Tricks of the Trade: Questionable Theory and Practice in Family Therapy

Summary This paper looks at certain over-systematizing trends in familytherapy, and at a group of practices, connected with such systems-thinking,which espouse manipulation and deception. It is argued thatthese theories and methods, couched in a language of scientism,represent a questionable and cynical direction in therapeuticwork. This technocratic approach not only disfigures personaland social being, but erodes social work principles foundedmorally upon a respect for persons. An alternative view is advocatedin which the value of the person is considered as central toan adequate human science. This regards the nature of understandingas based upon the finitude of experience, and therefore offersan appreciation of the person not as an ‘object’fit for technocratic manipulation, but in terms of his subjectiveand historical being.     

'Low Key Practices' in Social Work. Towards a Socio-historical Method

Summary In this article a ‘socio-historical’ method of analysisand intervention in social work will be developed, illustratedby an example drawn from social work with families, the programknown in France as Action Educative en Milieu Ouvert. Our purposeis to support and encourage what we call ‘low key practices’,which refers to practices in which social workers within theexisting structures of so-called ‘individual social work’attempt to explain the social struggle taking place in the situationsthey are dealing with.     

Outline of a Critical Best Practice Perspective on Social Work and Social Care

Correspondence to Harry Ferguson, Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of the West of England, Blackberry Hill, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1DD. E-mail: harry.ferguson{at}uwe.ac.uk Summary This article seeks to lay the foundations for a new, more positiveperspective on critical practice, research and learning in socialwork and social care. A ‘critical best practice perspective’seeks to move the literature beyond a ‘deficit approach’where the focus is on what does not get done (well), to createa perspective where learning occurs in terms of best practicewhich is set out as a model for developing systems and practicecompetencies. This requires a focus on the actual critical practicesthat are ‘best’ demonstrating the very practicethrough which positive outcomes were achieved. A detailed case-studyis offered drawn from a large scale research study which typifieshow a critical best practice perspective can provide for learningin key areas such as how to engage service users, advocate ontheir behalf, promote protection, establish empowering relationshipsand conduct longer-term therapeutic work in an antioppressivemanner. The research method uses critical theory as an interpretativeframework for reaching an operational definition of 'excellence’and what is ‘best’, which is drawn from the perspectivesof the range of stakeholders who construct practice. This requiresa broadening of the concept of evidence-based practice to includequalitative research methods and the experience of professionals,service users and the production of ‘practice-based evidence’.     

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.     

Keyworkers Re-examined: Good practice, quality of care and empowerment in residential care of older people

Correspondence to Rosemary Bland, Department of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland Summary Social work definitions of ‘good practice’ in residentialcare which were originally developed in work with children andyoung people have also been applied to residential settingsfor other user groups, including older people. However, anylink between such elements of practice and positive outcomesfor users has not always been demonstrated. The introductionof market principles and orientations into social welfare inthe 1980s re-defined the social work ‘client’ asa ‘consumer’ with the associated power to make choicesin the area of social care. The success with which such an approachcan be applied to services for people who are very often, notin a position to exercise much choice, is debatable. Alongsidethe notion of the ‘consumer’ or ‘user’of services has grown the ideology of ‘empowerment’of people who use social work services. Drawing on findingsfrom a recent study, this article explores the contributionof the keyworker role to good practice and the empowerment ofolder people living in residential homes. It concludes that,because their understanding of the concept and practice is largelyundeveloped, the role as currently interpreted is not consonantwith good practice and tends rather to reinforce the power ofstaff.     

Social Workers' Responses to Experiences of Fear

Correspondence to Martin Smith, EDT c/o Social Services Department, Easton Street, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP11 1NH. E-mail: msmith{at}buckscc.gov.uk Summary This paper follows on from the paper ‘Social workers’experiences of fear’, written by the same authors, reportingon a research study that showed how social workers interviewedexperienced fears of assault, death, losing control and rejectionfrom their seniors during their working hours. Now, from thesame study, examples are given that illustrate ways in whichparticipants were affected by, and responded to, these fears.Substantive quotations from in-depth interviews are providedshowing effects of fears as being physical, cognitive and emotionaland as manifesting themselves differently with the passing oftime. Also given are examples of what it was that participantsfound to be helpful, or unhelpful, when attempting to deal withtheir fears and particular attention is paid to supervisionin this respect. The paper argues that drama therapy literaturehas much relevance to the management of fear as participantsoften reported different parts of themselves performing roleswhen affected by and responding to fears. Implications for socialwork training are considered in this light. Generally, it isclaimed that the more social workers can learn about fear andits manifestations and implications in their work, the betterthey will be able to respond to it and deal with it.     

Ambiguities in Decision Making: Social Work's Response to 'Glue-Sniffing' in Scotland

Correspondence to Dr Elizabeth Jagger, Social Science Department, Park Campus, 1, Park Drive, Caledonian University, Glasgow G3 6LP Summary This paper examines how social workers make decisions aboutwhich cases of ‘glue-sniffing’ require intervention,in the context of a government policy which construes the problemprimarily within the arena of parental responsibility. Usingdata from interviews with social workers and research on ‘glue-sniffing’,it shows that social workers were frequently reluctant to dealwith cases. It explains that this has to do with factors suchas organizational priorities, lack of resources and, in particular,the ambiguous status of ‘glue-sniffing’ within theirown professional discourse. It concludes that the complex interplayof these factors means that government policy is not translatedinto practice in any simplistic manner.     

The Impact of the First Term of the New Labour Government on Social Work in Britain: The Interface between Education Policy and Social Work

Summary This paper considers how far the New Labour educational policyrepresents a clear shift in focus from the policies of the Conservativeadministrations of the 1980s and 1990s. As in other areas ofsocial policy, the paper concludes that current government policyowes as much—if not more—to ‘New Right’ideology than to that of the ‘Old Left’. With anew emphasis on social inclusion, the paper considers the contributionof, and implications for, contemporary developments in educationpolicy and practice for child and family social work in general,and education social work in particular.     

'No Irish Need Apply': Social Work in Britain and the History and Politics of Exclusionary Paradigms and Practices

Correspondence to Paul Michael Garrett, Centre for Social Work, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. E-mail: paul.garrett{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary In Britain, Irish people have continually been excluded fromthe discourse of anti-discriminatory social work theory. Themain reason for this centres on the dominant tendency to exclusivelycentre on ‘race’ and visible difference. Recentpolicy documents in relation to social work with children andfamilies illustrate the fact that Irish people are omitted indiscussions seeking to promote culturally appropriate services.Conceptually this approach is founded on implicit ideas aboutBritish identity and erroneously suggests that white ethnicitiesare homogeneous, unified and clearly demarcated from a (new)black presence. Historically, ideas associated with ‘theproblem family’ can be related to the racialization ofIrish people. Archival research examining responses to unmarriedmothers travelling to Britain to have ‘illegitimate’babies adopted also highlights how Irish women have been subjectto exclusionary social care practices. Whilst rejecting an essentialistconceptualization of ‘Irishness’, the article goeson to suggest that the mainstream and hegemonic discourse on‘race’ needs to take specific account of Irish peopleand other minority ethnicities not identifying as ‘black’,particularly during a period of globalization and new migrationinto Britain by refugees and asylum seekers.     

The State of Welfare

Summary The word ‘welfare’ is difficult to define becauseit combines within it a range of ideologies and actions. Twoconclusions are drawn from this: first, that social servicesshould be regarded as contributors to, but not providers ofwelfare; second, that the study of social work and social administrationshould be concerned not only with the relationship of ‘service’to ‘need’ but also with societal movements and pressureswhich determine the emergence of both. The article reviews theprofessed values of the welfare state, particularly ‘socialequality’ and the problems associated with its achievement,namely public attitudes, and the discontinuity between intentionand practice in the welfare services. The implications for socialwork education and practice are considered.     

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 Adjustment: The Design and Use of an Instrument for Social Work and Social Work Research

Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. R. Corney, General Practice Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5. Summary This article discusses some of the problems encountered whentrying to assess social adjustment and describes a standardizedsemi-structured interview designed to measure social adjustmentand dysfunction. The interview can be used by social workersas a research tool, a screening device or in making an assessmentThe interview is composed of items grouped under the three headingsof ‘Material conditions’, ‘Social management’and ‘Satisfaction’. Ratings are made on a four-pointscale by interviewers standardized in its use. The interviewwhich takes 40 minutes to one hour to administer, covers housing,finance, occupation, social and leisure activities, and relationshipswith significant individuals in the subject's life.     

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.     

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.     

Risk and Supervision: Social Work Responses to Referred User Problems

Correspondence to Peter Burke, Department of Social Work, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX Summary This study examines social work responses to users followingcase allocation of the initial referral. The aim of the studyis to demonstrate the need for supervision of social workersdealing with cases which have in common an inherent quality,described as ‘risk’. The study also links referralsto other practice responses identified as ‘service delivery’and ‘advisory’ work. The relationship between theseparticular responses is tested against the outcome decisionreached on case closure. All referrals were allocated betweentwo fieldwork teams over a one-year period and a total of 312referred cases was allocated within the categories mentioned.Findings are indicative that more ‘risk’ type referrals,however defined, are resolved with additional supervisory inputthan without, and that lower status workers favoured ‘middleground’ decisions of outcome when compared to their seniorcolleagues. A consideration resulting from this research isthat agency definitions of risk are different to the type ofrisk which requires crisis intervention. The question of riskto the user or to the agency requires the workers concernedto be able to discriminate between such cases. The implicationfor team training is that supervisory input should clarify thenature of risk, if any, and the task required of the workerfollowing case referral. The matching of skills which wouldultimately be the objective of this type of research cannotbe finally determined until a more comprehensive set of parametersfor practice is identified. This study shows that the responsecategories used demonstrate some basic supervisory needs ofthe worker.     

The Trouble with Harry: Why the 'New Agenda of Life Politics' Fails to Convince

via e-mail: paul.garrett{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary Harry Ferguson (2001), referring largely to Britain and Ireland,maintains that social work should be committed to a ‘newway of thinking’ which is rooted in ‘life politics’.This idea, uncritically grounded in the ideas of Anthony Giddensand Ulrich Beck, fails to convince because: the assertion thatwe are now living in a ‘post traditional order’is undermined by the resilience of key historical forms of regulationand control which continue, for example, to limit women's choicein the sphere of reproductive rights; identified changes inthe texture of family relations are not evidenced by research;the ‘life politics’ perspective places too greatan emphasis on human agency, choice and volition and not enoughon structural constraint; the structural location of the ‘lifepolitics’ proponents is not interrogated; the analysisis too stridently dismissive of the idea that ‘emancipatorypolitics’ should be social work's primary orientation.     

The Singer or the Song: An Autobiographical Account of a Suicidal Destructive Person and her Social Worker

Summary Margery Hollick has seen a number of people in the ‘helping’professions about various problems. Some she has found helpfuland some actively upsetting. She and Jill Ford, a social workershe did find helpful, look here at some of the possible reasonsfor the different impact made by different workers. One particularaspect of this which they explore is the relative importanceof the standard of professional practice and the personal attributesof the worker. ‘How much is it the quality of the song,the quality of the singer (as a singer, as singer of that particularsong), and how much the conjunction, that makes the difference?’they ask and discuss in relation to their own work together.     

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.     

Social Work Students' Perceptions of Child Abuse: An International Comparison and Postmodern Interpretation of its Findings

Correspondence to R. James Christopherson, School of Social Studies, University of Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Summary The decision about whether behaviour with children is acceptablehas far-reaching consequences for those involved. Social workersmust decide what behaviour leads people into the child protectionsystem. This study aims to identify how far social work studentsachieve a consensus on the acceptability of behaviour, and whethersimilar items achieve agreement between groups in Sweden andEngland. Forty-four vignettes of behaviour with children whichmight be seen as unacceptable were administered to 52 first-yearsocial work students in Ume, Sweden, and 50 English students.They were asked to rank the behaviour on a 5-point scale, where‘1’ represented ‘Fine’ and ‘5’‘Totally unacceptable'. Key findings were that there is little consensus within societiesabout what is acceptable behaviour towards children, and significantdifferences between them. It is argued that this is the resultof the many different discourses operating in the field. Theauthor points out the difficulties this can cause, and arguesfor the acceptance of a postmodern approach, which though stressingthe importance of consensus in decision making, ultimately positsthat effective and ethical practice must be based on relationship.Such an approach would resolve paradoxes which have challengeda more modernist understanding of social work.