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John McGowan (born 1965) is a Social Worker and a British trade unionist who is the current General Secretary of the Social Workers Union, the fastest growing trade union in the UK, which has seem membership grow from its formation in 2011 to almost 13,000 paid members in 2017. He initially served on the Board of Directors for the British Association of Social Workers as a non-Executive Director between 2008 – 2012 before moving to the post of Vice President of the Social Workers Union 2012 – 2016. He also served on the Scottish Association of Social Workers Executive Committee 2004 – 2014 and latterly as its Depute Convenor. John was elected as the General Secretary of the new Social Workers Union in 2016 for a five year period. More recently John McGowan has been active with the General Federation of Trade Unions (UK) and presently he sits on their National Executive Committee.

Academic: John is an Associate Lecturer with the Open University and teaches on the widening participation programme, a post that he has been doing with access courses since 2004. John is also the Programme Tutor for the Open University Social Work Degree programme in Scotland. Previously he served as an elected member (2014 – 2017) of the Open University’s governing body, the UK Council.

John initially left school with no qualifications, aged 16, and joined the printing trade. He then embraced the word of adult learning and went on to complete a part time Diploma with the Open University, followed by studying full time at the Glasgow Caledonian University achieving his BA in Social Science. Thereafter, academic achievements have included a Diploma in Social Work and a Masters in Social Work Practice (MSc) from the University of Stirling, and several certificates on subjects such as Child Protection, Practice Teaching and Counselling.

Social Work: Since qualifying as a Social Worker in the 1990s. John has predominately worked in the field of Children and Families, Fostering Adoption and as a Training Officer. John has worked in a variety of settings, working for Local Authorities, Voluntary Agencies, as well as with the Charitable sector. John was an Independent Panel Chair of the Adolescent and Children’s Trust.

Personal Life: John is proud of his working-class upbringing where he was brought up in the Muirhouse housing estate in Edinburgh, which is regarded as one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. John’s early experiences of Social Work were through his family as his parents were active Foster Carers in Edinburgh and fostered over 100 children. John is married with two children.

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• Social Workers Union