Adolescents in Care and their Social Workers: A Research Note

Summary There has recently been an increasing concern that young people,and especially those in residential care, should be encouragedto express their views, and that the views expressed shouldbe used in improving the care which they receive. The publicationof the Who Cares? booklet (Page and Clarke¹), and the emergenceof ‘Who Cares’ groups and the ‘Voice of theChild in Care’ organisation, is evidence of this concern.In sympathy with these developments has been a study of adolescents'perceptions of social workers, and a part of this research hasincluded a pilot study of the views of adolescents living intwo family group homes.     

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 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.     

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.     

Themes and Continuities in Radical and Traditional Social Work

Summary Traditional and radical social work are amongst the principalcombatants in the paradigm-crisis that is alleged to characterisecontemporary social work. In considering the way in which thesetwo theoretical stances approach one of social work's centralproblems—the relationships between the person and society—itis argued that what is revealed is as much overlap as disagreement.This is in part through the subdued radicalism of a traditionalapproach which struggles to comprehend the effects of societyon clients' lives, and in part because radicalism is incorporatedinto prevailing ways of thinking through having to answer thesame questions as social work orthodoxy. It is because of thisthat Marxist social work is shown to be inevitably compromised,though this is not to deny the important contribution of radicalismin providing more satisfactory answers to crucial social workproblems.     

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.     

Open Records: The Client's Right to Partnership

Summary Many Social Services Departments have opened their files totheir clients or intend to do so. This reflects the incomingtide of concern about citizens' rights and client participation,but what effect might the opening of records have on the practiceof social work? The paper summarizes the findings of a small scale study inwhich a team of social workers opened their case recording toa selected number of clients. The workers’ and clients‘views of this process are described, along with the implicationsfor practice. The study suggests that a focus on shared recordingcan begin to alter the kind of work done by the social worker,helping to promote a partnership between the worker and theclient. Finally, the paper argues that a policy of client access enforcedonly as a right is prone to sabotage or a fall into disuse.A seven point training programme is outlined in order to helpsocial workers use Open Records as an opportunity to promotea partnership in their work with clients.     

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.     

Informal Welfare, Social Work and the Sociology of Welfare

Summary This article seeks to inject some important but neglected considerationsinto discussions about the nature of informal welfare and thenotice social workers should take of it. Following a sketchof how both sociology and social policy have regarded informalwelfare, it is argued that a sociology of welfare which is sensitiveto the definitions held by participants indicates that socialworkers would be wise to seek to ‘tap’ informalwelfare very cautiously. It is also argued that such sociologyneeds to be accorded a more prominent place in social work trainingcourses.     

Contingent on Context? Social Work and the State in Australia, Britain, and the USA

Correspondence to John Harris, School of Health and Social Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. E-mail: j.harris{at}warwick.ac.uk Summary The notion that social work is an international profession,operating with generally similar goals, methodologies, and commonvalues is considered critically. Examining the political andsocial contexts of three countries with liberal democratic governments—Australia,Britain and the United States—the role of social workwithin the welfare processes of each country is compared. Whilesocial work as an identifiable professional activity sharessome features, it is argued that the idea of its having a coreessence needs to be tempered with a realistic assessment ofthe importance of contextually created difference. Recent andrapid developments in the institutional context, such as thoseexperienced in these three countries, further underscore thelimited utility of the notion of a common professional project.     

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.     

Problems in the Perinatal Prediction of Child Abuse

Summary The aim of this paper is to consider and comment criticallyupon the recommendation by some eminent authorities that effortsbe made to design and implement procedures to predict the abuseof children. My view is that this move toward prediction—‘sponsored’largely by American paediatricians—is less of a new departurethan an extension of the dominant conceptual tradition wherebychild abuse is seen as analogous to a disease. However, in spiteof its basis in a medical model, it is clear that the idea thatthe abuse of children can be accurately predicted has greatappeal for many social workers. I shall argue, however, thatserious obstacles stand in the way of prediction; that theseobstacles are insufficiently appreciated by the advocates ofprediction; and that—consequently—social workers(and others) should temper with scepticism their enthusiasmfor these developments.     

The mentor/monitor debate in criminal justice: 'what works' for offenders

Summary There is a move - which originated in England and Wales butis now infiltrating Scottish criminal justice policy and practice- towards increased managerialism and auditing within criminaljustice social work supervision and towards more formalizedand tenuous relationships between worker and service user. Itis suggested that this runs contrary to the needs and expectationsof offenders themselves, who rarely have the opportunity tocontribute their views on criminal justice social work or on'what works'. This article looks at the views of probationersand ex-prisoners about social work supervision both in Englandand Wales and Scotland. It describes one Scottish study, whereprobationers and parolees considered their 'ideal model' ofthe social worker to be someone who was proactive and constructive,offering encouragement and emotional support and acting, intheir eyes, more like a mentor than a monitor. The researchfindings demonstrate the need for offenders' views to be givenmore prominence in both policy and practice, not least in recognizingthe significance of factors other than behaviour in determiningeffective longer-term outcomes; in so doing, it also arguesfor a more balanced view of the role of criminal justice supervisionthat incorporates elements of both justice and welfare.     

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.     

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.     

The Psychiatrization of Post-Traumatic Distress: Issues for Social Workers

¹Howard Davis, Centre for Studies in Crime and Social Justice, Edge Hill, St Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire L39 4QP, UK. Summary The psychiatric category of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)is described and critiqued. Problems of definition and applicationmay lead to the non-inclusion or minimization of some formsof post-traumatic distress. Questions of what constitute ‘healthy’and ‘unhealthy’ reactions to trauma are raised andthe depoliticization of trauma explored. The absence from theliterature of sufficient acknowledgement of traumagenic actionson the part of official agencies is noted. The potential forcritically informed social work interventions in prevention,mitigation and longer-term response is outlined.     

An Interview: Constructing Reality

Summary This paper is concerned with the relevance of interactionistperspectives in sociology to social work practice. Crucial tothese perspectives are the ‘meanings’ that peoplegive to situations and the ways they interpret actions. Basically,they are grounded on the assumption that there is no such thingas a single social reality. There are many different constructionswhich depend on the identities of the different people involvedand on the context in which they occur. The paper is based ontape recorded excerpts from an interview between a client, MrsSmith, and a social worker, from a discussion about some aspectsof that interview between the social worker and the writer,and from a discussion about the case between the team leaderand the writer. This material suggests different interpretationsof the situation, information gained in the discussion withthe social worker providing new ideas about the original interview.The views of the different people involved indicate that itis helpful to take into account the organizational context ofthe interviews. It is also suggested that conceiving of interviewsas ways of constructing reality has implications for the studyof social work practice.     

Keeping Social Work Honest: Evaluating as Profession and Practice

Correspondence to Ian Shaw, School of Social and Administrative Studies, University of Wales Cardiff, 50 Park Place, Cardiff CF1 3AT Summary The central argument of this paper is that social work needsa radical alternative to existing options for evaluating practice.Social workers at present are offered three choices. They areinvited to choose between applying research, conducting researchor adopting specific forms of empirical research-based practice(for example Everitt et al., 1992; Thyer. 1993; Fuller and Petch,1995). We touch briefly on reasons why we believe none of these optionsprovides an adequate grounding for social work, referring especiallyto the growing call for social work to find new purpose throughan empirical, research-based practice. If alternative approachesare to be persuasive, they must be fashioned from the materialsof a new approach to research on social work practice—‘one that is exploratory rather than confirmatory, buildinga model of evaluation from the practitioners' own accounts ratherthan superimposing an ideal model’ (Elks and Kirkhart,1993, p. 555). The major part of this paper is taken up withevidence from research of this kind. The model of evaluatingin practice with which we conclude the paper is simultaneouslytrue to social workers' accounts of their practice, while offeringa critical starting point for evaluating and refashioning thatpractice.     

Virtue Ethics and Social Work: Being Lucky, Realistic, and not Doing ones Duty

Correspondence to Graham McBeath, Department of Sociology and Politics, University College, Northampton, Northants. NN2 7AL, UK. E-mail: graham{at}spooner.demon.co.uk; Stephen Webb, Centre for Social Policy and Social Work, University of Sussex, Falmer, Nr Brighton, Sussex, UK. E-mail: s.a.webb{at}sussex.ac.uk Summary This article argues that in a complex socio-political world,social work ethics needs to re-cast the moral identity of thesocial worker in terms of virtue ethics. We review virtue theory'sAristotelian foundations and criticisms of Kantian and utilitariantheory and show how they apply to social work. Subsequentlywe offer an account of a virtue-based social work that questionsthe validity of several models of practice currently fashionable.Virtue theory emphasizes the priority of the individual moralagent who has acquired virtues commensurate with the pursuitof a revisable conception of the good life—the well-beingof all in a defined community. The virtues are the acquiredinner qualities of humans—character—the possessionof which, if applied in due measure, will typically contributeto the realization of the good life or ‘eudaimonia’.The role of the virtuous social worker is shown to be one thatnecessitates appropriate application of intellectual and practicalvirtues such as justice, reflection, perception, judgement,bravery, prudence, liberality and temperance. This ‘self-flourishing’worker, in bringing together the capacity for theoretical andpractical action makes possible a hermeneutic or interpretivepraxis best appraised in dialogue with fellow-practitionersand clients. With a social work remit increasingly routinizedby accountability, quality control and risk management thereis an emphasis on regulation and duties. This has produced aculture of following approved or typical processes resultingin defensive forms of social work wholly uncongenial to thedevelopment of human qualities likely to promote social workers'engagement in critique and revision of what counts as best practice.In sum, our core proposition is that social work practice andeducation, to fit an unpredictable, non-linear world, shoulddevelop means by which professionals nurture the virtues. Thiswould reflexively enhance social work itself.