Professor Gavin Drewry (Bedford College Sociology staff, 1966-85; RHBNC 1985-2009) (pictured below) takes us through the history of Social Work at Bedford College.
In a previous issue of the Bedford Society newsletter, we reported the death, last June, of Brian Sheldon, former Professor of Social Work at Bedford College and then at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. His appointment in 1984, initially to a senior lectureship and then to a personal chair, at Bedford marked big changes that had been unfolding in the status of social work training as a research-based academic discipline – a discipline that is strongly maintained at RHBNC by the current social work team based in the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences. In particular, the establishment and early development of the very successful MSc in Social Work owes a great deal to Brian Sheldon’s leadership.
University social work programmes have always been an interesting blend of academic theory and hands-on practice, and their history goes back a long way, certainly to the 1920s, and indeed beyond. And, so far as RHBNC is concerned, this is very much a Bedford story.
The origins of professional social work date back to the mid-19th century, driven by the social changes and challenges consequent upon the industrial revolution. Entrenched laissez faire notions of non-interventionist government were increasingly challenged, the range of public services expanded, new jobs and professions were created – and, crucially, women came to feature much more prominently in the labour market. These trends accelerated after the first world war with the beginnings of what in due course became known as the welfare state.
Throughout its foundational years, in the second half of the 19th century, Bedford College made pathbreaking contributions to this – notably through its innovative and successful Hygiene course, training women for careers in areas mainly to do with public health. This course was wound up in 1919 but, in the meantime, the College had established, in response to an approach by the Charity Organisation Society, a new Department of Social Studies that offered lectures and social work placements leading to a Certificate in Social Studies. Subsequently, the Department built on the foundations of the former Hygiene course by also offering training programmes for Health Visitors and nursing administrators.
The Social Studies Department was the embryo of what later grew into a much larger and more generic social sciences department, including in its teaching (and in its various successive titles) the academic disciplines of sociology and economics. But the Certificate in Social Studies remained for many years a key part of its teaching portfolio. In 1956 a Diploma in Social Studies was introduced: this was a one-year conversion course, designed to enable students in other academic subjects to go on to undertake vocational training in social work. This was later replaced by a professionally validated Diploma in Applied Social Studies which, in the 1980s, was superseded by the MSc in Social Work.
The Annual Report of the Council of Bedford College records that, in the academic year 1966-67 (the year in which I joined the staff of what had by then become the Department of Sociology), 15 students were enrolled for the Diploma in Applied Social Studies; 18 joined the course the following year. The longevity and success of this course and of its predecessors means that the alumni database includes a very substantial number of Bedford-trained social workers. If you are one of them, we would very much like to hear from you – reminiscences, photographs etc - and to be put in touch with others who might not yet have signed up to receive the Bedford Society newsletter.
A social work reunion event might be a possibility, if there is sufficient demand. In 2024 RHBNC and the Bedford Society will be celebrating the 175th anniversary of the foundation of Bedford College, and that would provide a very appropriate context for such an event. Please let us know what you think. We very much look forward to hearing from you.
Gavin Drewry (Bedford College Sociology staff, 1966-85; RHBNC 1985-2009)
