The Cultural Mediator: Bridging the Gap Between a Non-Western Community and Professional Social Work Practice

Summary This paper analyses a demonstration project that enabled socialworkers to practise effectively in their home community (a Bedouin-Arabcity in the Negev, Israel) where gender relations are patriarchaland the interface of social work and cultural practices hadpreviously impeded professional functioning. Collaborative workwith cultural mediators, individuals with high social statusand knowledge of community traditions, rendered interventionsmore culturally appropriate, bridged gaps between the culturaland professional canons, and promoted social work's role ina society that had a limited understanding of, and experiencewith, the profession. Future social work practice and researchcould focus on further enhancing women's choice making opportunitiesin this patriarchal culture.     

The Independent Social Work Agency: A Report on the First Year of an Experiment in Social Casework

Summary The authors present an account of their experiences in organizinga research project to explore aspects of the need and demandfor social work through the use of an independent fee-payingagency. Some of the problems encountered in setting up the projectand the agency are discussed, along with some observations onthe first year's work in the agency.     

Public Attitudes to Problem Definition and Problem Solving: A Pilot Study

Summary An attempt is made to discover how people define their problemsand on what basis they decide when, and from where, to seekhelp. The focus is upon legal problems since the study formspart of a wider project concerned with the provision of legalservices. Ignorance and misinformation concerning the availabilityof both social and legal services, combined with apathy andresignation on the part of many who need help, are importantfactors determining the non-use of services. Nor can people'sneeds be neatly categorized as social or legal. The overlappingnature of their problems exists at a structural as well as anindividual level; many of the legal problems experienced byindividuals arise from inequalities in the social and economicstructure of society.     

Client Careers and the Structure of a Probation and After-care Agency

Summary This paper describes the results of a research project in whichthe first year's work of a newly-established Probation CourtIntake and Assessment Team was monitored. The subsequent changesin the practices of the probation officers are analyzed in relationto client careers and organizational boundaries; some implicationsfor social work practice are discussed.     

The Managers of Social Work: The Experiences and Identifications of Third Tier Social Services Managers and the Implications for Future Practice

John Lawler, University of Bradford Management Centre, Emm Lane, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD9 4JL Summary The article draws on the results of a research project whichexplored management in social services departments from theperspective of third tier managers within those organizations.The article outlines some of the major current debates withinsocial services management and discusses the experiences andidentifications of those managers who were part of the study.The results indicate a fragmentation at this level of management—afragmentation of experience, attitudes and management approaches.The implications of this and other findings are considered asthey affect the areas of: research development; policy development;social work management; social work practice; and social workeducation.     

Adoption Advice: A New Service

Summary In the summer of 1975, Barnardo's Yorkshire divisional officelaunched an adoption advice service for anyone with any problemsrelating to adoption. At that time there was no service of thiskind in operation and people with adoption problems had no focalpoint to which to refer for help and advice. The following articledescribes the thinking on which this project is based and describesthe type of problems with which the counsellor had to cope andthe necessary information and social work skills which wereneeded to assist the people using the advice service. This discussioncovers the period from the inception of the Adoption AdviceService to 31 December 1975.     

The Social Worker, the Client and the Social Anthropologist

Summary City Centre Project has been working with drifting and homelessyoung people and we considered it important to study not justthe clients, but also the project workers. The discipline andmethods of social anthropology appeared to offer unique advantagesin this attempt However, in the course of our fieldwork, weencountered situations which led us to question the validityof using participant observation with clients, and to explorethe tensions between social workers and academic researchers.We then altered our methods for gathering data, and realizedthat our experience had important implications for researchersconsidering the use of qualitative methods in a social worksetting. This article is our first attempt to generalize fromour particular experience, and to raise questions about powerrelations among the parties to research and action.     

Interaction Between Field and Residential Social Workers

Summary This paper is based upon collaborative project work with a socialservices department aimed at improving interaction and collaborationbetween field and residential social workers. It describes theprinciples upon which it was agreed that interaction shoulddevelop. These include notions of case-accountable staff, acollateral model of interaction between staff and the idea ofone party being identified as a prime care agent. Based on theseprinciples it sets out a model arrangement for clients enteringresidential care which recognizes the need for precision aboutthe nature of key decisions that need to be taken with clientsand the way these decisions should be taken.     

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.     

Strengthening Professional and Paraprofessional Contributions to Social Service and Social Development

Correspondence to Prof. E. Allan Brawley, Professor of Social Work, The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Sociology, 414 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA 16803, USA. Summary Based on a long-term research project that has generated dataon paraprofessional social service personnel in fourteen developedand developing countries, this paper presents some findingsthat, if acted upon, could strengthen the contribution of bothprofessionals and paraprofessionals to social service and socialdevelopment goals. The type of frontline workers who are generallyregarded as paraprofessionals have always been important participantsin social service activities throughout the world. This continuesto be the case in the countries studied. This article identifiesconditions under which the service activities of professionalsand paraprofessionals can be more productive and where theirjoint contribution to human well-being can be enhanced.     

Developing an interactive approach in social work research: the example of a research study on head injury

Summary The paper examines the processes of a research project aboutthe continuing care needs of head-injured people in order toillustrate an interactive approach in social work research.Influenced by the social work values of empowerment and workingin partnership, the key function of the interactive approachinclude a multidisciplinary research team analysing the researchtopic through different disciplinary perspectives, and selectingresearch methods and dissemination strategies that promote interactiverelationships amongst researchers, respondents and sponsors.Social work practice supplies transferable knowledge, valuesand skills for the interactive approach. The skill of negotiationis used to mitigate unequal distributions of power between researchersand respondents. The paper concludes that the interactive approachis a distinctive characteristic of social work research thatdeserves wider recognition.     

From Paradigm to Practice in a Special Probation Project

Summary Between January 1980 and December 1982, a team of probationofficers in South Yorkshire attempted a new approach to probationpractice. The project arose initially out of the ideas put forwardin Bottoms and McWilliams (1979) ‘A Non-Treatment Paradigmfor Probation Practice’, but the team members developeda version of the paradigm which in many respects differed markedlyfrom the original. In this paper, their statutory work is describedwith particular reference to their social enquiry practice andto their attempted separation of the care and control aspectsof probation orders.     

Learning from a Murri Way'

Summary Under the modernist project indigenous social welfare work approacheshave been silenced and relegated to the periphery as deficittheory and practice in the landscape of social work. This positioninghas promoted the belief that indigenous expertise and cultureis only of relevance for culturally-sensitive practice. Rejectingthis view, I utilize the findings of a study of intra-grouphelping amongst Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders—a‘Murri way’—to argue that social work theoryand practice has much to learn from indigenous peoples aboutthe interpersonal helping process. I call for recognition ofa space of possibility between indigenous and non-indigenouspractitioners that the indigenous telling creates. This is aspace in between these players who do not share a common understanding,a space where players may participate in a dance of difference(dialogue) to help map a common space of understanding.     

Parents' Views on Social Work Interventions in Child Welfare Cases

Correspondence to Trevor Spratt, Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Work, The Queen's University Belfast, 7 Lennoxvale, Belfast BT9 5BY, Northern Ireland. E-mail: T.Spratt{at}qub.ac.uk Summary This article reports findings from the third part of a three-partresearch project examining the potential for social workersto shift from a child protection to a child welfare orientationin their practice. Whilst social workers in the UK have beenencouraged to make such changes, they have been hampered byconcerns to manage risk. Findings reported from the earlierparts of the project, indicated that there was potential fora substantial proportion of child protection work to be redesignatedas child welfare work, but that where this was achieved in practice,there was evidence of the continued influence of child protectionprocesses as social workers sought to manage the risks inherentin child welfare cases. The study reported here sets out toascertain the views of parents who were subject to child welfareinterventions. The findings indicate that while parents feelapprehension with regard to contact with social workers, inthe majority of cases successful relationships are formed. Itis argued that social workers display considerable skill inmonitoring potential risks whilst engaging with families andthat the subtleties involved in such activity are not capturedby official measures of governance which concentrate on moreabstract indicators of performance.     

Social Workers who Move into Private Practice: The Impact of the Socio-economic Context

Summary This paper is based on a doctoral research project, conductedin New Zealand between 1993 and 1999, that considered factorsin the movement of social workers into private practice (vanHeugten, 1999). The study employed a qualitative methodologyin which 33 private practitioners were interviewed using semi-structuredquestionnaires. All respondents had at least a first professionalqualification in social work. The research grew from a realizationthat there had been an upsurge in private practice since themid-1980s, during a time of increasingly right wing governmentpolicies, and free market philosophies. These policies and philosophiesled to a radical restructuring of government and not-for-profitorganizations that employed social workers. Some workers respondedto the changes by seeking alternatives to organizational employment.Concurrently opportunities for private practice were createdby the availability of third party payments for counsellingof survivors of sexual abuse and parties to marital disputes.A similar pattern of confluence of expanding social work privatepractice and free market ideology has been noted in countriessuch as Great Britain and Australia. The implications of thismovement into private practice are considered in relation toprofessional social work associations.     

The Influence of Child Protection Orientation on Child Welfare Practice

Summary This article reports the findings of the second part of a two-partresearch project examining the potential for social workersto make changes in their work with families and children. Whilstsocial workers in the United Kingdom have been encouraged toshift from a child protection to a child welfare orientationin their practice, such changes have been hampered by professionaland organizational concern to manage risk. The research exploresthe influence of a child protection orientation on practicein child welfare cases. The findings, from two file analysesand interviews with 26 social workers, indicate that such aninfluence is indeed apparent. This is evidenced in two ways;first patterns of practice in child welfare cases are similarto those in child protection cases. Secondly, while the majorityof social workers express an attitudinal desire to move towardsa child welfare orientation, they still prioritize the managementof risk in their practice. It is argued that social workersneed permission from their employing organizations to make changesin their practice. This, in turn, requires such organizationsto state clear goals in line with a child welfare orientationand develop holistic strategies to achieve these.     

Evaluating Social Work and Medical Practice with Black and Ethnic Minority Groups Using the Clinical Audit Model

Correspondence to Kish Bhatti-Sinclair, Department of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. Summary This paper is based on the External Audit-Ethnically SensitivePractice (EA-ESP) project which was undertaken within six primaryand secondary health care settings. This project is used asan example of how the clinical audit model can be used to monitorand review health and social work practice in the UK. The paperexamines quality, compares approaches to evaluation, and suggeststhat audit can be a useful tool for agencies in obtaining userand staff views on many areas of practice but in particularon equal opportunities, anti-racism and anti-oppression. Attentionis drawn to audit within broader evaluative and review approachesalready employed by social work academics and practitioners.The issue of quality and how it can be measured is consideredthrough an analytical comparison with approaches which employaction research and other evaluative means in the process ofreview. Audit is explored in the context of a growing need for the developmentof monitoring and review systems which provide evidence to supportand develop professionalism within social work. External auditis explored and compared to internal audit. Finally, the needfor the development of quality services in anti-racist and anti-oppressivework is highlighted and it is suggested that audit can be acost-effective and efficient way of achieving this.     

Attitudes of Medical School Workers Towards Reorganization

Summary This paper arises from a four-year project funded by the Departmentof Health and Social Security, concerning the social needs ofthe physically sick—a study of some aspects of the socialneeds of the physically sick and of the services designed tomeet needs. The present focus is on social work services andin this part of the project a development study has been undertakenand postal questionnaires have been sent (a) to all medicalsocial workers employed in the Hospital Service and in localauthority Health and Welfare Departments, and (b) to all otherhospital social workers engaged in helping the phsically sickand handicapped persons. In addition, a Survey is being carriedout through records of 9,000 admissions to a number of hospitalsto see how many of these patients are referred to the hospitalSocial Work Departments in a nine-month period, at what stagein their hospital careers they are referred, etc. A Survey is being carried out in four hospitals using a randomsample of patients and another sample referred for social workhelp. These patients are being interviewed in hospital and afterdischarge to see what kind of problems are encountered in hospitaland after discharge and what services are provided. Interviewswith medical, nursing, administrative and social work stabstractand included in this survey. The overall objectives of the Survey are to study needs andservices and to indicate how closely services respond to needs.     

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.     

Social Work Ideologies in the Probation Service

Summary The research described in this paper was an attempt to exploresome aspects of social work ideology in the probation service.We were particularly interested to identify the extent to whichprobation officers subscribed to certain ‘treatment model’assumptions about criminal behaviour. The project was designedas a small-scale study in depth of probation officers' socialinquiry practices. The data-collection methods used for thiswere a combination of depth interviews with probation officerswho also completed self-administered questionnaires. We foundthat some probation officers appeared to subscribe to ‘treatmentmodel‘ ideals more than others, but that all probationofficers were treatment orientated towards some of their casesand not to others. Their treatment preferences seems to relateto the seriousness of the offender's criminal history and personalproblems and the recommendation that was being made. Some ofthe implications of these findings for social work practicewere discussed.