Chair: Dr Erika Laredo

It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to Leeds for the European Conference on Social Work Education (ECSWE) Leeds 2027. We are gathering at a moment of profound challenge, and new possibilities.

Across Europe and globally, communities are confronting intersecting crises that are reshaping everyday life in ways that are both immediate and deeply structural. Climate breakdown continues to disrupt livelihoods and environments; displacement and migration are transforming societies and testing political solidarities; poverty and austerity are widening inequalities; democratic institutions are under strain; and many communities are experiencing the painful effects of racism, conflict, and social fragmentation.

These are not isolated phenomena. They are interconnected processes that deepen longstanding injustices while generating new forms of precarity. They compel us to ask difficult questions, not only about the world around us, but for social work education and practice.

In this context, social work faces urgent and fundamental questions about its purpose, its values, and its future direction.

As a profession, social work has long been rooted in collective action, in struggles for human rights, and in solidarity with communities resisting marginalisation and injustice. As a field of education and a site of knowledge production, it has been shaped by critical inquiry, ethical reflection, and a commitment to social transformation.

And yet, we must also acknowledge the tensions that define our present moment.

Across many European contexts, social work practice and education are increasingly shaped by managerialism, audit cultures, and individualised models of intervention. These approaches can narrow our focus, depoliticise our work, and risk obscuring the structural conditions that produce inequality in the first place. They can, at times, distance us from the very communities with whom we seek to stand.

So this week we invite not only reflection, but renewed critical engagement.

• What does it mean to practice social work in times of intersecting crises?
• What forms of knowledge do we need — and whose knowledge counts?
• How do we educate future social workers to think critically, act collectively, and remain rooted in ethical commitments to justice and care?
• And how might we reclaim and reimagine the emancipatory potential of our profession?

Over the coming days, we hope this conference becomes a space where these questions can be explored with honesty, creativity, and courage.

A space where different perspectives are welcomed. Where dialogue crosses borders — geographical, disciplinary, and experiential. Where we can learn not only from research and theory, but from practice, from activism, and from lived experience.

Most importantly, we hope this is a space of connection and solidarity.

Because while the challenges we face are significant, so too is our collective capacity to respond. Social work has always drawn strength from relationships — from working alongside communities, from building alliances, and from imagining alternatives together.

Leeds, with its rich histories of community organising, migration, and social struggle, offers a fitting place to have these conversations. We hope you will feel both welcomed and inspired here.

On behalf of the organising committee, thank you for being part of this gathering. Thank you for the work you do in your own contexts. And thank you for contributing to the ongoing project of rethinking and renewing social work in these complex times.

We wish you a stimulating, reflective, and energising conference.

Welcome to ECSWE Leeds 2027.