Anti-racist social work: looking back and looking forward

Join our next social work seminar series delivered by Dr. Kish Bhatti-Sinclair, Reader in Social Policy and Social Work, Deputy Head of Department and Head of Social Work at the University of Chichester. 

My work has over many years focused on how racist attitudes or behaviour can impede social work practice.  In 2011 this work culminated in the book titled Anti-Racist Practice in Social Work (2011) published by Palgrave-Macmillan. Theoretically based and tested in the field, the book offers an analysis of institutionalized racism, as represented by laws and policies.  The Knowledge for Social Work Practice is one of 20 chapters selected from Palgrave authors for inclusion in the Social Work Toolkit, a digital product launched in June 2016.

Involvement in national fora includes: membership of the Planning Group of the Joint Social Work Education Conference (JSWEC 2015).  Invitation to sit on a Conference Panel for JSWEC 2014 which comprised of the two Chief Social Workers, the Chief Executives of the College of Social Work and the British Association  of Social Workers. I co-ordinate the national body: the Anti-Racist Social Work Education Group. Committee membership includes the Teaching and Learning and Research Committees of the Joint University Council Social Work Education Committee. 

Current writing projects include: child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the context of multi-racial Britain and the relevance of neuroscience in the early social development of children receiving multi-agency services. Book projects underway: Diversity, Difference and Dilemmas (OUP/McGraw Hill, 2015) and CSE in Multi-Racial Britain (The Policy Press, 2017). 

Commissioned research projects include: the evaluation of the Five to Thrive, an initiative taken by Think Family, West Sussex Children’s Services in response the UK Government’s Troubled Families agenda.  A project was completed in 2013 for the London Borough of Wandsworth which analysed the data, processes and reports on Black, Minority Ethnic Children in the looked after care system. 

In 2013/14 the Higher Education Academy funded a national seminar series on social work, race and racism: building theories and ideas to support the development of anti-racist skills to meet professional standards.