Dying and Bereavement, Spirituality and Social Work in a Market Economy of Welfare

Correspondence to Margaret Lloyd, School of Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL Summary This paper examines the contribution of social work practiceto the care of people who are dying or bereaved. It considerscurrent challenges to traditional practice arising from societaland organizational change, reaffirming the importance of thesocial work role but arguing that, in order to face those challenges,social workers must broaden their perspective to incorporatea spiritual dimension. The paper draws on a research study conductedby the author.     

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.     

Beyond Retroduction? -- Hermeneutics, Reflexivity and Social Work Practice

Correspondence to Susan White, University of Manchester, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester Summary Over the last three decades qualitative research methodologieshave been in the ascent within social science. Yet social workevaluation studies have tended to be quantitative in nature,conventially relying upon the generation of criteria againstwhich interventions are retrospectively judged. The generationof such criteria inevitably depends upon pre-suppositions, whichin themselves go unresearched. As a consequence the .sense makingactivities on which social work interventions depend are renderedimmune from critical analysis. This reflects a broader tendencyfor social work to cling to naive realist epistemologies, whichare arguably obsolete within the interpretive paradigm in whichits activity is properly located. By examining the debates withininterpretive social science, this paper argues for an approachto social work assessment which avoids the pitfalls of naiveobjectivism and the nihilism of anarchic relativism, whilstretaining creativity, imagination and hope.     

An Approach to the Management of the Assessment of Practice Placements

Correspondence to Annie Hudson. Lecturer in Social Work. Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, University of Manchester. Manchester M13 9PL Summary This article addresses some of the issues and problems inherentin the assessment of practice placements. and discusses theefforts of one course to devise a method of managing the assessmentprocess. It begins with an identification and brief discussionof those problems, then moves on to review the development ofthe method and describe the system as it currently operates.The second part of the article discusses the need for continuingattention to both the design of the system and its implicationsfor the roles of those most involved, with particular emphasison the role of the tutor. The article concludes by posing somequestions raised therein which have relevance for current debatesabout the future of social work training.     

A Model for the Comprehensive Assessment of Older People and Their Carers

Correspondence to Beverley Hughes, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary Although local authorities and social service departments arein the process of developing systems of assessment in relationto care management, there has been little debate about the principleswhich ought to underpin assessment processes, nor about thepurpose, scope, and content of comprehensive assessment witholder people. This article discusses these issues and proposesa framework for comprehensive assessment with older people andtheir carers, derived from development work with social workersin a number of local authorities. Of particular importance isthe need for comprehensive assessment to embody meaningful mechanismsfor user and carer participation and empowerment; to acknowledgenot only need and risk but strengths and resources; to regardthe older person as the centre of a network of personal, familial,and social factors which together determine her or his qualityof life and level of risk. The implications for practitionersare examined.     

Tackling Inequalities in Physical Health: A New Objective for Social Work

Correspondence to Eileen McLeod, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. Summary We argue that tackling the impact of social inequality on physicalhealth should become a central objective of social work andintrinsic to the development of anti-oppressive practice. Thisis on three grounds. First, the suffering embodied in inequalityin physical health should be a cause of concern to social workers,as a pervasive social problem. Secondly, awareness of socialwork's complicity in contributing to such a problem, throughits historical role in implementing state policies, needs toinform assessment of social work outcomes. Nevertheless, thirdly,social work—not confined to health care settings—whichredresses social disadvantage and tackles its consequences forphysical well-being can contribute to greater equity in health.Indicative examples of such practice are provided in relationto health maintenance, living with ill health and terminal illness.Finally, consideration is given to the current wider politicalcontext in which social work addressing health inequalitiesis embedded and to the need for complementary organizational,professional and political initiatives to buttress its development.     

Openness and Contact in Adoption: A Child-centred Perspective

Correspondence to Beverley Hughes, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary This paper reports the findings of a study on the views of birthparents on openness and contact and, in the light of the findings,examines the current trend towards a presumption in favour ofdirect contact between birth parents, child and/or adopters.It argues for a child-centred approach which must discriminatemore clearly between the implications for the child of differentpost-adoption arrangements. The assumptions underlying a presumptionin favour of direct contact are critically reviewed.     

Social Work, Sectarianism and Anti-sectarian Practice in Northern Ireland

Correspondence to Dr Jim Campbell, Department of Social Work, The Queen's University of Belfast, 7 Lennoxvale, Belfast BT9 5BY, Northern Ireland. Jim Campbell lectures in the Department of Social Work, The Queen's University of Belfast. His doctoral thesis was on the concept of violence in social and political thought. His current research interests include social policy in Northern Ireland and mental health social work Summary This paper addresses a subject relatively unknown to the Britishand international social work audience—that of trainingfor anti-sectarian practice. In doing so, it points to someof the complex, even dangerous issues raised by such trainingfor social work students and practitioners in Northern Ireland.The paper comments upon the limited but significant ways inwhich social work educators and practitioners have tried tochallenge sectarian discrimination in Northern Ireland, andproposes methods in train ing and research which might facilitatea better understanding of these processes.     

The Psychiatric 'Caseness' of Clients Referred to an Urban Social Services Department

Correspondence should be sent to Dr. Peter Huxley, Mental Health Social Work Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Manchester University, Stopford Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT. Summary Of 158 clients referred to two area offices and six generalpractice attached social workers, 141 weré interviewedusing standardized social and psychiatric research interviews.The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was completed by 138clients. Their social worker completed the Case Review Form.Scores of 5 or more on the PSE Index of Definition (for theclient) were used to indicate psychiatric caseness. Using IDscores of 5 or more, 53% of the sample were identified as ‘cases’.The GHQ (cut-off 4/5) identified 73% of the clients as cases;and the GHQ (cut-off 10/11) identified 51% cases. Morbidity was significantly greater in the general practicesetting. Social workers' judgement (about the presence or absenceof mental illness/emotional disorder) was not significantlybetter than chance in the identification of specific disorders,but was significant in relation to the whole sample. The results are discussed and further studies are being conductedusing more sophisticated judgements of ’caseness’,and extending the enquiry beyond an inner city population.     

The Client Group Preferences of Diploma in Social Work Students: What are they, do they change during programmes and what variables affect them?

Correspondence to Dr Raymond Jack, Reader in Social Work, Anglia Polytechnic University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT Summary Social work is undergoing fundamental changes in terms of theway it is organized and how it is practised. If, in this shiftingscenario of occupational deconstruction, the output of socialwork education is to be relevant to the workforce needs of welfareagencies—no matter how organized—it is importantto know more about the client group preferences of social workstudents and what factors influence them. This longitudinalstudy inquired into student preferences at the beginning andend of three Diploma in Social Work programmes and its findingssuggest that the sociodemographic characteristics of studentsare less demonstrably influential than previous experience andplacement experience whilst on the programmes. In addition,students attribute far less influence to lectures and tutorialsas change agents than they do to placements, service users orother students. The implications of this for social work educationare discussed.     

A Political Critique of Kantian Ethics in Social Work

Correspondence to Stephen A. Webb, Department of Social Work, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN. Summary This paper addresses the Kantian theory of the subject whichis found in contemporary social work discourse on ethics andvalues. It is argued here that the Kantian idea of persons as(i) rational, (ii) autonomous, and (iii) ends-in-themselvesis wholly inadequate to the social work doctrine of ‘respectfor persons’. To show this, we counterpose a Foucauldianview of history, moral codes and theory of the person, and themeaning this can have in the social worker-client relation.This alternative reading claims that social work is essentiallya political practice which is constructed by various discursiveand institutional strategies of power. Therefore, it is suggestedthat social work needs a political reading of its own discourse.To this end we outline a Foucauldian micro-political analysisof the social work ‘subject’ or person as a pointwithin a field of discursive-knowledge based strategies.     

Non-Statutory Mental Health Social Work in Primary Care: A Chance for Renewal?

Correspondence to Malcolm T. Firth, Honorary Research Fellow & Senior Psychiatric Social Worker, 'DEAL', Department of Psychiatric Social Work, 12th Floor, Mathematics Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: malcolm.firth{at}mhsc.manchester.nhs.uk Summary The current status of evidence-based practice in the field ofmental health has led some to question the potential for innovationif social work practice is organizationally proscribed or reducedto a dogged adherence to methodological orthodoxy. Conversely,social work's value base is esteemed disproportionately to itsevidence base. Changing service contexts in the UK, particularlythe emergence of Primary Care Trusts as gatekeepers and commissionersof health and social care services, are providing opportunitiesfor social work to develop a new presence and purpose. The authorsdescribe their work in a small-scale service based in primarycare that anticipated these opportunities, by a retrospectivestudy of 120 cases. A new evidence base that derives directlyfrom practice is suggested as a way forward for social workeducation and training, as well as for service and professionaldevelopment.     

Mapping Comparative Empirical Studies of European Social Work

Correspondence to Professor Steven M. Shardlow, Director Salford Centre for Social Work Research, School of Community, Heath Sciences and Social Care, The University of Salford, Allerton Building, Frederick Road, Salford, Greater Manchester M6 6PU, UK. E-mail: S.M.Shardlow{at}Salford.ac.uk Summary This paper reviews the scope of currently published materialsabout comparative empirical social work research within Europe,published in English over a two-decade period (1980–2000).To this end, the paper is divided into four sections. First,an account of the scope and methods used to conduct this review.Second, a brief analysis of non-empirical published materials.Third, in the bulk of the paper, identified comparative studiesare discussed in depth, with a particular focus upon methodologicalissues. Finally, by way of a conclusion, comments are made aboutthe state of contemporary empirical studies within Europeansocial work, and the relationship of these studies to the constructionof social work knowledge. In addition, some suggestions of possiblesites for improvement in respect of comparative empirical researchabout social work in Europe are made.     

Under New Orders: The Redefinition of Social Work with Young Offenders

Correspondence to Dr. H. Parker, Department of Sociology and Social Work Studies, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Myrtle Street, P.O.Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX Summary This paper reports on the significant changes in policy andpractice presently being implemented by the Probation Serviceand other social work agencies responsible for work with juvenileand young adult offenders. These changes concern Social EnquiryReport writing, the more intensive supervision of young offendersthrough the attachment of day centre type requirements to Supervisionand Probation Orders and the extension of Community ServiceOrders. Illustrating their analysis with data from a nationalsurvey of the Probation Service, the authors argue that thesechanges which have emanated in various forms from central governmenthave had a mixed reception. Whilst on the one hand, this thrustfrom above has been viewed as an unwelcome extension of communitycontrol through social work practice, it has also been seento contain opportunities to provide genuine alternatives tocustody for young offenders. The authors argue that, taken inthe context of recent overall sentencing trends, it is unlikelythat custody rates will decrease significantly, as Courts willtend to use community service and supervision packages to serveother purposes.     

Birth Mothers and their Mental Health: Uncharted Territory

Correspondence to Janette Logan, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester Summary This article reports the findings of a study commissioned bythe Mental Health Foundation which examined the experiencesand needs of birth mothers who relinquished a child for adoption.Historically, birth mothers have been neglected in the Britishliterature; their experience is considered to have ended atthe time of placement. This research however, indicates thelong-term implications of relinquishment are severe—particularlyin relation to mental health. They demand that the complexityand uniqueness of relinquishment as a form of loss be more fullyunderstood, birth mothers' reactions to those experiences arenot pathologized and professionals learn to respond more positively.GP's in particular need to develop a more sensitive understandingof their needs and in so doing could prevent the medicalizationof some birth mothers.     

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.     

Notes on Theory and Practice in Social Work: a Comparative View

Please address reprint requests to Robert van Krieken, Department of Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia. Summary There are still a number of problems surrounding the relationshipbetween theories of social work practice and that practice itself.This paper examines the factors underlying those problems andemphasises their roots in the failure to examine the diversityof social work theories and practices. We refer to one attemptto resolve the problems—the distinction between ‘practicetheory’ and ‘theory of practice’—pointout some difficulties with it and suggest an alternative, three-folddistinction within theorising: between (a) materialist socialtheory, (b) strategic practice theory and (c) working concepts. As an example of how those distinctions can be used, we thenbriefly discuss the work of Oskar Negt and its introductioninto the Dutch welfare context, as it was the issues raisedby that which stimulated the ideas in this paper. We concludeby arguing that only this kind of perspective on theorisingcan produce ideas which are of real use to progressive socialwork practitioners.     

The Limits of Competence in Social Work: The Assessment of Marginal Students in Social Work Education

Summary Out of a population of 208 final year social work students,a sample is gathered of those whose fieldwork gave rise to commentby tutors. A further sample of 35 deemed to be ‘at risk’is identified, and the process by which all but four obtainedtheir Certificate of Qualification in Social Work is carefullymonitored. Among topics discussed are the need to define theprocess of assessment more clearly, the weakness of so-calledtheoretical foundations in social work practice, the risk ofmisunderstanding between fieldwork teachers (supervisors) andcourse tutors regarding their respective responsibility forjudging competence in practice, and the desirability of requiringstudents to demonstrate competence rather than expecting coursesto prove incompetence.     

Applying Single-Case Evaluation in Social Work

Summary This article reports on a research project involving the useof single-case designs on an agency-wide basis within KirkleesMetropolitan Education Social Work Service. Following a programmeof training, 21 social workers (69 per cent of the service)applied the methodology in 83 cases. The extent of practitionerinvolvement in this project prompted Bruce Thyer (Professorat the University of Georgia, USA and editor of Research onSocial Work Practice and author of Thyer, 1993) to state ina letter to the authors, ‘Please allow me to offer mycongratulations on a most valuable project. To my knowledge,this is the largest agency-based study of this type which hasever been conducted. Your agency social workers are especiallyto be commended for their implementation of single-case designswith real life clients and families’ (6 May 1994). Theproject's strategy was to concentrate on the prerequisites ofsingle-case methodology which include specifying target problemsand selecting an appropriate measure to monitor progress. Thetype of single-case design used was determined by the courseof natural practice, hence indicating the flexible nature andviability of this methodology in the evaluation of social workpractice. The use of single-case designs encouraged a systematicapproach in the definition of target problems, identificationof goals, selection of intervention procedures and in monitoringoutcomes. The practitioners found that single-case designs enabledcontinuous assessment of outcome data by both the clients andthe practitioners, providing a model of accountability and collaborativeworking. A paper based on this article was presented by MansoorKazi at the ADSS Research Group Conference, Stafford, 17–18November 1994.     

The Supervision of Child Protection Work

Correspondence to Alan Rushton, Course Director, M.Sc. in Mental Health Social Work, Social Work Department, The Maudsley Hospital, 101 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ, UK Summary It has frequently been recommended that statutory child protectionservices in Great Britain need greater provision of specialistsupervision to support front line social workers. This qualitativestudy, based in social services departments in London, usedthe focus group method to explore the provision of supervisionby team managers in a very pressurized work environment. Thestudy highlights the difficulty of protecting adequate supervisiontime but shows how supervisors can use their skills to conductcase related discussion concerned with developing professionalskills. ‘Inquisitorial’ and ‘empathic-containing’functions are identified and an approach is proposed for combiningthem in training courses for child protection supervisors. Thepaper recommends that supervision training needs to be expanded,to be more precisely targeted, and that outcomes need to berigorously and appropriately assessed.