One of the primary aims of the network is to develop a robust knowledge base on social work, service users, policy, practice and education across Europe. The network will begin with more than ninety social work organisations represented and will seek to draw in many more as it progresses. These organisations will contribute knowledge from their geographical location and particular perspectives to underpin this ever expanding European data bank.

The members of the network seek both to learn from each other's experience and practice and also generate new responses to problems of social exclusion and hardship. However, the collective resource of pan-European knowledge of social problems and responses will also be available as a unique and invaluable resource to politicians, policy makers and other interested parties across Europe. this would serve to redress the current absence of such an accessible and comprehensive resource for European policy makers to access up-to-date and reliable information. No methodical collection of such material seems to exist currently. the network aims to fill this gap.

Informal needs analysis gathered during the previous Social Work Thematic Network "EUSW- Commonalities and Differences", suggested that a pan-European forum is necessary. The commitment of the European Union to social inclusion and human rights is unequivocal, as demonstrated, for example, by the "Strategy of the European Committee for Social Inclusion, 2004". Social work is both actually and potentially fundamental to these processes. Socially inclusive practice, and knowledge base supporting this, constitute a starting point for this proposed thematic network in social work. Its overall ambition is to be able to offer a flexible up-to-date and meaningful response to the ever changing agendas and needs of European and international welfare as recognised in the (above) strategy for social inclusion. Currently in Europe there has been little focus on understanding social problems, and social work responses to them, from region to region. The knowledge of what are common issues and which country - or culturally - specific issue is lacking. We do not know, for example, the true extent of child deprivation across Europe and whether social work is offering similar and adequate responses from Scandinavia to Greece, and Ireland to Poland. In social work we are missing crucial opportunities to learn from each other's experience.

Additionally policy makers are missing opportunities to learn from the pan-European knowledge practitioners could share. And equally importantly those with a commitment to a more socially just Europe are missing opportunities to help areas in which social work and the vulnerable people it aids are struggling. In terms of knowledge and practice the countries with more resources can offer support to those with less. Educationalists are also missing opportunities.

Despite the Bologna process, from our previous research (Campanini A. and Frost E. 2004) the standard of education in social work is still extremely varied. There is a risk in some countries that social work training, underdeveloped in higher education, will become even more marginalised which will lead to a further drop in professional status and consequently in client service.

From analysis within the previous Network it was clear that the development of a new thematic network in social work should be able to offer a flexible, up-to-date and meaningful response to the fluid contexts and needs of European and International welfare. Across Europe the definition of what social work is, what it does, who it includes and how it organises and how people are educated for it, is in an ongoing situation of redefinition.

A forum - a network - for such emerging debates offers the best chance of distilling viable general and specific responses into action.

It is no longer the case that social work education exists in the academy and can maintain a distance from the "real" world of policy, politics and practice in welfare.

A new network must build on this in meaningful way by including previously excluded organisations such as NGOs, locally based research departments, community organisations, public services and professional organisations. Blurring these artificial boundaries between education, policy, practice and research will be an ambition of the new network.

One of the primary aims of the network is to develop a robust knowledge base on social work, service users, policy, practice and education across Europe. The network will begin with more than a hundred social work organisations represented and will seek to draw in many more as it progresses. These organisations will contribute knowledge from their geographical location and particular perspectives to underpin this ever expanding European data bank. The members of the network seek both to learn from each other's experience and practice and also generate new responses to problems of social exclusion and hardship. However the collective resource of pan-European knowledge of social problems and responses will also be available as a unique and invaluable resource to politicians, policy makers and other interested parties across Europe. This would serve to redress the current absence of such an accessible and comprehensive resource for European policy makers to access up-to-date and reliable information.
No methodical collection of such material seems to exist currently. The network aims to fill this gap. So far European Social Work has no particular platform to interface with the rest of the world. There are considerable advantages in cross fertilization of ideas and experience from Europe with developing and developed countries world-wide. The network aims to make links across this space and to launch forums where the European experience of working with social problems towards social inclusion and greater human rights can both inform and learn from the others continents. Within social work education across Europe, there is considerable inconsistency. Tuning initiatives in Europe have drawn attention to such difficulties. Drawing on this work, the network aims to work in co-operation with other European and international bodies, such as the IASSW, IFSW (International Association of Schools of Social Work, International Federation of Social Workers) to develop core standards and principles applicable across the continent. Support can be offered to contexts in which social work education is undervalued with reference to accepted and improved core European standards. The sharing of experience in teaching and learning will benefit pan-European social work education and raise the standards of practice with vulnerable groups. Within the network building research for practice across Europe will be a central aim. Comparative research for practice projects will be established and knowledge generation and dissemination activities (such as conferences) will be undertaken both for and with practitioners, policy makers, researchers, theoreticians and educationalists. The ambition to learn from and with all these groups will jointly dictate the form, agenda and content of such research and dissemination activities.
The network aims to work across the traditional boundaries between theory and practice, research and service delivery, and between education and action within welfare. Equal valuing of all parts of the complex process of delivering good services is essential, and activities which will serve to facilitate greater homogeneity will be undertaken. Efforts are being made and will continue to be made to guarantee all sectors of the overall process within social work are represented.

The target groups of the EUSW Thematic Network are the following:
- professionals and educators in social work;
- students from social work educations all over Europe and overseas;
- partner institutions, linking with social work institutions from all over the world;
- policy makers, professional social workers, social work educations with teachers and students, social work organisations within the public sector and NGO's;
- researchers in Europe and beyond Europe, policy makers, educators and students, citizens; - social work students on different levels and professional social workers throughout Europe and outside Europe.