Editorial: Unprecedented Times? Social Work and Society post-COVID-19

Unprecedented Times?Social Work and Society post-COVID-19As the sun sets on our editorship of this journal, we in the UK, like many parts of the world, are having to live with the 'new normal' of sharing our lives with the potentially deadly virus, COVID-19.Across the globe, countries are adopting variations on how to manage this threat, including serious restrictions on travel, social distancing and lockdowns.As the pendulum swings between severe measures and easing of measures, recording and accounting for death tolls, realising the longer-term health, economic and social consequences and grappling with plans for recovery, reviewing our five years as editors pale in significance.Nevertheless, in our time as Editors, we have sought to draw attention to the social, political, economic and ethical contexts in which social work operates, including the implications of this current pandemic.In recent Editorials, we have focused on the heightened vulnerability of certain groups, many of whom are long-term users of social work and social care services, as well as the impact on those trying to manage without the supports which have previously been their lifeline.Others may be structurally disadvantaged in society or in the workforce; although the virus can be deadly, and there is no vaccine or cure as of yet, not all people are equally threatened.It appears, at least, that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities have a higher mortality rate and significant overcrowded housing makes people vulnerable as does older age and underlying health conditions.Much is still to be learnt, including for social work practice.The impact of lockdown and social distancing presents, at first sight, a significant threat to the relationship-based skills on which social work has traditionally relied and reasserted the importance of in the last decade.Home visits using visors and other personal protection equipment; the prohibition of reassuring touch with fearful, distressed or confused individuals; online conferencing and meetings replacing more inclusive and potentially supportive multi-professional decision-making fora: these are just some of the changes forced upon us which challenge our preferred modes of interaction.In some specialist fields, such as hospital and hospice social work, social workers have had to cede the mediatory and supportive roles they traditionally perform with patients and their families to already overstretched nurses and doctors.Not all is bad, however, as bureaucracy is reduced and more efficient ways of working are also emerging.There is a