The British Union of Social Work Employees (BUSWE) was a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

representing social workers in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. In 1976, a group of (mostly) local authority social workers met in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

and formed a new trade union called the ''National Union of Social Workers'' (NUSW) which was essentially a breakaway from the major public sector white collar union,

NALGO The National and Local Government Officers' Association was a British trade union representing mostly local government "white collar" workers. It was formed in 1905 as the National Association of Local Government Officers, and changed its full ...

. Two years later BASW, a professional association, decided to form an associated trade union, the ''British Union of Social Work''. However, neither NUSW or BUSW were recognised by any significant employers and they were opposed by existing trade unions who continued to represent the great majority of social workers employed in the public sector (and who were mainly in NALGO). BASW decided to withdraw its support for BUSW but the union's leadership decided to continue, relocating to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and merging with NUSW in 1981 to form the ''British Union of Social Work Employees''.John B. Smethurst and Peter Carter, ''Historical Directory of Trade Unions'', vol.6, pp.429-430 BUSWE survived and attempted to affiliate to the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances ...

, but it was still regarded as a 'breakaway union' by other TUC affiliates, especially NALGO and its successor,

Unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

, and thus was unsuccessful. By 2007, it had 1,640 members and in 2008 it merged into the TUC affiliated

Community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

General Secretaries

:1981: Vic Waite :1985: Stan Crawshaw :2000s: Harry Lyons

References

Trade unions established in 1976 Trade unions established in 1978 Trade unions disestablished in 2008 Trade unions based in Greater Manchester