**Social Workers Without Borders Trustee Report and Financial Statement Year Ending 31[st] March 2021** **Trustee Report and Financial Statement 1st April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021** **Charity No: 1174000** 1 |**Social**|**Workers Without Borders Trustee Report and Financial Statement Year Ending 31st March 2021**| |---|---| ||**CONTENTS**| |**1.**|**About Us**| |**2.**|**Our Structure & Governance**| |**3.**|**Our Three Pillars – Objectives, Activities Achievements**| ||**(i)**
**Direct Work**| ||**(ii)**
**Social Work Education**| ||**(iii) Campaigns**| |**4.**|**Future Plans and Development**| |**5.**|**Technology, Risk Management and Policies**| |**6.**|**Message from the Trustees**| |**7.**|**Financial Statements**| 2 ## **1. ABOUT US:** ## **Our foundation in Calais** Social Workers Without Borders (SWWB) is a registered charity, established in March 2016 and registering for charitable status in August 2017. SWWB was initially established as a collective of social work volunteers across the UK, in response to the rapidly unfurling safeguarding crisis in the unofficial Calais refugee camp, where hundreds of unaccompanied children were seeking to make applications to claim asylum in the UK. Initially, as a network of social work volunteers, we worked with children and NGO’s in the camp and eventually, collaborated with the Calais Legal Shelter and Duncan Lewis solicitors to conduct over 40 ‘Best Interest’ assessments to support some of these children’s asylum applications, under Dublin III and the ‘Dubs’ Amendment. The valuable experience that we gained during this time, listening to the voices of people living in the camps, including facilitating children’s participation in their legal claims, and witnessing the obstacles that are faced, galvanised us to continue our work in the UK after the Calais camp was dismantled. ## **Our Development in the UK** Our experience in Calais showed us there is an important role for social workers as independent expert witnesses in immigration and asylum claims. We have sought to engage with ethical and social justice based social work which demanded a focus on activist involvement in social work education and campaigning to underpin our direct social work practice. We developed a three stranded strategy that was eventually formalised as the three pillars of our charitable work: **direct work** with children and families impacted negatively by borders, **social work education** to promote the rights of migrant children and families and to foster the skills and knowledge needed to be an effective ally, and **campaigning** - using our platform as social care professionals to challenge unjust policies and practices in relation to the rights of migrant children and families. We have provided a full report of our work in these three areas, detailed below, however highlights of our work this year have included; 3 - Our first year of having a member of staff has seen SWWB go from strength to strength. Our Development Lead has become established in this new role and helped us refine our working practices and created opportunities for our organisation to expand the scope of our work and increase our potential to achieve a positive impact for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. - We have also secured funding from The Network for Social Change (TNfSC)[1] to develop a campaign that we will lead. The first stage of our campaign is to produce a public report that will evidence the need for change in relation to children’s rights in immigration and asylum law, and from which we will launch our campaign and pursue a change of policy. - We have commissioned Impact Law for Social Justice (ILfSJ)[2] to provide training and consultancy to assist us in two areas. Firstly, supporting us to work on the way we message our work and our organisation, so as we are able to communicate clearly and consistently what we do and what is unique about SWWB. Secondly, we are working with ILfSJ to develop our knowledge and skills around the use of strategic litigation to bring about social change, and this piece of work will link in with the scope and purpose of the report that we produce as a result of TNfSC funding. - We have made several changes to how we work together. This has included redefining our organisational structure so we now have working groups that include a Trustee, Development Lead, and members of our core team of volunteers. The working groups are: Direct Work, Campaigns, Education and Organisational Development. Within our working groups we are now taking a project-based approach to achieving our goals. We have introduced a new technological infrastructure, so our work is now carried out on Microsoft Teams and we have built and transferred to a new database called Lamplight. - One of the biggest challenges for us has been the change of pace now that we have a full-time employee, and the way in which we manage organisational decision making and collective working when there is a disparity between the amount of time that different members of SWWB are able to apply to the work. We have refined our decision-making processes so our governance, responsibilities and goals are clearer and provide a firm foundation to our accountability and oversight of the Development Lead role. 1 https://www.thenetworkforsocialchange.org.uk/ 2 https://www.impactsocialjustice.org/ 4 ## **2. SOCIAL WORKERS WITHOUT BORDERS GOVERNANCE AND STRUCTURE** ## **Our Organisation** We have three pillars to our work: **----- Start of picture text -----**
• Direct Work
•
Campaigns
• Education
Education
Social Workers Without Borders
Social work solidarity with asylum-seekers,
refugees, and migrants.
Challenging discrimination and disadvantage
caused by hostile immigration and borders
controls.
Direct
Supporting access to fair decision-making
Campaigns
Work and judicial process.
**----- End of picture text -----**
5 ## **Our Structure and Ethos** We currently have 4 trustees who oversee the charity and we are in the process of seeking additional Trustees to expand our board and bring in different skills which can be provided by non-social workers. Our SWWB team, consisting of approximately 13 professional social workers, give hundreds of voluntary hours in assessments and advocacy. In addition to our regular team, we instruct and support social workers completing our Assessments for the duration of the case, and we have had several hundred social workers who have volunteered with us since our formation. With new funding secured from the Tudor Trust in April 2020 for a Development Lead to support our core activities, we are now able to focus on our strategical, longerterm plans. SWWB is governed in accordance with the Charity Commission’s code of governance[3] , Social Work England’s professional standards[4] and British Association of Social Workers code of ethics.[5] SWWB have taken the decision to organise horizontally and avoid a hierarchical structure. This approach is aligned with our values, and we believe fosters an organisational culture of learning, collaboration, openness, and humility. To achieve this, we have, as far as possible, a consensus decision-making protocol, in which we rely on dialogue and compromise to arrive at our final outcome. At the same time, we recognise that as a charity we have certain legal duties that our Trustees are accountable for, and as such there are some responsibilities that sit with our Board of Trustees. 3 https://www.charitygovernancecode.org 4 - https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/standards/professional standards/ 5 https://www.basw.co.uk/about-basw/code-ethics 6 We work in subgroups that are comprised of a mixture of the different roles within SWWB. The subgroups reflect the three main pillars of our work. Each subgroup reports to the ‘whole team’ meeting and is responsible for delivering and developing our aims. All trustees and group members are made aware of our governance arrangements and are committed to compliance with them. We also recognise that as the charity grows, the governance and organisational arrangements will need to be reviewed to ensure they continue to be fit for purpose. ## **Trustees** Our Trustees are all from a social work background and registered with Social Work England (SWE). The trustees govern SWWB, overseeing the wider SWWB team, monitoring the strategic objectives, and directing how it is managed and run. One trustee has directly managed our Development Lead from May 2020. In accordance with the revised Charity Governance Code[6] , the role of the trustees includes: - a commitment to the organisation’s cause and for SWWB to succeed in its goals. - a recognition that the organisation’s work is an ongoing process that requires diligent attention and effort - an understanding of their roles within the organisation and the legal responsibilities of a trustee including a commitment to the Charity > 6 https://www.charitygovernancecode.org 7 Commission’s guidance[7] and the governance arrangements set out in this document - trustees are committed to good governance and contribute to SWWB’s continued improvement. Together the trustees agree all the major decisions on behalf of SWWB and follow the seven principles of decision making as set out in the Charity Commission guidance – - 1) act within their powers - 2) act in good faith and only in the interests of the charity - 3) make sure they are sufficiently informed - 4) take account of all relevant factors - 5) ignore any irrelevant factors - 6) manage conflicts of interest - 7) make decisions that are within the range of decisions that a reasonable trustee body could make Within the trustee group, there are separate roles that are shared across the members: - Safeguarding Leads; - Direct work Leads: - Education Lead; - Finance lead and staff manager - Organisational Development Leads Trustee and Development Lead meetings are held online on the second Tuesday evening of every month. These meetings follow an agreed agenda and minutes are recorded. Additional meetings are organised as necessary to discuss and make decisions as issues arise. The SWWB team meets for a face-to-face meeting at least twice a year. Each subgroup meets on a regular monthly or 2-weekly basis. An agreed action has been to expand our Trustee group to include people with specialised skills and we are committed to recruiting trustees with lived experience of seeking asylum. 7 The Essential Trustee 2018, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-essential-trustee-what-youneed-to-know-cc3, 8 ## **Trustees** ## **Phillida Miles (Independent Social Worker)** Phillida is a registered social worker with over 30 years’ experience in health and social care as a practitioner and manager. She has worked in a wide range of roles and services including mental health, residential care, community social work, a family centre, been an independent chair for child protection conferences and managed several adult social work teams. As an independent social worker, her commissions have spanned organisational change, project management, interim management, service reviews, practice auditing and consultation processes. Phillida also designs and delivers a regular programme of training courses to health and social care staff. Additionally, she creates and facilitates team and business development events and is a qualified coach (ILM level 7 certificate in executive coaching and mentoring). Phillida has run a successful consultancy company for 18 years, and has experience of tendering and contracts, managing finances, and business sustainability. Her connection with SWWB started in April 2016 when the founder members started volunteer work in Calais. This was driven by her concern for refugees particularly unaccompanied minors and outrage at the lack of a humanitarian response by the UK government. Phillida takes the lead on managing SWWB’s finances and annual accounts. Phillida is responsible for the supervision and management of our Development Lead and is also one of our Designated Safeguarding Leads. 9 ## **Lynn King (Local Authority Social Worker)** Lynn is one of the founders of Social Workers Without Borders. Lynn is a passionate and committed to working with those left vulnerable by borders and is driven by her conviction for humanitarian response to the crisis of displacement and border controls. Reading about the experience of women and children in Calais as the camp during 2016, motivated Lynn to take action, and mobilise other social workers. It was through the experiences and contacts made in the camp that the first Best Interest Assessments were created, working alongside Duncan Lewis Solicitors. This resulted in the completion of 40 Best Interest Assessments with social work volunteers from across the UK, to support children and young people to seek a safe environment. Since this time Lynn has been instrumental, along with the other Trustees, in forming the Steering Group, registering as a charity, and focusing on the three pillars of SWWB: Direct Work, Education and Campaigning. Lynn is our lead Trustee for implementing SWWB infrastructure and technology. Lynn is SWWB’s Data Officer and she is one of our Designated Safeguarding Leads. She is a qualified Social Worker and works in Local Authority social work, where she is a Practice Lead for Social Work with Older Adults. Lynn has been a registered social worker in a local authority since qualifying in 2004. She is an experienced Best Interest Assessor, conducting mental capacity assessments and making best interest decisions to protect and empower people unable to do so themselves. Lynn is a qualified Practice Educator and Newly Qualified Social Worker Assessor, working with students, new social workers and developing social workers to embed evidence-based practice. 10 Lynn has made contribution to chapters in three social work books about social work practice with asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants. ## **Dr Lauren Wroe (Independent Social Worker)** Lauren is a trustee and co-founder of SWWB. Lauren has worked across all areas of SWWB, including setting up the charity, developing the project and campaign ideas, delivering workshops and co-ordinating assessments. Lauren is the Lead Trustee for our direct work, this involves supporting and guiding our Case Coordinators, developing our practice model and ensuring the quality of the practice and assessments that our volunteers complete. Lauren has also represented SWWB as a Keynote Speaker at conferences and events. Lauren is an Assistant Professor (Research) in the Sociology Department at Durham University where she leads two research projects exploring international and social justice issues in child protection. Lauren has a PhD from the University of Manchester where her thesis was a critical analysis of the language of refugee advocacy organisations and the impact of these discourses on self-narratives and the construction of social justice versus charity responses to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. Lauren’s research interests include international child protection and macro approaches to social work that account for, and address, structural determinants and constructions of individual and family problems. Lauren’s research is grounded in a commitment to a social justice approach from a feminist and anti-racist perspective. 11 ## **Dr Bridget Ng’andu (Lecturer in Social Work)** Bridget is a qualified and registered social worker with nearly 25 years of experience in social work practice and education. She has practised social work in a range of settings including in a primary school in Botswana, Southern Africa, and as a Frontline Social Worker in Children and Families. Bridget joined the UK academy in 2010, first as a Tutor at Ruskin College in Oxford, and currently as a social work lecturer at the University of Kent. Her research interest includes race and ethnic studies, anti-racist social work (including exploring the relevance of whiteness and privilege in social work education); decolonising social work education (promoting the inclusion of indigenous knowledge and research); radical social work practice and activism; migration, refugees and asylum seekers; and exploring social work practice in the voluntary sector. Her involvement with SWWB started in 2016, when she with a colleague and students at Ruskin college, started volunteering in Calais, to support children, young people, and adults in in the camp. Bridget was also involved in undertaking Best Interest Assessments in the camp to support unaccompanied minors and families applying for immigration status in the UK. Bridget co-leads the Direct Work group and is also a case coordinator, supporting volunteers with assessments. She also leads on the Social Work Education group. 12 ## **Development Lead Naomi Jackson** Funding from the Tudor Trust has allowed us to employ a full-time member of staff. Our Development Lead, Naomi Jackson. Naomi began the role on 1/5/2020 and we have funding for this role for 3 years. Naomi is an experienced Social Worker with a base in statutory Child Protection along with a rich history of social work volunteerism and community activism. Since being in role Naomi has developed a social work specialism in working with people with insecure immigration status. Naomi has a particular professional interest in children’s rights in the context of immigration policy. Naomi is responsible for advancing the goals of SWWB in the areas of project development, direct work, campaigning, and education. In the past year Naomi has expanded and managed our network of volunteers, overseen our assessment work, and supported our steering group and volunteers to deliver on education and campaign objectives. This has included developing new processes and procedures to increase the robusticity and efficiency of our operations. Naomi has developed our campaigning and policy strategy and delivered successful funding bids to further this work. Naomi has advanced our organisational profile by networking, developing partnerships, and collaborating with other likeminded organisations. Naomi will oversee the involvement of service user groups, to include people we have supported and those with a lived experience of being a refugee, migrant or asylum seeker in our assessment, campaigns, and education work. Naomi has been working with our Trustees to ensure we are compliant with the Charity Commissioner and funder requirements, this includes monitoring and evaluating our work. 13 ## **SWWB Team:** The SWWB consists of 13 social workers practitioners, all of whom have a specific interest and commitment to this area of work plus the 4 trustees, two of whom must be present for SWWB Team meetings to be quorate. Our dedicated volunteers their time to further SWWB aims and objectives. The SWWB team give hundreds of hours of practical support across a range of tasks. This includes acting as a Case Coordinator to support volunteer social workers to complete assessments, delivering workshops and lectures, writing content for our newsletter, and managing our social media. Currently our SWWB Team is made up of social workers who have extensive experience and expertise across all areas of statutory social care, and in specialist third sector organisations working with refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants. Within the SWWB team there are three subgroups covering the main aspects of our work: a) Direct Work Group; b) Social Work Education Group; c) Campaigns group. The subgroups coordinate the main activities of the charity. ## **Volunteers** All volunteers undertaking assessments must complete an SWWB agreement form, have a current DBS check and provide two references before commencing work with SWWB. There are always two practitioners for every assessment, the lead assessor must be a registered social work with SWE. The second assessor may be a social work student. 14 ## **3. OUR THREE PILLARS: Purpose, Activities and Achievements** ## **The Purpose of SWWB** We support people, often who are marginalised from mainstream support and legal aid* due to their immigration status, with Best Interest and Article 8 assessments to challenge detention, removal, deportations, and refusals from the Home Office. Our education team publishes and regularly presents on academic programmes and professional conferences. We also actively campaign and collaborate on issues of human rights and social justice. We aim to fill a gap in services using our expert knowledge and unique position to collaborate with other likeminded professionals and organisations to support the rights and wellbeing of refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and all those left vulnerable by borders. _*SWWB will also claim Legal Aid where this is available, which is used to subsidise the majority of our work which is pro-bono._ A more detailed summary and evaluation of each of our subgroups follows below; ## **(i) Direct Work with Children, Families and Vulnerable Adults** By supporting and mentoring social work volunteers we provide pro bono social work assessments for unaccompanied children, children and families facing removal from the UK, vulnerable adults facing removal from the UK and children with claims to Dublin III family reunification. We receive referrals from solicitors and then provide expert and tailored social work assessments of needs and Best Interests and Article 8 social work assessments. SWWB’s case co-ordinators provide support and supervision to the pro-bono social work volunteers, we provide close mentoring and reflective support for the duration of the case, providing final review comments. Our aim is to continue to train and support social work volunteers in this specialised area of work, ultimately providing greater understanding and knowledge which can assist social workers in our day-to-day practice. 15 Those children, adults and families that we support are provided with the access to an empathetic and advocacy based social work assessment of their needs and the impact of any infringement of their Human Rights. Our Direct Work Team currently consists of 5 Case Coordinators, plus 2 Trustees and the Development Lead. The table provides an account to the work completed over the last year: |**Direct work for 01/05/2020 -30/04/2021**|| |---|---| |Number of social work reports completed|26| |Number of individual clients subject to an assessment|77| |**Case Types**|| |Children’s ‘best interest’ report|22/26| |Adult’s ‘human rights’ report. (Adults with multiple complex
needs)|4/26| |Deportation cases|9/26| |Child 7+ years in UK|3/26| |Adult 10+ years in UK|1/26| |Asylum application|7/26| |Spousal Visa|1/26| |Unaccompanied child|4/26| |Age disputed child|3/26| |Family reunification|2/26| Covid-19 had an impact on how we carry-out our social work assessments. At the start of the pandemic, we adapted our processes and began working remotely to complete assessments. This new way of working has presented both challenges and opportunities. The challenges have been around ensuring the quality and experience of assessments, when so much of social work is about communication and building relationships. The opportunities have been our ability to take on new types of cases, such as reunification applications, and work with people internationally. In addition to our Independent Social Work Reports, we have also provided expert witness evidence to support strategic litigation. This includes providing expert evidence in support of a case to challenge the guidance to social workers at Kent Intake Unit; expert evidence about age assessment and a challenge to UK Border Force misapplying the BF Eritrea judgement; 16 and a witness statement to challenge the Home Office’s approach to people with impaired mental capacity who are subject to the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS). Our Development Lead has changed the way we engage volunteers to complete assessments and we have a rigorous process for checking and recording details about our network of volunteers. We currently have 60 social workers or social work students on our volunteer database. Our Development Lead is now responsible for managing all new referrals and enquiries, coordinating Direct Work team meetings, identifying, and allocating volunteers, setting up interviews and supporting the progress of cases, completing assessments and coordinating cases when there are capacity issues in the team, quoting and invoicing for legal aid funded work. We have changed our database provider to Lamplight[8] and the Development Lead has customised to meet our needs so we are better able to monitor and evaluate our data. This has been a huge piece of work with the design and potential for the database being an ongoing piece of work. ## **Evaluation for Direct Work:** Completing social work assessments to be used as independent expert evidence is both a specialised and time-consuming task for volunteers, with each report requiring 1 Case Coordinator and 2 assessing social workers (or 1 social worker and 1 student social worker), to review the letter of instruction and legal bundle, interview everyone subject to assessment, write-up the report and review the report. Our Development Lead has relieved Case Coordinators of many of the tasks they were previously undertaking and this has made their role more sustainable. However, capacity continues to be a challenge and there is a need to expand the number of Case Coordinators in the team so we are able to meet the needs of people referred to us and maintain a responsible approach to volunteer commitment and capacity. In order for us to expand the Direct Work Team we need to develop our working model and the support and training that we offer to volunteers. The Development Lead is working with the Direct Work Team to improve our induction process and clarify the roles and responsibilities of different volunteers involved in the completion of social work assessments. Over the next 12 months, the Development Lead will be working with the Direct Work Team to develop a series of training modules for volunteers to 8 https://www.lamplightdb.co.uk/ 17 access. This will include modules on; the role of the expert witness; the child’s voice in immigration and asylum matters; working with interpreters; an introduction to SWWB; and a rights-based approach to social work. The challenge in scaling up our Direct Work Team and enhancing the offer to volunteers will be managing the increased administrative work. We plan to address this increased demand by seeking funding for an additional employee. The project to develop our volunteer training and support offer is a timely intervention as one of the proposals in the government’s New Plan for Immigration[9] is increased scrutiny of the use of expert evidence in immigration and asylum matters, so it is essential that we take a robust approach to supporting and preparing our volunteers for taking on the role of an Expert Witness. The direct work group has gone from strength to strength during this period with an increase in volunteers, and the recruitment of Naomi Jackson as Development Lead who is now overseeing the day-to-day administration of the direct work. The direct work group now consists of six ‘direct work coordinators’- who are all volunteer registered social workers; these volunteers oversee our assessments and the social work volunteers who complete them. They read the solicitors bundles and ensure we are clear on the expectations for the report and guide the social work volunteers through the assessment process, reviewing the report before it is finalised and submitted to the solicitor. During 2019 we embarked on a ‘reflection period’ where we collectively worked on a case together and reviewed all our processes and procedures. This allowed us to hone our processes to best meet the needs of our clients and volunteers and to collectively observe and agree on some best practice principles for our assessment work. The recruitment of our Development Lead in 2020 has made a massive difference to how we carry out our direct work activities and the capacity of our coordinators. Our Development Lead is now responsible for overseeing our referrals inbox, logging all referrals in our secure client database ‘Lamplight’, liaising with solicitors, recruiting volunteers to complete the assessments, and carrying out and recording all DBS and ID checks. This frees up our volunteer coordinators to work with the volunteers to quality assure the work. In addition to the developments with our processes and procedures we 9 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/972517/CCS 207 - _CCS0820091708 001_Sovereign_Borders_Web_Accessible.pdf 18 have had some brilliant successful outcomes as a result of our assessment work, as follows; ## _**Case Study One / successful leave to remain outcome**_ In December 2019 we were involved with a family referral. The family consisted of Mum, Dad and three children, all without leave to remain. The oldest child (age 8) had a diagnosis of autism and was struggling in school with little or no support in place. Mum's mental health was poor and the family were living in crowded conditions and both parents were unable to work. The evidence used in the assessment was formulated very well by the volunteer social workers from social workers without borders, which enabled a strong review to be written. After a year of repeated requests by the solicitors to the Home Office the family were granted leave to remain in November 2020 almost a year after the SWWB assessment was submitted. A long and upsetting wait for the family but a very successful outcome. ## _**Case Study Two / successful appeal**_ In early 2020 we received a referral for a young person who had been granted refugee status in the UK after fleeing his home country following the murder of his Father. The young person had to leave for the UK without his family, and once he was granted refugee status, an application for this family to join him in the UK had been refused by the Home Office. We were asked to carry out an assessment to support an appeal on the grounds that it was in the young person’s best interests to be reunited with his family in the UK. During a visit to the young person by a SWWB volunteer It was plain to see that the young person’s needs were not being sufficiently met by the semiindependent accommodation he had been placed in and we wrote an assessment to that effect, also advocating on behalf of the young person to the local authority whose care he was in. Earlier this year we found out that the appeal had been upheld and the young person’s three siblings and Mother would be able to come and live in the UK! Success! The judge commented on the social work report and the solicitor shared that it was ‘by far the best Independent Social Work report [he] had ever seen’. The young person and his family are now reunited in the UK. 19 _**Case Study Three / successful challenge to age assessment**_ SWWB completed an Assessment of Needs for a young man (see tweets above from GMIAU) who had been assessed as an adult by the Kent Intake Unit. Following our Assessment, he was urgently assessed by the Local Authority and placed in foster care. ## _**Feedback from the young person:**_ “I now live with a foster family and I am much happier. They have registered me for school and I am just waiting to start because of the difficulties with coronavirus but on a daily basis this foster carer is sitting with me and trying to teach me some English. I feel well looked after and safe now”. 20 ## _**Case Study Four**_ **/ Successful reunification application** February 2021: Our two social work volunteers completed a report to support reunification of a 5-year-old boy who had been left unaccompanied in Iraq without his parents for 2 years. He should have been entitled to a British passport but HMPO had been disputing this application for 2 years. The family's lawyer had to resort to making a reunification application instead. The report identified serious safeguarding concerns for the little boy as a result of the care he is receiving in Iraq. Our report was filed in December 2020 and the Home Office granted reunification in Jan 2021. ## _**Feedback from an SWWB volunteer and team member**_ I have been volunteering for Social Workers Without Borders for just over two years and have been case co-ordinating for 18 months. In the last year I have coordinated a number of reunification cases, which have been made possible by the rise in remote assessments. The social work profession as a whole had to quickly adapt to online working during the pandemic and I think that this has had significant benefits for our charity and the people we work with. The rise of the online assessment has also meant that volunteers who live in more rural locations have been able to share their skills with us. Prior to the pandemic the vast majority of assessments took place in large urban areas. Since we have become more adept at working remotely, we have been able to draw on a wealth of experience from social workers all over the country, where previously the travel time and cost may have been prohibitive. We want to continue to assess in person whenever possible, but in developing our abilities to also assess virtually we are much more able to work with vulnerable people all over the world and make use of experienced social workers country wide. 21 ## **(ii) SWWB Campaigns:** ## **Summary:** We have expanded our Campaigns Team by 8 new members, taking the total number of people in this team to 12, plus the Development Lead and 1 Trustee. This year we have significantly developed our campaigning strategy and profile. We have done this in three ways: - **Design and implementing our campaign.** We have designed a campaign that is about children’s rights in immigration and asylum law. This campaign will focus on the way the Home Office upholds their duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in immigration and asylum matters.[ 10] This campaign is rooted in the expertise we have gained in our direct work team. We have secured funding from The Network for Social Change to produce a public report (completion November 2021), which will evidence the need for a policy change and serve as a springboard for a campaign led by SWWB. We hope the report will also be useful for strategic litigation in this area. We are in > 10 Section 55 Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 22 **----- Start of picture text -----**
talks with the European Children’s Rights Unit (ECRU) [11] and hope that
this report will be a collaboration between SWWB and ECRU. We have
also taken advice from Sonali Naik QC [12] about how our campaign fits
into the litigation she is leading at Garden Court Chambers.
• Responding to current affairs. This year we have responded to several
significant policy changes, including the significant safeguarding
concerns for children in Kent Intake Unit, with social workers being
contracted by the Home Office to conduct ‘short-form’ age
assessments. We wrote a letter to MPs that was supported by other
NGOs. This resulted in an MP tabling written question [13] to the Home
Office and Department for Education on our behalf, and we were able
to share these responses with Duncan Lewis Solicitors who continue to
prepare to judicially review the Government in relation to the
treatment of unaccompanied children arriving in Kent. We have
provided comment to the media about the situation at Kent Intake
Unit [14] and our concerns about age assessments completed at the
border. [15] The New Plan for Immigration (NPI) represents an assault on
the rights of migrant people and despite the timescales, we took a
robust approach to responding to the consultation process, carried out
actions such as organising a webinar [16] to inform people about NPI and
how they could engage with the consultation, and written an extended
edition of our newsletter on the topic which was picked up in the
media. [17] We have also provided comment about NPI. [18]
• Supporting the campaigning work of other organisations . We have
supported and promoted various campaigns over the last year. Our
notable collaborations include becoming active members of the
11 https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/law/research/european-childrens-rights-unit
12 https://www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk/barristers/sonali-naik-qc/sao
13 https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-12-08/126975 https://questions-
statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-12-08/126979 https://questions-
statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-12-08/126978 https://questions-
statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-12-08/126977 https://questions-
statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-12-08/126976
14 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/child-refugees-minors-home-office-adult-detention-
reportb1229079.html
15 Child asylum seekers threatened with deportation after being wrongly deemed adults by Home Office staff |
The Independent
16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5AxP19KaNg&t=29s
17 https://www.socialworktoday.co.uk/News/Leaders-and-campaigners-split-over-controversial-plans-for-new-
ageassessment-board
18 https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2021/03/26/deeply-worrying-age-assessment-changes-will-increase-
risks-tochild-asylum-seekers-warn-charities/ [14] http://refugeechildrensconsortium.org.uk/
23
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Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium (RMCC)[14] and contributing to briefings, letters and statements produced by RMCC. We are a part of the Together for Children[19] network and actively supported the Scrap SI 445 campaign. We are contributing to the work of Equal Justice for Migrant Children.[20] In addition, we have contributed to several articles in newspapers and social work publications; - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/children-asylumdeportation-adult-age-assessment-home-office-uk-b1810618.html - https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2021/03/26/deeply-worrying-ageassessment-changes-will-increase-risks-to-child-asylum-seekers-warncharities/ - https://www.socialworktoday.co.uk/News/Leaders-and-campaigners-split-overcontroversial-plans-for-new-age-assessment-board Finally, our superb campaigns team also developed the following webinar, hosting a panel of experts, to discuss the concerns and ramifications of the governments new plan for Immigration in May 2021. You can watch this here: = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v m5AxP19KaNg 19 https://article39.org.uk/together-for-children/ 20 http://firstrights.net/ https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2020/10/16/concerns-raised-treatment-unaccompanied-children-kentintakeunit/ https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2020/10/27/unaccompanied-children-held-far-long-intake-unit-sentadultcentres-say-inspectors/ 24 ## **Evaluation of SWWB Campaigns:** The campaigning aspect of our organisation has really developed over the last year and become a more significant aspect of our work than it was prior to our Development Lead being in post. The strength of our campaigning is derived from the experience and expertise we have garnered through carrying-out direct work, and in utilising our professional voice and position in pursuit of social justice. Our ambition is to go beyond our case by-case impact and drive a campaign forward that seeks systemic change to protect and uphold the rights of children with insecure immigration status. This work takes us out of our social work comfort zone and no doubt like this year, next year will be a period of rapid learning and development for our organisation, which is both challenging and exciting. ## **(iii) Social Work Education** ## **Summary** Our Social Work Education Team is currently made up of 2 volunteers (one is on a maternity break), plus 2 Trustees and our Development Lead. Three of our Trustees contributed to the book “Asylum for Sale” and some of the proceeds from this will come to SWWB. The book brings together the views of academics, activists, journalists, artists, and people directly impacted by the asylum regime to present transformative visions of an alternative system. In addition, Our Development Lead has reviewed all our past teaching 25 materials and updated our presentation. Our teaching materials now strike a balance between explaining and promoting our organisation and providing social work students with more in-depth knowledge of how social policy impacts our beneficiaries and their social work practice. The teaching materials are kept under review so as they remain current. This year we have reached 601 people through our education and training work. |**Workshop/lecture/panel participation**|**Number of attendees**| |---|---| |Glasgow Caledonian University|30 (approx. - actual number not provided)| |British Association of Social Workers|197| |University of Gloucestershire|47| |Frontline|39| |JCORE|96| |University of Winchester|156| |University of Bristol|28| |University of Portsmouth|8| |**Total:**|**601**| ## **Evaluation of SWWB Education:** We want our education offer to represent social work best practice and have a positive impact on our profession. To achieve this, we need to keep our teaching current and deliver training that really upskills participants. Currently we have one core presentation that we revise, keep topical and up to date. We are currently working on a project plan to develop a series of specialist lectures which will take a more in-depth look at issues that impact our beneficiaries and social work theory and practice. We plan on beginning this project in January 2022 when we will recruit more volunteers to join the Education Team and develop the new teaching materials. These lectures will form the basis of a series of events that we plan on hosting in Spring/Summer 2022. The purpose of this project is to raise our profile and impact as leaders in social work teaching and practice. 26 ## **(iv) Organisational Development** ## **Summary:** Organisational Development is a recently established SWWB group and is currently made of the Development Lead and 2 Trustees. This group was created to take a collaborative approach to organisational projects and development that sit outside the three main strands of our work and cut across the whole organisation. Within the group we have been reviewing the kinds of decisions that we make and categorising them into 4 types: ‘ad hoc, ‘big bet’, ‘cross-cutting’, and ‘delegated’. This review of decision-making has informed a decisionmaking policy so we have transparency and accountability about how decisions are made within SWWB. A part of the consultancy we have commissioned from ILfSJ involves reviewing and refining how we message SWWB. This is the first step in reviewing how we use media and comms and over the next 12 months we will redesign our website and develop a social media calendar. The Organisational Development team will oversee and deliver on SWWB’s aspirations, such as being in a position to offer placements to social work students and the inclusion of people with lived experience of the immigration and asylum system within our core team. ## **Evaluation of SWWB Organisational Development:** We have ambitious plans for SWWB, and it is anticipated that the successful implementation of our projects in Direct Work and Campaigns will raise our profile and demand for our services. The first priority of the Organisational Development team is identifying funding for an additional member of staff. The Development Lead has lots of responsibilities, tasks and projects to manage so as to continually maintain this progress and development, we will benefit from being in a position to an employ someone in an administrative role. We will be applying for funding in Summer/Autumn 2021 and hopefully we will be able to employ our second member of staff from early 2022. 27 ## **4. TECHNOLOGY, RISK MANAGEMENT & POLICIES:** ## **Technology** In preparation for the appointment of our Development Lead and to ensure that SWWB can continue to operate innovatively and flexibly – allowing volunteers, trustees and our full time Lead to communicate with each other, we set up Microsoft Teams using Microsoft’s charity account – which means we have access to a full Office 365 package for free. SWWB continue to harness open-source tech to ensure that our costs are kept to a minimum. Steering Group members and Trustees can maintain our website (www.socialworkerswithoutborders.org) and our Newsletter ourselves. ## **Risk Management** We have two Safeguarding Leads (Trustees) for SWWB. We keep a record of any concerns and how there have been followed up. We have also developed a Collaboration Policy which helps us identify organisational risks to our ethics, values and reputation. ## **Policies** SWWB has developed the following Policies which are reviewed annually: Data Protection Direct Work Policy, Process and Practice Guidance Safeguarding Risk Management Equalities & Diversity Whistleblowing Collaboration Policy 28 ## **5 FUTURE PLANS AND DEVELOPMENT** ## **Our future plans include the following:** - Appoint more Trustees, including people with lived experience of being a refuge, migrant or asylum seeker. The recruitment of someone from a finance background and with legal experience is a priority. - Expand SWWB Trustees group and infrastructure to allow us to expand our organisation, in accordance with the potential we feel that our dynamic social work model can provide. - Continue to campaign on matters of immigration and equality on behalf of our social work membership and those we seek to support. - • Develop further our input to social work education in the UK and around the world, to promote best practice in supporting refugees, migrants and those left vulnerable by borders. - Develop UK based work, including development of community groups and service user groups. - Continue to evaluate SWWB work internally and externally. - Engage with further volunteers who wish to become active in SWWB. - • Increase donations to SWWB. - Ensure support for volunteers, including role rotation and regular time out, is built into our operating model. - • Develop peer to peer support and involvement from people with lived experience (those we have supported). - Our 5-year plan is to become a focal point of best social work practice in supporting refugees, migrants and those left vulnerable by borders. 29 ## **6. MESSAGE FROM TRUSTEES** We have spent the period between April 2020 and March 2021 developing our infrastructure. We firmly believe that SWWB can continue to grow as an organisation and expand our vital work supporting people left vulnerable by border policies. We are committed to ensuring that the social work profession as a whole will become effective allies, in accordance with our values as defined by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), of all people disempowered by border regimes and a prevalent hostile narrative which further entrenches discrimination and inequality. **IFSW Global definition of social work:** _“Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledges, social work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing. The above definition may be amplified at national and/or regional levels.”_ - - - - - - - https://www.ifsw.org/what is social work/global definition of social work/ The appointment of our Development Lead in May 2020 has taken our organisation to places that we only mused upon travelling over to Calais every week in 2016, stuck in delays on the channel tunnel and planning a new model of social work with migrants, refugees and anyone left vulnerable by borders. Thank you to everyone who has helped and continued to support us, in particular our inspiring volunteers, our Development Lead, Tudor Trust, The Network for Social Change, Jamie Bell – Duncan Lewis Solicitors, Gulwali Passarlay and the Chillag family trust. ## **Feedback from recipient of SWWB for the Trustees Report:** “Good day, to whom it may concern, my name is Marta (anonymised). I am an asylum seeker and single mother to two children. I came to know SWWB around 2017. Since then, the organisation has been with me, as I was constantly refused and disbelieved by the Home Office. My case was delayed for some time, and through all this SWWB was there for us, the organisation was so supportive. They helped us assess my children, several times, and they have been there for us. Most times I thought they would give up because of how complicated our case has been, but they stood by us all throughout, I have never seen an organisation like that”. 30 ## **7. FINACIAL STATEMENT– 1[st] April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021:** ## **Accounts and Financials Overview** A Financial Statement for the Financial Year2020-21 has been uploaded separately in the Charity Commission submission, which also includes the Independent Examiners Report conducted by Verdant Accountants Limited. There have been some major changes to our finances because of the generous donation by The Tudor Trust to enable us to employ a full-time member of staff and there have been other significant developments such as increased income from assessment work, training and authoring. Due to the Covid pandemic, our travel (and hence expenses) has been reduced due to national restrictions and, as stated earlier, all our assessment work has been completed online. We had budgeted for the Development Lead to need to travel to networking meetings, etc and again, the funds for the last year have not been used. We have invested in a new database – Lamplight, that has considerable potential for supporting our work and evidencing our impact. We have also commissioned some consultancy work from ILfSJ to help us grow and develop. This has cost £3,000 and will be paid from the 2021/22 budget. Over the coming year, our costs are likely to increase as (we hope) the lockdown restrictions ease and we start to travel and meet with others in person. We also plan to apply for an additional grant with the TNfSC to enable us to employ an administrator. 31 SOCIAL WORKERS WITHOUT BORDERS 32 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES SOCIAL WORKERS WITHOUT BORDERS 1174000 Receipts and payments accounts Forthe period 0110412020 3110312021 Section A Receipts and payments Uiirestricled funds to the￿¢•r¢￿t ResiriGted funds Endowment Ivnds Total lut)d8 Lastyear to th• n•4r•rt£ tOlP• r*•r••t£ ioth• TrMr•*t toth• n•¥rnBtE A1 Racolpts Donaiions Grant- Network for Social Change Grant- Tudor Trust Artides and authoring incom8 Assessment In¢(me Training income Bank Interest 4,851 7.416 49,667 477 S.104 4>.607 477 2.252 420 2.252 4?9 Sub totallGmss income lorAR) 6S,083 Asset and Investment sales, 188t tablvl. Sub tot•1 65.Q83 m•nt st•fflni.' Salary Payment Pension contr1*￿tron5 Nl- Employers Contribution stafl Internet and Telephone Othce Equlpment staff Travel 25.096 2.520 5.148 200 2S090 1.100 5.148 79D 58 3i•13 J3.81S lknniniC05tsTc*al.. 181 Interpretatson5erwce5 ICO re815tratio 40 CA8 ChEck5 Web51telOomain/Em*llZL*X Databa5e/Lampli8hi Direcr5upport 128 121 502 so2 436 449 185 1BS 1.066 ()ther 7• Ilunnhw C05tsTotsi 2.551 Sub tota A4 ￿8•1 ahd Irbv•skn•nt urchas•8, ••e t•bl• Sub tota rotalpayrnents 264 •1 olr•c&lpts/(paym•nts) A5 Transf&r• bfrtsw¥•n lund8 A6 Ca•h funds last yoarend Cash ftsn¢ts this yoar en 28.719 9.356 B,780 356 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period UnT*Stn¢t•d fvnd$ Restricted funds to n•ar•s*t Categorlos Dètall¥ lunds B1 Cash funds Cash at banks 38.075 roto1 ¢•8h funds Umestslcted fvnds Rostricled funds end0¥￿ent funds Oétalls to n*•t•st£ to B2 Other monetsry assets CU￿*￿tY￿1 ltyknall Det*1 Fundto wNch aGS*t bdtirffjt Detaiks B4 Assèts ietalned forth• ¢hartty'> own use Fundtowhl l￿bIl￿ Amountdu• Wh•n du• Del4118 BS Llabllrtles SvJned by on¢ 4r Mvtrujtseg on b•h#lt otall th&tDJ*t••# D8t8 of approval re Pnnl Name L￿n Klr* 7. 01.20 ## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** ## **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report** **Report to the trustees/** SOCIAL WORKERS WITHOUT BORDERS **members of** **On accounts for the year** 31 March 2021 **Charity no** 1174000 **ended (if any) Set out on page** 1-2 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/03/2021. - **Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation **basis of report** of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. **Independent** I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have **examiner's statement** come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: - accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or - the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. **Signed: Date:** 09 February 2022 **Name:** Chaweevan Williams FCCA **Relevant professional** Chartered Certified Accountants **qualification(s) or body : Address:** Verdant Accountants Limited 20-22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU