Photo: Myvector/Adobe Stock
As 2024 comes to a close, we conclude a year dedicated to marking Community Care’s 50th anniversary.
In many ways, this became an opportunity to celebrate social work’s enduring legacy and profound impact.
Since our first issue in April 1974, Community Care has spent 50 years witnessing and reporting on the evolution and trials of the sector – from legal reforms and social movements to public inquiries, media storms and seismic political shifts.
How Community Care has evolved
We launched our Community Care Live event in 1997 and our Community Care Inform Children subscription-based learning resource in 2007. Then, after publishing a weekly magazine since 1974, Community Care went completely online in 2011, with the Inform Adults site launching in 2014.
Since 2017, Community Care has been owned by the Mark Allen Group, under which the brand has continued to evolve and innovate, such as The Social Work Community – an online community for practitioners to share thoughts and ideas.
For a peak into the team behind Community Care, you can listen to the Christmas special episode of The Social Work Community Podcast, where some of our longest-standing members discuss their time with the brand and writing about the sector.
To commemorate that, we worked with Professor Ray Jones and Tim Spencer-Lane to create a timeline of the significant events that have shaped the social work profession in England and Wales over the past five decades.
Jones, whose career predates Community Care’s inception, then examined each decade from a closer lens, in a series of articles that shed light into some of these defining moments.
Photo by Ray Jones
He revisited the Maria Colwell case, the birth of the divide between the adults’ and children’s services in the 1980s, the 1990s disability movement, New Labour’s focus on performance during its 13-year reign, and the decade of austerity ushered in 2010.
Revisiting figures that have shaped the sector
Pictured: Eileen Munro
However, social work’s history is not solely defined by governments and policies. It is largely about the people working tirelessly at the centre of it.
That led to interviews with influential figures who have guided the sector through its toughest times.
We spoke to Lord Herbert Laming, who led the inquiries into the deaths of Victoria Climbie and Peter Connelly, Eileen Munro, whose landmark review shaped child protection today, and Marian Brandon, who spent 17 years reviewing serious case reviews in England and Wales.
The cohort also included Ruth Allen, Dame Moira Gibb, Gretchen Precey, and esteemed social work professors David Howe, June Thoburn, Brid Featherstone, and Ray Jones.
Their stories allowed us to revisit a tapestry of triumphs and trials, hard-learned lessons, and moments of progress we hope will inspire professionals today.
The ‘brilliant’ social workers of today
However, while honouring the past, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the social workers making a difference for vulnerable adults, children, and families today.
Through our My Brilliant Colleague series, we invited practitioners to celebrate the colleagues who have inspired them throughout their careers.
And so we spent a year sharing stories of social workers, students, mentors, managers, and practice educators whose passion, kindness, and resilience have left an indelible mark on careers and lives.
These stories reminded us that, even amid challenging times, social work is a profession built on unwavering dedication, compassion, and belief in rehabilitation.
On to another year of Community Care
As we wrap up this year of celebration and reflection, we hope this project has served as a heartfelt tribute to the profession’s resilience and influence.
Social work’s history is not just a timeline of events, but a testament to a community of individuals who work tirelessly to improve lives and alter how society views and interacts with its most vulnerable members
As we move into a new chapter, we remain committed to continuing our work of providing trusted educational, careers, and news content for the sector and being a platform for social workers to share their experiences and connect.
We’ll see you in the new year.
