Headquartered in Birmingham, BASW has regional offices in England (Birmingham), Northern Ireland (Belfast), Scotland (Edinburgh), Wales (Swyddfa Cymru) (Cardiff), and North Wales (Cymru Gogledd) (Colwyn Bay).
These were all members of the Standing Conference of Organisations of Social Workers (SCOSW), which had been formed in 1962 to bring together the different branches of the profession and which was wound up on the formation of BASW (the National Association of Probation Officers was also a member, but decided against joining the new association).
The Standing Conference of Organisations of Social Workers had been led by Kay McDougall from 1965.
She led the Social Work department at the London School of Economics.
As a certified independent trade union it will have the legal right to accompany individual members to hearings (grievance, disciplinaries etc.)