Private Children's Homes

Summary The paper provides survey and intensive research material onthe private children's homes sector. It is shown that this sectoris currently in decline. Private homes are found to be shelteringchildren with long and complex care histories and to adopt adistinctive residential style. Although private homes providevaluable long term continuity, they are less likely to offerthe same range of community services as do residential settingsmanaged by the local authority and voluntary child care agencies.     

Early Recognition of and Responses to Dementia: Health Professionals' Views of Social Services' Role and Performance

Correspondence to Jill Manthorpe, Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NN, UK. E-mail: jill.manthorpe{at}kcl.ac.uk. Summary Increasing calls for early diagnosis of dementia look set toimpact on social services. This article explores some of theissues, drawing on a series of multi-professional dementia workshopsheld in the UK. The workshops identified a series of questionsthat need to be addressed by social services in the areas ofthe drivers for early assessment, ensuing expectations, problemsand advantages in involving social services, and the benefitsof early diagnosis for individuals and their families. The articlediscusses the implications for social services in light of thedata and notes a possible move to specialist services, withinor without the social services sector. Tensions between currentresource shortages and anticipated demands for services areidentified. The difficulty of meeting low level needs whileservices are targeted on those with high levels of need presentsa further challenge to service delivery.     

Implementing Care Management: Issues in Relation to the New Community Care

Correspondence to Professor Jane Lewis, All Souls College, Oxford OX1 4AL Summary The official guidance on the new policy of community care emphasizedcare management as the means of securing needs-led services,together with user empowerment and choice. This paper uses datafrom eighteen months intensive fieldwork in five local authorities,first, to examine the very different interpretations of caremanagement in these authorities; secondly, to examine two majorsources of difficulty in the implementation of care managementsystems—the simultaneous development of purchaser/providersplits, and the tension between needs and resources—and,finally, to draw some conclusions about the implications ofcare management for social workers.     

Conceptualizing Community Social Work--a Response to Alan York

Summary This note takes further the task of conceptualizing communitysocial work begun by Alan York in his paper for the June 1984edition of this Journal. York's approach is criticised firstlyfor unhelpfully conflating ‘community work’ and‘community social work’ and, secondly, for developinga schema unable to satisfactorily theorise the range of communitywork approaches currently to be found within social work. Buildingupon York's suggestion that ‘dichotomous formulations’provide an appropriate way forward for analysing community practice,three, distinct, dichotomies are elaborated, and recommendedas a basis for locating and comparing current approaches tocommunity social work.     

Informal, Voluntary and Statutory Services: The Complex Relationship

Summary The argument of this paper is that equitable social care caneventuate only with the acceptance of a greater role for publicsector services. In debates about the development of socialcare, politicians in industrial societies who stress the virtuesof family care are either unaware of the costs to families ofproviding that care, or are cynically expecting a major shiftin social provision and social resources, with the result thatthose least able to provide adequately will find greater burdensthrust upon them. Responses to the exclusions experienced bypeople in the 1980s will require greater state interventionbecause families may have the willingness, but not the capacityto provide the high level care required by dependent relativesand because the voluntary sector is too diffuse and diverseto plan, develop and deliver the bulk of the services.     

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.     

Social Work Responses to New Labour' in Continental European Countries

Summary The re-emergence of a majority of centre-left governments incountries of the European Union was associated with the hopethat, after the neo-liberal attempts at its marginalizationand de-institutionalization, social work could regain a morevalued position in society. There are indeed indications thatthe growth of the profession continues and that social workis returning to a more explicit and official role in nationalsocial policies. However, this tends to be associated with anexpectation that social work would play its part in ‘activating’the recipients of welfare benefits in the context of the NewLeft project of shifting from social rights to social obligations.The practical and political effects of this new agenda are,however, modified greatly by the prevailing ‘welfare cultures’as well as the professional and academic discourses. This paperexplores the dilemmas and opportunities for the social professionsin Europe associated with the ‘pull’ to become incorporatedinto these new social policy agendas.     

The Social Worker as 'Bad Object'

Correspondence to Dr Marguerite Valentine, 56 Osbaldeston Road, London N16 7DR Summary A ‘bad object’ has been defined as an ‘objectwhom the subject hates or fears, who is experienced as malevolent.A bad object may be either an internal or an external object’(Rycroft, 1988, p. 100). This paper explores the circumstancesin which public fears and anxieties over child abuse becomeprojected into the social worker. It discusses how social workersintroject these feelings, become a ‘bad object’,and how social services departments have developed a numberof strategies which defend against feelings of blame and responsibility.The exploration is derived from my own experiences and observations,and applies Kleinian psychoanalytic theory to studies of institutionaldefences.     

Inter-agency Approaches to Domestic Violence and the Role of Social Services

Correspondence to Gill Hague and Ellen Malos, Domestic Violence Research Group, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK. Summary The development of inter-agency initiatives as a response todomestic violence is currently enjoying widespread popularity,and was the subject of a Home Office Circular in 1995 encouragingthis approach as one of the principal planks of government domesticviolence policy. The Domestic Violence Research Group in theSchool for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol has completeda national study of inter-agency approaches to domestic violence,supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and this paperexplores some of the themes identified in the research and therelevance of multi-agency domestic violence initiatives to socialworkers. Social services departments and voluntary sector socialwork agencies have a key role to play within inter-agency workof this type. The research indicates, however, that, while somesocial workers are active within inter-agency domestic violenceforums, social services could often take a more active rolewith firm commitment from management. It could be suggestedthat social services organizations cannot afford to be absentas the new policy direction offered by inter-agency initiativescontinues to grow in the future, which looks almost certainto happen. Some of the areas explored in the paper are: powerdifferentials between member agencies; the participation (andsometimes the marginalization) of Women's Aid and the refugemovement within multi-agency work; equalities issues; and theinvolvement in inter-agency projects of women and children whohave experienced domestic violence.     

Learning Lessons from the Past or Re-Visiting Old Mistakes: Social Work and Community Development in Northern Ireland

Correspondence to Dr Deirdre Heenan, School of Policy Studies, University of Ulster, Magee Campus, Londonderry BT48 7JL, UK. E-mail: DA.Heenan{at}ulster.ac.uk Summary In recent years there has been a re-emphasis on community developmentapproaches in health and social work in Northern Ireland. Underpinningthese approaches is the belief that local communities can beorganized to address health and social needs and to work withgovernment agencies, voluntary bodies and local authoritiesin delivering services and local solutions to problems. Thesemethods of working challenge the traditional social work focuson individual and family casework interventions. Governmentin Northern Ireland has stressed that community developmentshould no longer simply be an afterthought in key aspects ofHealth and Social Services, but should instead be at the coreof their work. It is now officially recognized that communitydevelopment has the potential to make a significant impact ona broad spectrum of policies and programmes, which are deliveredthrough agencies in both the statutory and voluntary sectors.This commitment to community development has been outlined ina number of key documents and reports. This paper assesses therelationship between social work and community development inNorthern Ireland. The first section looks briefly at the historyof community development and social work and then sets out thecontext in which this move towards the promotion of a communitysocial work approach is occurring. Against this backdrop, acase study of a Family Support Team, which provides a rangeof services in a community setting, is used to illustrate howthe strategy has already been adopted and the lessons of thisexperience are explored and discussed. It is concluded thatwhile this approach has a lot to offer it is not without itsdifficulties. Far from being a new philosophy, community developmentis being reinvented and reapplied. It is therefore crucial thatold mistakes are not revisited and old prejudices rekindled.It is hoped that this article will provide a useful contributionto the current important and necessary debate.     

Towards an Alternative Model of Social Groupwork

Summary This paper arose from our disagreement with some of the suggestionsin an earlier article in this journal (Brown et al., 1982).Before and since, we have both worked in and studied numerousexamples of groups of a type which, according to Brown and hiscoauthors, scarcely exists in British social work practice.This paper explains what we believe to be the actual significanceof the type of group work we refer to as ‘self-directed’,together with our view of its place within wider social work,community work, and groupwork practice. We also give examplesof such groups and conclude that their proliferation would enableworkers to go beyond the alleviation of individual distressinto the achievement of external change.     

Values in Social Work: investigations of the practice of family placement

Professor Noel Timms, University of Leicester, School of Social Work, 107 Princess Road East, Leicester LEI 7LA. Summary This study explores values in social work distinguishing valuesat the levels of practice and of rhetoric A small scale projectwas undertaken in family placement work in two local authoritiesand four voluntary agencies. A pattern of activity was foundcommon to both voluntary and statutory workers engaged in familyplacements. Workers in both agencies rendered comparable accountsof a distinctive practice which stressed virtuoso skills inthe collection, appraisal and use of knowledge. The practicedepended on confidence in the ability to make good within theform of work known as family placement, and on the recognitionof what people are owed. The work was undertaken in a socialcontext which acknowledged—in the eyes of the social workers—theobvious (rhetorical) goods of the proper flounshing of children,and respect for rights. Beliefs about certain aspects of thesocial context, particularly in relation to religion, differedbetween the two groups, but such differences could not be seento reverberate in the practice.     

Government, Social Services Departments and the Health of Children and Young People: Which Way Forward?

Summary Despite the dearth of research into the health of children andyoung people in contact with or ‘looked after’ bylocal authorities, a series of official and quasi-official reportshave begun to raise awareness of this issue. There are goodreasons to believe that this group of children will be disadvantagedin terms of health as they are in other aspects of their lives.The evidence suggests that local authorities do not live upto the standards of ‘good parents’. Current notionsof good practice are critically appraised and the article concludesthat social work is unable to do more than mitigate the effectsof Government policies which affect health and social servicesand which have lead to widening social inequalities.     

Supervision, Role Strain and Social Services Departments

Correspondence to Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia, 6009 Summary The paper analyses the potential for ambiguity and ambivalencetowards the supervision of practice in social services departments.While supervision may be integral to much social work practicein clinical settings, the culture and tradition of supervisionin social services departments looks to be permeated with confusionabout ‘supervision’ or ‘consultation’,the nature of accountability and the functions of supervisionof qualified and experienced practitioners. To move beyond anideology prescribing supervision, the paper considers evidenceof the effectiveness of supervision practice, analysing thetransition from practitioner to line-manager/supervisor andthe subsequent strain on the supervisor's authorities of positionand of expertise in some current arrangements for supervisionin field-work ‘teams’. Finally, there is an unequivocalassertion that effective supervision is an essential componentin the monitoring of client service and the maintenance of practitionersengaged in stressful forms of practice. Such supervision needsto recognize the managerial and administrative tasks necessaryto protect the agency and the client from poor quality practice,while also respecting the emotional and educational needs ofnewly qualified and experienced practitioners exposed to thedemands of high-risk judgement and practice.     

Partnership between the probation service and voluntary sector organizations

Summary This paper considers the development of inter-agency partnershipsbetween the probation service and voluntary sector organizationsin the early 1990s in England and Wales and reports the resultsof research by the author and their implications for youth justicearrangements outlined in the recent 1998 Crime and DisorderAct. The article outlines the development of probation partnershipsand the impact of changes to probation services, voluntary organizationsand service users which include: a shift towards purchaser-providerand contract-based arrangements; voluntary organizations takingon a role to work with involuntary clients; and the introductionof a discourse on partnerships which marginalizes small, informalvoluntary groups. These findings are then considered in relationto the Crime and Disorder Partnerships for crime preventionwhich form a crucial part of the 1988 Criminal Justice Act.The Crime and Disorder Partnerships have less emphasis on amanagerialist agenda but offer no extra resources and this articlesuggests that they may therefore not result in significant benefitsfor agencies working with young offenders.     

The Post- and the Anti-: Analysing Change and Changing Analyses in Social Work

Correspondence to Dr Liz Lloyd, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 7 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1UA Summary This article considers some of the issues raised by criticsof postmodern analyses of social work. It analyses the waysin which social services departments have changed to a ‘post-fordist’organizational form and considers the implications for equalitypolicies and anti-oppressive practice. It challenges the viewthat preserving a more professional approach to social workoffers greater opportunities for anti-oppressive practice thanthe more deprofessionalized approach currently being developedand argues that social workers committed to the principles ofanti-oppressive practice can develop new tactics appropriateto the changing organizational context It also argues that postmodernistanalyses offer new insights into experiences of power, oppressionand inequality. In particular, it stresses the importance ofunderstanding the linkages between broader, political and economictrends and the experiences of individual social workers andservice users. Drawing on research in Avon Social Services, it considers theways in which race equality strategies in community care continueto reduce issues of race and racism to culture and identity.Reflecting critically on anti-oppressive and anti-racist actionit argues that the limitations placed on anti-oppressive practiceunder the postfordist context of community care are unlikelyto differ greatly from those felt under previous organizationalregimes.     

Care Management and Professional Autonomy: The Impact of Community Care Legislation on Social Work with Older People

Correspondene to Mark Lymbery, Centre for Social Work, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. e-mail: Mark_Lymbery{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary The 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act appearedto herald a new dawn for social work with older people, whichhad previously been a relatively neglected and undervalued areaof social work practice. The legislation proposed a new rolefor social workers as ‘case managers’, with considerableautonomy and flexibility about the way in which the ‘casemanager’ responded to need. By the time community carepolicy was implemented, the role of ‘case manager’had been transformed into that of ‘care manager’,with a focus which emphasized procedural and managerial requirementsrather than a more flexible professional practice. This paper explores the extent to which this shift has substantivelyaltered the nature of social work practice with older people.It outlines key theories of professions and their applicabilityto social work, and critically analyses the impact of the ‘newmanagerialism’ within social services departments. Thepaper also examines the nature of social workers' practice witholder people following the impact of community care legislation,and concludes that the impact on the social work professionhas been to locate an increasing control of practice with socialwork managers, with potentially serious consequences for thecontinuation of a distinctive social work role in relation toservices for older people.     

Social Work and Criminal Justice in Scotland: Developments in Policy and Practice

Correspondence to Dr Gill Mclvor, Social Work Research Centre, Department of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland. Summary In the last five years major changes have occurred in the provisionof social work services to the Scottish criminal justice system.The present article charts recent developments in statutoryand voluntary community-based social work services to offenders,locating them in the context of contemporary penal policy. Thecontribution of social work at various points in the criminaljustice process is discussed with particular reference to theintroduction of national standards and full central fundingof statutory social work services. The new funding arrangementshave, it is suggested, provided an impetus to the developmentof statutory services but at the expense both of services notcurrently subject to the 100 per cent funding mechanism andof increased central government control. The article concludesby outlining the challenges to be faced by social work departmentsover the next few years, including an ever-widening remit andthe uncertainties surrounding local government re-organization.     

Contact and Collaboration with General Practitioners: A Comparison of Social Workers and Community Psychiatric Nurses

Correspondence to Mr M. Sheppard, Department of Applied Social Science, Polytechnic South West, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA. Summary For some years good communication and collaboration betweenhealth and welfare professionals has been emphasized as a desirablegoal by both official reports and relevant professions. Thisis as much the case in mental health as other areas. This papercompares communication and collaboration between social workersand general practitioners (GPs) with that between communitypsychiatric nurses (CPNs) and GPs. Both social workers and CPNswere based at a community mental health centre, and the contactwas interagency (with primary health care). Major differenceswere found between social workers and CPNs. CPNs were far morelikely to contact GPs than social workers, although GPs veryrarely initiated contact themselves. Differences reflected different‘philosophies of contact’. Social workers contactedGPs when this could be purposively related to their case management.In addition to this contact, CPNs also made contact to provideGPs with information, reflecting awareness of GPs' long-termcontinuing care responsibility. The excess of CPN contacts wasnot limited, but involved a wide range of problems. GPs, however,when contacted, exerted greater influence on social work casemanagement. The article concludes by explaining differencesbetween CPNs and social workers in terms of occupational culture.It suggests, furthermore, that the results arise at least inpart from assumptions of team leadership by GPs, and that socialworkers' and CPNs' behaviour represents different responsesto this.