An Unacceptable Role for Social Work: Implementing Immigration Policy

Correspondence to Dr Beth Humphries, Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University, Cartmel College, Lancaster, LA1 4YL. E-mail: b.humphries{at}lancaster.ac.uk Summary Social work has always had a role in policing the boundariesof welfare, and under New Labour there has been a decisive shiftto an increasingly narrow and negative practice. This articletakes social work’s involvement in internal immigrationcontrols as an example of the profession’s complicityin implementing social policies that are degrading and inhuman.It argues that social work has adopted a reactionary and uncriticalview of policy, and asks whether there might be a more progressivefuture for the profession.     

Social Work with Homeless Families

Correspondence to John Stewart, Lecturer in Social Policy, Lancaster University, Department of Applied Social Science, Cartmel College, Lancaster LA1 4YL. Summary This article examines the inter-connections between social workand housing issues, agencies, and practice in the area of familyhomelessness. It is based on interviews with specialist practitionersat the beginning and end of the 1980s. Policy contexts are examinedto identify the expectations held of social services departmentswithin a corporate responsibility. Analysis of what social workersdo in working with homeless families highlights practical supportthrough the homelessness process and dilemmas over child protection.The guidance on the new children and community care legislationcontinues the marginalization of this specialism, which is variouslymisunderstood, misrepresented, or ignored from the housing policyand research side, whilst on the social services side, althoughformally ignored, it is in practice expected to discharge statutoryresponsibilities in an area fraught with conflicts.     

Perspectives on 'Race' and Adoption: The Views of Student Social Workers

¹ Derek Kirton, Department of Social and Public Policy and Social Work, Darwin College. The University, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NY, UK. E-mail: d.kirtonukc{at}ac.uk Summary This article examines the views of 835 student social workerson race and adoption, focusing on support for transracial andsame race adoption respectively. The two principal findingsare first, one of great divergence of expressed views irrespectiveof background factors, and secondly, that, on balance, supportfor same race adoption is markedly stronger among minority ethnicstudent social workers than their white counterparts. Backgrounddata are used to analyse some of the influences which lie behindthe views indicated, including those of social geography andthe effects of teaching. Factor analysis identifies attitudestowards the nature and salience of ‘black identity’as the most powerful indicator of overall perspectives on raceand adoption. Finally, implications of the study's findingsare discussed in the light of ongoing controversy regardingpolicy and practice in the family placement of minority ethnicchildren.     

The Cumbrian Reparation Scheme

Correspondence to David Smith, Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Administration, University of Lancaster, Fylde College, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4YF Summary This paper discusses an experimental ‘reparation’scheme run by the probation service in Cumbria. A general contextis provided by an analysis of some varieties of mediation andreparation, and the scheme is then placed within its local organizationalcontext, which meant that it drew its work from juvenile liaisonpanels established by the police. The paper argues that thepanels suffered from the lack of a clear commitment to diversionfrom prosecution on the part of the police, and that the reparationscheme was used as part of the probation service's effort toincrease the use of cautions. The practice of reparation andthe experiences victims and offenders had of it are then reviewed.Offenders generally viewed the scheme more positively than victims,but some victims were glad of the opportunity to be involvedin something which might be helpful to young offenders. In conclusion,it is argued that despite the contradictions which were evidentin the practice of reparation in this setting, there may stillbe scope for innovative work by social work agencies in relationto victims of crime.     

A Comment on 'Family Structure as a Factor in the Adjustment of Adopted Children'

Summary Dr. Kraus's paper¹ suggests that ‘a criterion of acceptabilityof childless applicants for adoption should be their childbearingpotential’. This proposal, with its extremely seriousimplications for practice, is based on the results of a questionnairesurvey of couples who had adopted babies seven years earlier.Failings in the statistical analysis, however, cast considerabledoubt on the main finding.     

The Private and the Public in Personal Models of Social Work: A Response to O'Connor and Dalgleish

Correspondence to Dr. R. Hugman, Department of Social Administration, University of Lancaster, Fylde College, Lancaster LA1 4YF. Summary O'Connor and Dalgleish have proposed an understanding of thedisjuncture between education and beginning practice. They discussthis in relation to individuals' models of practice. It is suggestedin this response that the individual basis of this analysisrestricts the extent of possible conclusions. A comparison withdifferent research findings is made, and it is suggested thatthere are implications for social work education and the collectiveresponsibility the profession has for beginning social workers.     

Black, with a White Parent, a Positive and Achievable Identity

Correspondence to Beverley Prevatt Goldstein, Centre for Applied Social Studies. University of Durham, 15 Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HL, UK. Summary This paper focuses on black children with a white parent inBritain. It is based on historical, research and theoreticalmaterial deriving largely from anti-racist and psychologicalframeworks and synthesizes and critically reappraises the existingresearch on black children with a white parent, living withtheir original families, in Britain. The objective is to ‘normalize’black children with a white parent by identifying and rejectingthe forces that pathologize them. The paper therefore highlightsthe racism, marginalization and alienation which are likelyto impact on their world so that action may be taken to combatthese. A lack of clarity as to the personal and political complexityof identity has hampered professional perspectives and intervention.The paper consequently explores, from a postmodernist blackperspective, the ‘racial’ self-concepts that areavailable to this group, identifying their underlying agendasand their consequences. It concludes that the availability ofthe self-concept ‘black, with a white parent’, offeredin the framework of change, multiplicity and individuality,is beneficial. However any consideration of ‘racial’self-concept or identity is deemed productive only when combinedwith efforts to reduce racism, marginalization and alienation.     

Catch 22--Black Workers' Role in Equal Opportunities for Black Service Users

Correspondence to: Beverley Prevatt Goldstein, BECON, 4a Callerton Place, Newcastle, NE4 5NQ, UK. Summary This paper is based on the findings of a qualitative study ofblack social care workers (28) in white-led organizations, largelyin the north east of England. This study sought to assess theextent to which the practice of employing black workers to promoteequal opportunities for black service users led to additionalstress for black workers and to identify the contradictionsin this employment practice. It explored the expectations blackworkers held of themselves and perceived others to hold of themvis-à-vis the promotion of equal opportunities, the levelsof stress of black workers, and the black workers' perceptionsof their working conditions. This paper summarizes the findingsof the study, largely through the respondents own words, andanalyses how this approach to equal opportunities for blackservice users may contribute to negative working conditionsand high stress levels for black workers. It concludes thatin order to reduce the stress of black workers and provide abetter service for all, organizations need to move towards askills based rather than a ‘race’ based ethos andto constantly challenge the homogenization, interpersonal andinstitutional racism experienced by many black workers.     

Community Social Work in a Market Environment: A British-American exchange of technologies and experience

Correspondence to Roger Hadley, Department of Applied Social Science, Cartmel College, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YL Summary Community social work, which flourished in Britain in the late1970s and through much of the 1980s, has been sidelined in recentyears by the combined development of market-oriented policiesand managerialism. However, certain recent initiatives in humanservices in the USA, a country which has moved far further towardsa contract culture than Britain, show that some American practitionersare increasingly critical of the perceived limitations of theirown system and are now seeking to borrow from earlier Britishexperience in making it more integrated, localized and community-oriented.This paper explores the example of an American county humanservices agency which has moved in this direction and considersits relevance for the survival and future development of communityoriented social work and social services in the quasi-marketenvironment which is emerging in Britain.     

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.     

A Study of Post-Adoption Contact in Compulsory Adoptions

Correspondence to Murray Ryburn, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT Summary This study examines post-adoption contact between adopted childrenand their birth relatives where adoption orders have been madeagainst the wishes of birth parents following contested courthearings. This area of adoption practice has received very littleresearch attention and the results of this study are surprising,indicating unexpectedly high levels of post-adoption contact.     

Family, Community, Church and State: Natural Parents Talking about Adoption in Ireland

Correspondence to Dr M. Wilson, Department of Applied Social Studies, University College, Cork, Ireland. E-mail: m.wilson{at}ucc.ie Summary This paper documents women’s experiences of relinquishinga child for adoption in Ireland. This group have long been silencedand largely invisible. The focus of the research on which thispaper is based was to provide a means for the women to sharetheir experiences of the process of concealment and ostracismand to review the socially sanctioned solutions particular toIrish society. The issues that emerge encompass personal, culturaland societal influences and the implications for future policyand practice are explored.     

Career Patterns in Child Care--Implications for Service

Correspondence to Dr David H. Thorpe, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Administration, Fylde College, Lancaster LA1 4YF Summary This paper reports an empirical study of the 12-month careersof 231 children who entered care in one local authority in 1985.Career is analysed primarily in terms of length of time in care(weeks), legal status, age on ently to care and placement changesin care. The study shows that almost half the children who enteredcare went home within 6 weeks, and that those who stayed onin care after that time stood only a 1 in 3 chance of goinghome before one year. Onl a quarter of these children remainedin the same placement during their year in care. Drawing onbackground data derived from recently published child care researchand successful diversionaiy intermediate treatment schemes thepaper outlines child care practices which are targeted on childrenwho remain in care beyond 6 weeks and who would benefit fromintensive efforts to restore them to natural parents.     

Sleepwalking through an Epidemic--Why Social Work should Wake up to the Threat of Hepatitis C

Correspondence to Dr Ian Paylor, Department of Applied Social Science, Cartmel College, Lancaster University LA1 3HY, UK. E-mail: i.paylor1{at}lancaster.ac.uk Summary One of the many consequences of injecting drug use is the potentialrisk to infectious blood-borne viruses. There is evidence thatthe risk of contracting Hepatitis C (HCV) is greater than thatof HIV. Despite repeated warnings from a variety of sourcesand thousands of new infections among drug users each year andrising incidents of ‘'crack’ injecting, successivegovernments have failed to address a public health emergencyof immense proportions - the HCV epidemic. This article exploresthis issue and the implications it has for social work.     

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.     

Children in Secure Accommodation

Correspondence to Professor Robert Harris, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Department of Social Policy and Professional Studies, The University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX. Summary This paper describes the characteristics of a sample of children(N = 399) being held in secure accommodation in eleven localauthorities prior to the implementation of the Children Act1989. It is argued that secure accommodation cannot be divorcedfrom other aspects of child care policy and practice; that anyconfidence that problems of excessive or variable usage canbe removed by more restrictive legislation is largely misplaced;that when social workers resort to secure accommodation it isoften through a combination of ‘worry’ about anunpredictable child and uncertainty as to what else to do; andthat since not all children in secure accommodation wish toleave it (and the more secure accommodation constitutes goodquality child care the more children are likely to want to stay)a ‘rights’ framework, though necessary, is not asufficient moral or conceptual basis for developing secure accommodationpolicy and practice.     

Race, Self-identity and Social Work

Correspondence to Dr J. Owusu-Bempah, School of Social Work, University of Leicester, 107 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 71, A. Summary Many people seem to accept, as self-evident, the notion thatblack children harbour unfavourable cognitions about themselvesand their racial group, and that they would rather be white.The present study investigated the prevalence of this notionamongst social work students, and also the extent of the influenceof this view on professional practice. The study involved 102postgraduate social work students at two British Universitiesin separate regions of the country. The respondents respondedindividually to three randomly distributed vignettes, whichwere identical except for the racial/ethnic origin of the principalcharacters: a white child, a child of ‘mixed-race’parentage and a black child. The respondents were required toassess the causes of the children's behaviour, as well as theirsocial and psychological needs. The results were analysed accordingto the number of respondents who mentioned particular causesof the children's behaviour and particular courses of actionto meet their needs. The analyses revealed significant differencesbetween the respondents' perception and interpretations of thechildren's behaviour. The analyses also revealed that the childrenwere differentially treated according to their race or ethnicorigin. The results are discussed in the light of assumptionsabout black self-concept, mainly derived from the social scienceliterature. The implications of the findings for the socialwork profession, individual practitioners, and their black clientsare also highlighted.     

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.     

Caring for the Elderly Widowed--the Burden on their Supporters

Summary This paper examines how caring for elderly widowed people affectsthe lives of their ‘familiars’. This study is partof a larger national study on widowhood in old age carried outby the Institute for Social Studies in Medical Care. The familiarstended to be the children of the widowed, particularly theirdaughters. Children of the widowed, again often daughters, weremore likely than other familiars to suffer life restrictionsbefore and after the death because of the care and support givento the deceased and the surviving spouse. In addition to theircaring role familiars were often committed to full or part-timeemployment and most also had their own families to support.The care they provide for the elderly is not always withoutcost. The contribution towards community care given by suchinformal helpers deserves greater recognition and the social,psychological and financial costs thus incurred merit greaterrelief. As the help is needed by a minority only of such informalcarers, adoption of a policy relieving them as far as possibleof the costs they incur, would not involve intolerable financialoutlays.     

The African-Centred Worldview: Developing a Paradigm for Social Work

Correspondence to Mekada J. Graham, c/o 97 Acton Lane, London NW10 8UT, UK. E-mail: mekadag{at}yahoo.com Summary This article raises concerns about the ethnocentric nature ofexisting paradigms within the social sciences that form thebasis for social work theory and practice with black familiesand children. In addition, it highlights the theoretical deficitswithin existing social work models that do not reflect the worldviewsof diverse communities in British society. Can existing socialwork models continue to express ethnocentric value systems asthe universal way to explain human behaviour in the light ofgrowing demands for pluralism not only between groups but alsobetween epistemologies and worldviews? The author argues foran alternative paradigm that is grounded in the cultural andhistorical reality of the black experience. A broad base of information and discussion of the African-centredworldview and the development of African-centred perspectivesin social work is explored. African-centred perspectives insocial work challenge the profession to express its core principlesof equality, social justice and self-determination in embracingalternative worldviews and paradigms as legitimate and validbases for social work theory and practice.