Welcome to the First Edition of The Chronicle of Social Work, an International Social Work Review for social workers, service users, educators, and academics. The idea of an International Social Work review owes its conception to my conversations with academics and social work colleagues about challenges faced by frontline social workers during Covid19 global pandemic. These frontline social workers are those who carry out home visits when everyone else is in the comfort of their homes, those who work with the most vulnerable, those who are first to learn of a child that has been harmed, those sitting in a room with a child or children disclosing that they were sexually or physically abused by an adult they trusted, those involved in safeguarding women and children experiencing domestic abuse and lastly but not least social workers whose hard work is never recognised or appreciated by their own managers or senior social work leaders, the general public, the tabloid media and the state in general. There are also those who grapple with social work politics, victimisation, oppressive practice, managerialism and bureaucratic procedures that make social work practice very challenging.

To say that social work practice has changed over the past 17 months would be an understatement. COVID19 has changed the way social workers and health care workers practice. It has also reshaped countless human lives, most of them for the worst. Piled on top of those woes is the confusing messages from government leaders such as the Tory leadership in the UK where guidance about the pandemic keeps changing and sometimes very contradictory. The British Prime Minister announced that on 19th July restrictions on businesses and social gatherings will be removed at Step 4 of the road map, raising fears that increased cases could lead to millions being forced to spend 10 days at home. From August 16, people in England who have received both doses of a vaccine - as well as the under-18s - will no longer have to self-isolate if they have been in contact with someone who tests positive for Covid-19. These decisions have implications for social work practice and articles in this review will explore some of these challenges.

We welcome contributions that explore topics such as inequality and oppression, the impact of global neoliberalism, challenges of practicing social work during a global pandemic and any other social issues or global social problems associated with clients or service users we work with. Articles can be personal reflections on your own experience and those do not require academic references but but submissions of academic papers or research articles should use Harvard Referencing Guidelines for all references.