Social Workers Union

What Social Workers Union does

Social Workers Union is a non-profit trade union headquartered in Birmingham, England, founded in 2011 to represent social workers in the United Kingdom. The organisation operates as a membership association, serving practising social workers through collective representation, workplace support, and advocacy in labour relations matters. With 28 employees, the union functions at a small-to-mid scale relative to larger UK general unions, and its mission is narrowly focused on the social work profession rather than cross-sector representation.

The union's business model is consistent with a UK trade union: revenue is generated principally through membership subscriptions paid by individual social workers, supplemented potentially by training income, partnership fees, or investment income, though none of these revenue mechanics are explicitly disclosed in the source data. The organisation does not operate a technology platform, does not sell software products, and has no disclosed digital products or services in the available material. Its distribution is via its website (swu-union.org.uk) and presumably direct member engagement in workplaces across England and the wider UK.

The provided source material is unusually thin: the firm's own web presence yielded a loading/verification page with no substantive content, and the structured data fields for products, technology, pricing, partnerships, leadership, and funding are all empty. As a result, this description is limited to the firmographic facts (name, type, founding year, headcount, location) and the standard operating model of a UK professional trade union, and any deeper claims about product surface, revenue mechanics, or competitive positioning are not supportable from the inputs.

Name

Social Workers Union

Website

https://swu-union.org.uk

Company type

Private

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Social Workers Union is a UK non-profit trade union founded in 2011 and based in Birmingham, England, representing social workers through membership-based collective representation, workplace support, and advocacy, with 28 employees.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Trade Union Services

NAICS

Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations (813930)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Workforce Development & Inclusive Employment (Job Training, Placement) (BPAGALAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Public Health & Health Equity Organizations (BPAGACAL)

Keywords

• Trade union services
• Social work advocacy
• Professional representation
• Labor union membership
• Workforce protection

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Core offering

Social Workers Union is a UK-based non-profit trade union representing social workers, providing collective bargaining, workplace representation, and professional advocacy for its individual members in the social work profession. The organization serves as an independent voice for practitioners in the social work field, offering union membership and related representational services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Broad incumbents

• GMB: One of the UK's largest general trade unions, GMB represents workers across multiple sectors including some social workers, competing for the same general membership pool with broader resources.
• Unite the Union: Another major UK general union with significant public sector membership, Unite competes with SWU for social worker members and operates at substantially larger scale.
• Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS): A UK trade union representing public sector workers, PCS competes for some overlapping social worker members and operates as a broader public sector union with more resources.

Direct peers

• British Association of Social Workers (BASW): The professional body for social workers in the UK, BASW competes for the same members with a professional association model rather than trade union model, offering overlapping services like CPD and advocacy.
• UNISON: The UK's largest public sector trade union, UNISON represents a substantial portion of UK social workers and competes directly with SWU for the same membership pool through local authority recognition agreements.
• NASUWT: A UK teachers' trade union operating as a single-profession union, NASUWT provides a comparable operational model and member service proposition to SWU's social worker focus.
• Royal College of Nursing (RCN): A professional union for nurses in the UK, RCN follows a similar profession-specific union model to SWU and is a useful analogue for how a single-profession union can scale services and membership.
• University and College Union (UCU): A UK trade union for academic and related staff, UCU represents a similar profession-specific union model and competes in the same market for trade union membership among skilled professionals.
• National Education Union (NEU): The UK's largest education trade union, the NEU follows a single-sector union model comparable to SWU's profession-specific focus, providing a useful benchmark for single-profession union operations.

Others

• Trades Union Congress (TUC): The umbrella confederation for UK trade unions, TUC is not a direct competitor but an ecosystem participant that SWU may affiliate with or draw resources from as a member body.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights4 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/social-workers-union

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Social Workers Union