Accommodation and Homelessness on Release from Prison

Summary This paper presents some of the results of a Home Office sponsoredresearch project in which men discharged from prison were interviewedbefore and after release. The findings compare pre-arrest andpost-release accommodation and demonstrate than many men arelikely to be in poorer accommodation after release than theywere before arrest.     

Working with Sex Offenders: A Social Skills Training Group

Summary The paper presents an account of a group of sex offenders ina local prison. Nine sessions of social skills training weregiven with the aim of facilitating relationships within theprison and possibly after release.     

Man-made Care: Community Care and Older Male Carers

Correspondence to Mike Fisher, Department of Social Work, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN. Summary Recent evidence about the extent of caring for older peopleby older people themselves, and about the importance of spousecare, has challenged existing debates about gender and care.Male carers, particularly older husbands, have been ‘discovered’.This paper attempts to reconceptualize the debate about genderand caring to take account of these developments, particularlyto develop an understanding of the caring activities of oldermale carers and to elaborate the implications for communitycare policy. The evidence suggests there are circumstances where men acceptthe obligation to care, undertake intimate personal care, andderive identity and reward from their caring work, driven bysimilar motives and experiencing similar struggles as women.Rather than seeking maximum distinction between the motivesand experiences of women and men carers, the paper suggeststhat one important way to promote non-sexist community careis to explore the conditions where men's caring is undertakenand how it can be understood and developed.     

Sexual Abuse by Men who Work with Children: An Exploratory Study

Correspondence to Dr Matthew Colton, Department of Social Policy and Applied Social Studies, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK. Summary This paper reports findings from an exploratory study on sexualabuse by men who work with children. As a first step towardsfilling a major gap in the relevant research literature, in-depthinterviews were carried out with a small sample of men servingprison sentences for sexually abusing children in their trust.The paper focuses on their accounts of their life histories,including their experiences of prison treatment programmes,and provides a detailed picture of their thinking, feelingsand motivations. In revealing how the men construct their ownsense of masculine identity within social and professional contextsthat are dominated by a heterosexual, white male hegemony, thepaper challenges purely psychological explanations of why mensexually abuse. It concludes that sexual abuse in organizationalsettings is less likely to be challenged if masculinity is notfocused on as an issue of power.     

Anti-oppressive Social Work Practice with Women in Prison: Discursive Reconstructions and Alternative Practices

Correspondence to Shoshana Pollack, Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5. E-mail: spollack{at}wlu.ca Summary An anti-oppressive practice (AOP) framework emphasizes issuesof power and oppression within the provision of social workservices themselves as well as within the lives of clients whohave been marginalized and oppressed (Preston-Shoot, 1995; Garciaand Melendez, 1997). AOP seeks to deindividualize clients’problems in order to see them within the wider social contextof their lives. In addition, this framework attempts to moveaway from an ‘expert’ model of service deliverytowards one that is more inclusive of clients’ experiencesand that incorporates a recognition of coping and resistenceto oppression. In this paper I discuss how an AOP frameworkcan contribute to our understanding of and interventions withwomen in prison. In particular, I will focus upon how we canbetter understand and respond to women’s mental healthissues and the experience of imprisonment. Peer support servicesare examined as an example of AOP programming for women in prison.     

Parental Rights Assumptions, The Passage of Time and 'Natural Justice': The Use of Section 3(1)(d) of the Child Care Act 1980

Summary This paper reports a study carried out in two Social ServicesDepartments, of 63 children in care under Section 2 of the ChildCare Act 1980, in respect of whom parental rights had been assumedunder Section 3 on the ground that they had been in Section2 care for three years or more. Some of the arguments put inthe debate about ‘natural justice’ in relation toparental rights assumptions are briefly considered in the introduction;recent changes in such assumptions are then outlined. The studyand its main findings are then presented, with reference tothe findings of other studies of parental rights resolutionswhere appropriate, Finally, the implications of the study forthe ‘natural justice’ debate are discussed. Theauthor's main conclusion is that the existing procedure is anomalousalthough Departments' use of it may be acrupulously careful.The grounds for assuming rights should be revised and the procedureshould be carried out by a family court.     

Changing Behaviour in a Residential Group Setting for Elderly People with Learning Difficulties

Correspondence to Ms K. Cigno, Department of Social Policy and Professional Studies, University of Hull, Hll HU6 7RX. Summary Group living is not an easy situation for residents and staff.A client with a long history of institutionalized care and aggressivebehaviour proves to be a challenge to care staff who attemptto improve the quality of her life and that of her fellow residentsthrough a behavioural intervention aimed at reducing the numberof disruptive incidents and increasing the use of social skillsand activities for this client. The results indicate a lesseningof incidents of ‘unreasonable behaviour’ and anincrease in self-esteem. The appropriateness of this approachto elderly clients' problems is discussed.     

Moving Out: Insiders' Views of Relocation

Correspondence to Tim Booth, The University of Sheffield, Department of Sociological Studies, Joint Unit for Social Services Research, Sheffield, S10 2TN. Summary This paper presents some of the findings from the Kirklees RelocationProject, an evaluation of a local community care programme forpeople leaving long-stay mental handicap hospitals and socialservices hostels. It concentrates on the views of movers interviewedbefore and after the move using an innovative ‘visualgame’ technique. The study confirms that given the opportunityto make an informed choice the movers would almost always optfor the least restrictive alternative.     

Is Social Work a 'Non-Traditional' Occupation for Men?

Correspondence to Alastair Christie, Department of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Cork. Email: A.Christie{at}ucc.ie Summary The European Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commissionhave called for the increased employment of men in occupations,such as social work, where men are numerically under-represented.In Britain, men's employment in social work is contentious but,as yet, little discussed. This article draws on Williams' (1993,1995) concept of ‘non-traditional occupations for men’to explore the positions of men in social work. It focuses inparticular on continuities and dissonances between dominantconstructions of men's gender and professional social work identities.These are discussed in relation to particular areas of practiceand an agenda for further investigation is considered.     

Social Networks and Social Service Workers

Correspondence to Peter Sharkey, School of Law, Social Work and Social Policy, Liverpool Polytechnic, 98 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5UZ. Summary ‘Networks’ is a word often used in the discussionof social work practice and within social services departments.It was a word which was central to the Barclay Report (1982)and important within the more recently published Griffiths Report(1988) on community care. It is a word also known to sociologistsand anthropologists through the development of ‘networkanalysis’. There is, however, a fairly wide gap betweenits use within social work and its use within social science.This article tries to explore this gap and the ways in whichsocial science ideas might have some use and relevance to socialservice workers. It does this by using some illustrative datafrom a study done of the personal networks of thirty elderlypeople who were all clients of a social service district office.     

Informal Networks of Care: Issues Raised by Barclay

Summary In calling for the creation of ‘community social work’,the Barclay Report argues that social workers should aim todevelop informal caring networks. This entails exploiting anindividual's informal social contacts, such as kin, friends,and neighbours, to provide care. This paper firstly examinesthe assumptions and thinking behind the concept of informalcaring networks. It then assesses the feasibility of using differentinformal relations in care provision by analysing the normativepatterning and exchange content underlying them. It concludesthat strategies like Barclay's are unlikely to be successfulbecause they entail a transformation of these relationshipsthat is incompatible with their normal organisation.     

Listening to Children--Who Cares?

Summary The intent of this article is to reinforce the idea of listeningto children in care. It is the author's belief that when giventhe opportunity to be heard, children can provide observationsthat are both relevant and important. To illustrate this beliefthe article provides verbatim comments of children obtainedas part of a larger research endeavour. It concludes with observationsextracted from children's evaluations of a Canadian ‘WhoCares?’ conference held in 1979, the Year of the Child.     

Men and Anti-Sexism

Correspondence to Dr Neil Thompson, 1, Worcester Road, Bangor on Dee, Wrexham, Clwyd, LL13 0JB. Summary This paper explores the negative impact of sexism on both womenand men and considers what active part men can play in challengingand undermining sexism. The costs of living and working in apatriarchal society are outlined, and related to the differingexperiences of women and men. It is argued that, although womenclearly bear the brunt of sexism, gender stereotyping is notwithout significant costs for men. This leads us into an exploration of possible anti-sexist strategiesthat men can promote and implement as part of the developmentof anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice. The aimis not for men to ‘colonize’ or take over the struggleto achieve emancipation from oppressive gender norms. Rather,it is for men to play a part in the collective struggle to removethe inhumanity of patriarchal social relations. The paper is grounded within a professional value base premissedon a commitment to combating discrimination and oppression,and within a theory base informed by existentialist philosophy(Thompson, 1992a).     

Social Process, Space Usage: Reflections on Socialisation in Homes for Children

Summary This paper analyses the links between social processes and spaceusage through an examination of socialization and patterns ofspace use in local authority homes for children. Concepts of’family group‘ and ’responsibility‘are discussed using data from a participant observation studyas a basis, drawing attention to the relationship between socialpower and meanings attributed to architectural space.     

The Witch-Hunt Metaphor (And Accusations against Residential Care Workers)

Correspondence to Mr Chris Beckett, Anglia Polytechnic University, School of Community Health and Social Studies, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK. Summary This Critical Commentary examines the widespread use of themetaphor of the witchhunt in relation to child sexual abuseinvestigations when they are perceived as being unjustified.The use of this metaphor can be seen to be part of a backlash,part of a widespread desire to discredit the evidence that sexualabuse is widespread. However, it is argued here that the metaphoris actually quite apt in the case of the recent wave of convictionsof residential care workers, where the methods used have beenquite suspect—and genuinely reminiscent in some respectsof those used in historic witch hunts. It is suggested thatlegitimate child protection will ultimately be the loser ifthis is not addressed.     

Gender and Psychotropics: Toward a Third Wave Framework

Correspondence to: Dr R. L. Farmer, School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1001 W. Franklin Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23284–2027 USA. E-mail rfarmer{at}atlas.vcu.edu Summary This paper highlights the fact that women are much more likelythan men to use psychotropic medications. It proposes the developmentof a new intellectual framework for understanding and respondingto the high use of psychotropic medications by women. The frameworkis developed using the conceptual space provided by Third Wavefeminisms and a Lacanian interpretation of the Hegelian dialectic.The Third Wave is seen as a viable lens for this endeavour sinceit tolerates contradictions and ambiguity and is radically opento difference and diversity. This new framework can incorporaterelevant aspects of the Discourse Model and the Medical Model.It is argued that the Third Wave framework, which includes apostmodern attitude, allows us to make use of both perspectives,since either model alone is inadequate to inform our understandingof why women are prescribed psychotropic medications so muchmore frequently than are men. The point is that each model byitself is inevitably inadequate. The answers have to be soughtfrom both models, even though these models conflict.     

Social Work with Single Parent Families: Consumer Views

Summary The article describes a research project undertaken to determinethe satisfaction of a particular client group—single parents—withthe service they were given. The research examines five kindsof problems—legal, accommodation, financial, child care,and emotional-and concludes that problems were likely to arisein all these areas, and that, whatever the problem, the socialworker's ability to help solve it depended to a large extenton the quality of the relationship with the client.     

Regulation or fragmentation? Directions for Social Work under New Labour

Summary This article reviews the modernizing agenda of New Labour forsocial work which has been articulated in the various changesfor social work and social care announced in the ‘QualityStrategy’. Focusing predominantly on arrangements foreducation and training, the article argues that, rather thanpresenting a coherent strategy, the structures and proceduresare fragmented and unco-ordinated at many levels. A major weaknessis that New Labour has failed to clarify where it places socialwork in the structures of a ‘modernized’ welfarestate.     

Adolescents in Care and their Social Workers: A Research Note

Summary There has recently been an increasing concern that young people,and especially those in residential care, should be encouragedto express their views, and that the views expressed shouldbe used in improving the care which they receive. The publicationof the Who Cares? booklet (Page and Clarke¹), and the emergenceof ‘Who Cares’ groups and the ‘Voice of theChild in Care’ organisation, is evidence of this concern.In sympathy with these developments has been a study of adolescents'perceptions of social workers, and a part of this research hasincluded a pilot study of the views of adolescents living intwo family group homes.     

The Treatment of Enuresis amongst Child Clients of a Social Services Department

Summary The adoption of an ‘outpatient’ model of supervisingthe treatment of bedwetting amongst child clients of a socialservices department is described. The treatment technique usedwas the generally effective ‘enuresis alarm’, or‘bell-and-pad’. Fifteen out of a total of 25 concludedcourses of treatment were successful, with an average treatmentduration of 14.9 weeks. Both this outcome, and the rate of drop-outbefore completion of treatment (ten cases) are comparable withthose obtained with non social services clients, and the useof the enuresis alarm with children in care (including thosein residential establishments) was found to be quite practicable.A high relapse rate (43%) was, however, found for social servicesclients, relapse usually following a placement change or othermajor stress.