely important to take part in this trade union skills test. I do have trade union knowledge from working with Unite the Union previously and obviously some of the bits and pieces done with the [General Federation of Trade Unions]. So it's not new knowledge, but equally it's important to be consistent and to be contemporary with that.

“Coming into a role where it's not just a social work role, it's the management of a union that is supporting social workers. So it's the management part as well, including budgets and the bits that maybe you don't get to get so involved in as social worker. So for me, it was really important to take part in that and I was very pleased to pass that test. As with the hustings**, I think it's part of the process. I was equally disappointed that not every candidate has done that, but I'm concentrating on myself and want to prove to members that I had the trade union knowledge to support the skills and attributes I bring to the role.”

Q. Recent data from Social Work England, confirmed the long-held belief that social workers of black African, Caribbean and black British ethnicities, as well as male practitioners and those aged over 40 are overrepresented at multiple stages of fitness to practice processes. How much of a priority is promoting diversity, equality and inclusion to your campaign and ultimately your role as General Secretary should you win? And what are your credentials for tackling this issue?

“Belonging and inclusion are two factors I want for the union.

“In terms of my previous experience, working at the University of Lincoln as a lecturer, I co-developed a guide for practice educators working with international students that allow practice educators to consider their own position and their own biases, because we all carry our own biases, but sometimes we don't even recognise them. But what it guided practice educators towards was a culturally competent practice.

“I think any union is only as healthy as its representation and its representation needs to reflect social work practice. We know that the majority of social workers, are women or female. So obviously, that should come and translate into the Exec[utive Committee] and the underpinning role of the union.

“In terms of students and social workers from abroad, international social workers, it's about finding routes and mechanisms for how those voices can be heard.”

Q. What would failure look like after one year in-post?

“I think failure would be a lack of communication between the General Secretary and the Exec and a loss of the campaigning momentum that SWU has built up over the years in terms of part-time work and the working conditions of social workers. Those are the fabric of who we are as social workers because social justice and social work go hand-in-hand.

“Equally, if I felt that members feel that the leadership and the Executive Committee were not responding or representing of what was happening on the ground out there in social work practice.”

Q. Tell me a decision you’d make as General Secretary that would make you unpopular.

“I think coming back a little bit to the relationship between BASW and SWU, I think that could be [an unpopular decision]. As you saw yourself from the motion in the AGM in 2025, there's further discussion to be had there.

“If SWU was to take a decision on that based upon what its members were telling SWU – because it has to be member-led – that could be an unpopular decision, essentially because you're going into uncharted territory.”