The Trust is managed by a Board of Trustees, all of whom are either current or former social workers. They meet at least 3 times a year to consider applications and to manage the business of the Trust.
David Pitcher – Chair/Applications Secretary
Dave has been a trustee of SWET since 2011, having earlier received both a grant and a scholarship for his doctoral research on the relationship between adopted children and their grandparents. Dave’s field of practice is children and families, and he is currently working as a Family Court Adviser/ Children’s Guardian for Cafcass. He continues to do practice based research, and has just completed a study of the experience of Muslim young people in the care system.
Dave says: “Being part of SWET helps me to feel part of the wider social work profession. Just reading the applications is a masterclass in how many different situations social workers are involved in”.
In June 2024, Dave took on the role of Chair when our former Chair, Catherine, retired.
Dave is also currently the Applications Secretary, which means he, along with Ian our Treasurer, sends out the cheques for the grants and scholarships.
Fran Bunkall
Fran has been a qualified social worker for 20 years and has worked both in the statutory sector as well as the voluntary sector. She managed and led two Sure Start Children’s Centres which she thoroughly enjoyed. She is currently a statutory social worker again and is triaging information regarding children and families within a local authority. Fran is also a qualified lifelong learning tutor and practice assessor and practice educator.
Beverley Burke
Beverley is a Senior Lecturer in social work at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. She has practiced as a social worker with children and families and has published widely in the areas of anti-oppressive practice, values and ethics. Beverley is a member of the Editorial Board of the international peer-reviewed academic journal ‘Ethics and Social Welfare’.
Ian Ford – Treasurer
Following a career as an NHS senior manager, Ian qualified as a social worker in 2000 and worked as a social worker with care leavers and looked after children, and as an Education Welfare and Early Help practitioner, working mainly with special schools in a SE London borough. He now works as a freelance practice educator and independent social worker with an educational focus. His particular interest is neurodiversity.
Karen Hillison
Karen qualified as a social worker in 1986 and worked in a number of statutory settings with a range of service users, including childcare, adults and mental health/AMHP work. She then worked in Higher Education at the University of Hull for 18 years, first as a practice educator in a specialist student training unit, then later as placement co-ordinator. She has worked freelance since 2019, predominantly in training/practice education and as an independent assessor for a large fostering agency. Karen is passionate about social work practice education and staff development.
Deb Solomon
Deb qualified in 2018 and works in a generic Adult Care team. She is also a practice educator. Deb is the chair of the BASW Social Workers with Neurodiversity Special Interest Group and a member of BASW Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group and is working towards changing perceptions and raising awareness of neurodiversity’s in social care.