The UK Column has learned that over three thousand Social Work Practitioners, Educators and Development Workers met in Hong Kong in June 2010 and decided to launch a global movement to address the major challenges of global societies. The delegates agreed that three international organisations should speak out clearly from their experience of issues relevant to the larger community. The delegates reaffirmed the need to organise around major and relevant social issues that connect within and accross their professions.
Based on the decisions reached at the Hong Kong conference, the leadership of the three international organisations (International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the international Council on Social Welfare (ICSW)) representing the entire spectre of Social Work Practice, Social Work Education and Social Development Work globally, agreed on a set of objectives the meet THEIR joint aspirations for social justice and social development.
These objectives have been outlined in The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development Commitment to Action, March 2012. The following are selected extracts from that document.
'As social workers, educators and social development practitioners, we witness the daily realities of personal, social and community challenges. We believe that now is our time to work together, at all levels, FOR CHANGE, for social justice, and for the universal implementation of human rights, building on the wealth of social initiatives and social movements'.
'We, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFWS, the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW), recognise that the past and present political, economic, cultural and social orders, shaped in specific contexts, have unequal consequences for global, national and local communities and have negative impacts on people'.
'Consequently, we feel compelled to advocate for a new world order which makes the reality of respect for human rights and dignity and a different structure of human relationships'.
'This Global Agenda is the product of a three year collaborative initiative undertaken by three international organisations representing social work practice, social work education and social development. All three of these international bodies were founded in 1928 and have held formal consultative status for many decades with the United nations Economic and Social Council and other UN related agencies'.
The International Federation of Social Workers is the global federation of national social work organisations in 90 countries representing 750,000 social workers. The International Association of Schools in Social Work is an international community of schools and educators in social work promoting quality education, training and research in the theory and practice of social work, administration of social services and formulation of social policies. IASSW speaks on behalf of 2,000 schools of social work and 500,000 students. The International Council on Social Welfare is a global, non-governmental organisation which represents tens of thousands of organisations around the world that are actively involved in programmes to promote social welfare, social development and social justice.
In this document they tell us quite clearly that their role is to promote, with other agencies, the United Nations Agenda 21 programme. For example, they state that they
'...commit to support, influence and promote global initiatives aimed at achieving social and economic equality. We will accomplish this by using and strengthening our established relationships with the UN system and other international agencies. We will support the Millennium Development Goals. Our major focus is to prepare for the post-2015 development goals, which includes, for example, the social protection floor initiative, decent work and international labour standards, the WHO initiative on the social determinants of health; education for all'.
On page 5, under the sub-heading 'Our role in promoting sustainable communities and environmentally sensitive development' they claim that
'We commit to aligning our activities and programmes to development initiatives that are sustainable and which integrate the human dimension. We will strengthen our established relationships with the UN and other international agencies in order to re-affirm our support for initiatives aimed at protecting the natural environment. Our major focus will be on the Rio + 20 process, World Urban Forum, and the post-2015 development agenda...'
The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) represents the United Kingdom on the International Council of Social Welfare. The following screenshot illustrates the direct link from their website to the Global Agenda for Social Work.
Did you agree that our social workers and educators should commit themselves to the implementation of the UNs Agenda 21 programme in the absence of public consultation? I thought not.
According to the website of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services in England (ADASS)
'The social services workforce connects globally through the IFSW. It is a recognised NGO at the UN and works with the IASSSW and ICSW to promote the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, a ten year project reporting to the UN and WHO. In 2015 there will be a major European event in the UK hosted by BASW, involving the whole social services sector that will contribute to this work, under the second theme - 'promoting the dignity and worth of people'.
The Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) Chairs is itself chaired by David N Jones of Leicester City LCSB. According to his biography on LinkedIn
'He has over 30 years’ involvement in development and implementation of national and international policy on social work and social services, including several years in central government and 10 years’ on the World Executive of the International Federation of Social Workers. David retired as World President in 2010 with continuing responsibilities for The Global Social Work Agenda and 2014 world conference'.
In 1940 John Rawlings Rees, Tavistock Institute and President of the World Federation of Mental Health made an address at the annual meeting of the National Council for Mental Hygiene. He is reported as having said
'We have made a very useful attack on a number of professions. The two easiest of them naturally are the teaching profession and the church; the two most difficult are law and medicine. Anyone whose memory goes back for even a dozen years can realise how big a change has been effected in the outlook of professional people..If we are to infiltrate the professional and social activities of other groups I think we must imitate the totalitarians and organise some kind of fifth column activity...We have often been too spasmodic in our work and I feel we need a long term plan of propoganda'
Could British Social Workers now be forming part of the fifth column that John Rawlings Rees visualised in 1940?
In 2012 Rotherham Borough Council's disgraced former Strategic Director of Children and Young People's Services, Joyce Thacker (Common Puprose), told the BBC that her decision to remove foster children from carers who supported UKIP was influenced by UKIP's immigration policy, which she said calls for the end of the "active promotion of multiculturalism".
Was the real reason that the foster parents political views did not align with the 'Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development' which seeks to
advocate for a new world order which makes the reality of respect for human rights and dignity and a different structure of human relationships.
The General Public are still reeling at the shocking revelations of Child Sexual Expolitation in Rotherham where conservative estimates revealed approximately 1400 child victims during the Inquiry period, from 1997 to 2013.
We have to ask: Were those within the Rotherham Social Services Directorate focussing disproportionate attention on promoting the values of the 'Global Agenda for Social Work' to the detriment of local child protection?
