Andy Burnham’s message of hope will defeat Reform if Labour delivers the New Deal for Working People in full, says JOANNE THOMAS
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Social work on the brink
JOHN STEVENSON explains how World Social Work Day is a chance to defend a crucial profession from intolerable pressure
The government’s latest asylum proposals abandon labour movement values and fuel division by aping Reform UK, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
IAN LAVERY MP warns that decades of neoliberal policies have left former industrial communities behind — but a renewed Labour commitment to working people could change the political landscape
We need a government that invests in saving lives not destroying them, argues SOPHIE BOLT
HENRY FOWLER outlines the GFTU’s new 2026-27 education programme and argues that investing in trade union education is essential to building worker power, developing leaders and strengthening collective action
PAOLO SANTALUCIA reports on how an Italian region defies US pressure to end a Cuban doctors programme
MY NAME is John and I’m a social worker. There, I’ve said it. After all, it is World Social Work Day.
It used to be that when you were asked about your job, social workers would say: “I work for the council.” It’s perhaps a reaction to the false media portrayal of council staff as a pile of lazy pen-pushers that more colleagues are now proudly confessing their social work identity.
That’s the problem when you are trying to defend local services. People don’t always know the range of essential services councils provide. When they actually need one of those services, they find resources are cut to the bone.
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