LABOUR SOCIAL WORK GROUP MEETING 

WEDNESDAY 13 DECEMBER,

Co-Hosts  
Lord (Mike) Watson  of Invergowrie– was for 7 years Labour Shadow Education Minister in Lords
Emma Lewell-Buck MP has been Labour MP for South Shields since 2013 before which she was a child and family social worker. Shadow Children’s Minister 2016-19
Mike and Emma worked closely with (among others) members of the Together for Children Alliance, and LSWG  to successfully steer Labour amendments to the 2017 Children and Social Work Act through parliament.

Chair:  Dr Anne Cullen RSW is Chair of Labour Social Work Group and Vice Chair Banbury CLP.
Anne has worked in local authority services for both children and adults and in a large teaching hospice as a social work practitioner and manager. She is a past Chair of the Association of Palliative Care Social Workers and is currently a Schwartz Round mentor for The Point of Care Foundation. 

A discussion on a future Labour social work and social care service will be opened by: 

Anna Dixon MBE Anna is Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Shipley. She has over 25 years’ experience in health and social care. Anna’s key roles have included: Director of Strategy and Chief Analyst at the Department of Health, Director of Policy at the King’s Fund and Chief Executive of the Centre for Ageing Better. Anna chaired the Archbishops’ Commission on Reimagining Care (June 2021-Jan 2023) and received an MBE for services to wellbeing in later life in 2021. Anna is the Labour parliamentary candidate for Shipley constituency in West Yorkshire.

Dr Ray Jones is Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Kingston University and St. George’s, University of London, and a registered social worker. He has 50 plus years experience in children’s and adults’ social work and social care as a residential worker, social work practitioner, manager, teacher and researcher. From 1992 to 2006 he was director of social services in Wiltshire; he was the first chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence and has been Chair of BASW. Ray has led inquiries following the deaths of children and adults; was the independent chair of Bristol’s Safeguarding Children Board, and from 2010 until 2016, oversaw children’s services and child protection improvement in five areas of England. In 2013-2014 he was appointed by the Welsh Assembly to advise on the Welsh Social Services and Well-Being Bill. He is the author of eight books including ‘The Story of Baby P: Setting the Record Straight’(2014); ‘In Whose Interest? The Privatisation of Child Protection and Social Work’ (2017) and ‘A History of the Personal Social Services in England’ (2020). In 2022 he was appointed to undertake the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in Northern Ireland (email laboursocialworkgroup@gmail.com for PowerPoint.