A Reflection of The Rising Spectre of Conservatism: Motivational Accounts of Social Work Students

Summary It has recently been argued that the increasing conservatismof Western society is reflected in those entering social work.Pearson, however, has argued that social work recruits by theirchoice of occupation are politically deviant. In this papermotivational accounts of social work students and intendingpsychologists are examined in light of the emerging politicaltrends. Social work students were more concerned with personalgrowth, and later in training with effecting social change,than the intending psychologist. An examination of motivationalaccounts revealed two groups of social work students. The traditionalbase of the profession was represented by a subgroup who wishedto help others and/or effect social change. A second group ofstudents, concerned with the benefits that could accrue to selfthrough social work practice, was also identified. It is consideredthis privatization reflects the dominant ideological trend beinggiven personal meaning by the student.     

Constructivism in Social Work: Towards a Participative Practice Viability

Summary Social work has traditionally drawn upon an expansive rangeof social science research and theorizing as its claim upona ‘knowledge base’. Recent debates have exploredthe need for the profession to develop its own theory of socialwork knowledge arising from practice. This paper seeks to extendthe boundaries of these ideas through an operational and epistemologicalelaboration and critique of Sheppard's (1995a; 1998) notionof a practice paradigm. In an examination of the contributionof constructivism and the seminal work of George Kelly's (1955)Psychology of Personal Constructs, arguments are put forwardfor social work practice to focus upon the co-construction ofviable working relationships with service users as the basisfor an anti-oppressive and participative professionalism. Itargues that the sterile philosophical dichotomies between objectivism/realism-subjectivism/interpretivismand the equally unhelpful social work division between practice-theoryshould be integrated within a situated, participatory, constructivistapproach to knowledge creation in social work practice and continuingprofessional development.     

Who Leaves Social Work?

Summary Turnover and wastage rates among social work staff are highand subject to marked variation between grades, locations andlocal authorities. Such high rates have a number of deleteriouseffects on the quality of social work, and consequently on clients,on the costs of delivering personal social services and on thegeneral administration and organization of social care. Employingdata on 13,750 basic grade field social workers employed byEnglish and Welsh local authority social services departmentsin 1974–75, turnover and wastage rates were predictedusing information on the personal characteristics of employeesand the workplace locations. The analyses revealed the importanceof age, sex, educational background, social work qualifications,length of service and workplace in determining the probabilitiesof changing social work jobs and leaving social work completely.     

Value Bases in Social Work Education

Correspondence to Elisabeth Lynn, Lecturer in Social Work, Centre for Applied Social Studies, 9th Floor, Chemistry Tower, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK. Summary In this paper the two values of social justice and personalcaring are identified as key ideologies within social work education.Their presence is traced within a historical ebb and flow oftheory and practice and it is argued that this dialectic isembedded in social and individual systems. Based on fieldworkresearch with social work lecturers and practice teachers, itis argued that anti-oppressive social work needs a reflexivetheory/practice model to provide an understanding of how structuralpower affects all aspects of an individual. This demands a workingsynthesis of the two values of Personal Canng and Social Justicewithin an understanding of a multiple approach.     

From Hollis to the Orange Book: Developing a Holistic Model of Social Work Assessment in the 1990s

Correspondence to Margaret Lloyd, School of Social Work, University of Manchester, Dover Street, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary Amidst questioning of its essential identity, social work iscurrently developing new procedures and training programmesin assessment, traditionally one of its core activities. Thedemand for this redevelopment has been created by the changingprofessional climate in both probation and social work practice,in particular the response to legislative changes such as theNational Health Service and Community Care Act 1990. This paperexamines the established model of social work assessment inhistorical context and identifies its shortcomings for practicein the 1990s. It argues that despite the apparently diverserange of assessment tasks now undertaken by social workers andprobation officers, there remains an identifiable, common setof skills. Moreover, unless social work anchors these assessmentskills in a conceptual framework, retaining a sense of its ownhistory, the essential character of social work assessment willbe lost amidst mechanistic procedures and competing philosophies.This paper suggests a typology for making sense of the rangeof assessment tasks in current practice, arguing that this mustbe rooted in a holistic theoretical and philosophical model.The term ‘social work’ is used in its generic senseto include probation practice.     

Improving the Interpersonal Skills of Social Work Students: The Problem of Transfer of Training and What to do About it

Correspondence to Dr David Dickson, Head, SST Centre, Dept of Communication, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Co Antrim, N Ireland, BT37 0QB. Summary Interpersonal skills which enable the worker to engage meaningfullywith the client, lie at the heart of effective social work practice(Cournoyer, 1991). The acceptance of this proposition has importantand obvious implications for the preparation of would-be socialworkers. While the increasing popularity of structured approachesto training in this domain has been commented upon (Sowers-Hoagand Thyer, 1985), it is, perhaps, surprising that relativelylittle has been published by way of a systematic explorationof current social work education/training provision in promotingskilled professional interaction. This paper critically reviews some of the research investigatingthe effects of structured training on interviewing performance.While reported outcomes have been largely positive, methodologicalweaknesses are identified and discussed. The issue of trainingeffects persisting and being applied outwith the training environmentis dwelt upon. Contrasting paradigmatic perspectives on theprocess, reflected in such labels as ‘transfer of training’and ‘generalization of outcome’, are considered.These differing conceptualizations are synthesized in the illuminationof factors that seem to be pivotal in the transfer process.Finally, recommendations are made for improving interpersonalskill training procedures for social work students.     

Models of Assessment in Social Work

Summary The provision of a social work service depends significantlyupon assessment of the social situation of clients as determinedby social workers. It is argued that the social worker's ‘understanding’of the social situation is framed within a particular way ofthinking about cause and effect. Three different models of suchthinking are used in practice. They are identified as the linearmodel, systems analysis and the management model. The originsand attributes of each model are described and related to thesocial, economic and political environments which have influencedtheir separate developments. The value base underlying eachmodel is explored. Issues relating to the present position ofsocial work are clarified.     

Some Implications of an Integrated Model of Social Work for Theory and Practice

Summary This paper is an attempt to assess the significance of the introductioninto this country of an ‘integrated’ or ‘unitary’approach to social work. An attempt is made to clarify the relationshipbetween paradigms, theories and models. The author claims thatan integrated approach to social work may represent a shiftfrom a predominantly individualistic conceptual model of practiceto an interactionist one. These conceptual models are comparedand critiques of the integrated model are examined. The questionis posed: is it possible to have an integrated model of practicewithout an integrated theory? Some suggestions are made concerningthe essential characteristics of such a theory and the possiblecontribution of sociology to its development Finally, some implicationsof the model for practice and for social work education arediscussed.     

Personality and Personal Disturbance in Social Workers: A Research Note

Summary Personality Deviance Scales (PDS) and Personal Disturbance Scale(DSSI/sAD) scores were obtained from field social workers. In comparison with general population data and Rutherford's16 PF findings with trainee social workers the subjects werefound to be extreme in not blaming others, slightly submissiveand to have a low prevalence of personal disturbance. It was conjectured that certain personality characteristicsand ways of reacting to frustration may be important in bothbecoming and remaining a social worker.     

Cautionary Tales From Beginning Practitioners: The Fate of Personal Models of Social Work in Beginning Practice

Summary The relationship between professional education and beginningpractice is examined by considering whether the personal modelsof social work developed and reviewed by the individual duringsocial work education survived the transition from student toautonomous practitioner. Fifteen University of Queensland socialwork graduates were engaged in a task of making explicit theirpersonal models of social work, by way of repertory grid technique,in their first eight months of employment. The repertory gridwas used as a conversational tool to monitor the developmentof and changes in their personal models of social work. Thesocial workers were thus engaged in a process consciously reflectingon the meaning of, and the reasons for, these developments andchanges. Whilst the study found that personal models do survivethe transition to social work practice, it also highlightedareas of concern. On the whole graduates did not feel preparedfor work, and the initial period of practice was one of considerabledifficulty. Many experienced considerable difficulty in subsumingthe organizational context within their personal model of socialwork.     

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.     

Social Work Education: Tackling The Theory--Practice Dilemma

Summary The integration of theory and practice has long been a topicfor debate and concern amongst social work educators. A longitudinalparticipant observation study of one cohort of social work studentsconfirmed that the ideal of theory—practice integrationwas also high on their own list of self-established priorities.Students' efforts towards attaining this goal were also hamperedby the perspectives which they themselves brought to bear ontheir training. Attempting to resolve the conflict between theirown perspectives and their perceived demands of professionaleducation students appealed to and reconstructed afresh variousmodels of theory application endorsed both by social work educatorsand practitioners. These models, however, are essentially contradictoryand pose serious problems for the development and maintenanceof social work standards.     

Primary Health Care Workers' Views about Social Work

Summary SUMMARY A comparison of the views about social work held by 188 primaryhealth care workers—118 GPs, 31 health visitors and 39district nurses—working in the same teams is presentedhere.^* The study focussed particularly on their perceptionsof social workers, their role and performance. The data indicatea general acceptance of the social work role, but a lack ofknowledge of or extensive criticism about, social work performance.Significant differences of view emerged about social work training,role and clients, indicating occupation is a significant factorin perceptions held. In particular, the client group predominantlydealt with appears to have had an impact on perceptions. However,views about social work performance did not differ greatly,suggesting the influence of occupation on perceptions shouldnot be overstated.     

The 'Subject' in Social Work

Summary Theories of social work are usually defined by reference totheir oppositions regarding the subject in social work and theaims of practice. This position connects up with a dominantview of theories of social work which regards them as opponentsengaged in a struggle to dominate the field. This paper characterizesthis view as a ‘gladiatorial paradigm’ It assaysthe vaidity of this paradigm. lists the main defects, and setsout the case for a structuralist approach to social work.     

Social Skills Training with Delinquents: A Look at the Evidence and Some Recommendations for Practice

Correspondence to Dr Clive Hollin, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT Summary Following an overview of the use of social skills training (SST)with delinquents, it is concluded that SST can be successfulin changing some aspects of social behaviour but that it haslittle effect on offending. A number of reasons for this ‘failure’are discussed: a failure by practitioners to utilize the fullSST model; and a failure, by practitioners and researchers,to explore the relationship between social skills and offending.Recommendations for both practice and research are made to remedyexisting shortcomings.     

Toward Generic Social Work Practice--a Review and Some Innovations

Summary This essay reviews the development of the generic concept andoffers three models and several concepts that are seen as relevantto the progress of generic theory for social work practice.A major gap in professional social work has been identified.The generic approach is seen as having exciting potential foreducating and training multi-skilled social workers, but a greatdeal of head and heart work is necessary before the idea ofgeneric social work can become a practical and viable reality     

Dreadful Moments: Existential Thoughts on Doing Social Work

Summary Dreadful moments often happen in social work. This is when theordinary, reliable, taken-for-granted world is called into questionby a calamitous or hopeless situation. In order to respond thesocial worker has to relocate himself after momentarily plunginginto a vortex of trouble that destroyed the client's and, fora short time, his own sense of relatedness. Existentialism,which focusses on the whole structure of personal and interpersonalbeing and the necessity to act in the knowledge of freedom andresponsibility, does help with this relocation. Two cases, basedon actual social work, are reconstructed dramatically in orderto illustrate the positive use of the idea of dreadful moments.These are ideal-typical examples of successful social work whichcould be a model for a general phenomenological-existentialperspective in social work in which the author is at presentengaged.     

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 and the Medical Profession--Arguments Against Unconditional Collaboration

Summary The history and major texts of medical social work emphasizethe need for collaboration with the medical profession. Howeverthere is a less visible history of conflict between medicineand social work. It is proposed that a critique of medicine’scontribution to health provides the foundation for a statementof principles for a social model of health for social work practice.Collaboration with medicine should be negotiated on the basisof such principles, rather than unconditional.