Social workers have a crucial part to play in improving mental health services and mental
health outcomes for citizens. They bring a distinctive social and rights-based perspective
to their work. Their advanced relationship-based skills, and their focus on personalisation
and recovery, can support people to make positive, self-directed change. Social workers
are trained to work in partnership with people using services, their families and carers, to
optimise involvement and collaborative solutions. Social workers also manage some of the
most challenging and complex risks for individuals and society, and take decisions with
and on behalf of people within complicated legal frameworks, balancing and protecting the
rights of different parties. This includes, but is not limited to, their vital role as the core of
the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) workforce.
The College of Social Work (TCSW) has high ambition for the future impact of social work
within mental health – whether in statutory settings, the voluntary and community sectors,
social enterprise or the private sector, across all ages and different work settings.