Social Work and the Sociology of Knowledge

John Paley. Department of Social Policy, School of Policy Studies, Cranfield Institute of Technology, Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL. Summary The research literature on social workers' use of theory suggeststhat social work, conceived as a form of knowledge in action,is amenable to a sociology of knowledge approach. This papertries to illustrate the relevant parallels, and uses both empiricaland philosophical themes in the recent sociology of scienceto identify a strategy for social work research.     

Contact and Collaboration with General Practitioners: A Comparison of Social Workers and Community Psychiatric Nurses

Correspondence to Mr M. Sheppard, Department of Applied Social Science, Polytechnic South West, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA. Summary For some years good communication and collaboration betweenhealth and welfare professionals has been emphasized as a desirablegoal by both official reports and relevant professions. Thisis as much the case in mental health as other areas. This papercompares communication and collaboration between social workersand general practitioners (GPs) with that between communitypsychiatric nurses (CPNs) and GPs. Both social workers and CPNswere based at a community mental health centre, and the contactwas interagency (with primary health care). Major differenceswere found between social workers and CPNs. CPNs were far morelikely to contact GPs than social workers, although GPs veryrarely initiated contact themselves. Differences reflected different‘philosophies of contact’. Social workers contactedGPs when this could be purposively related to their case management.In addition to this contact, CPNs also made contact to provideGPs with information, reflecting awareness of GPs' long-termcontinuing care responsibility. The excess of CPN contacts wasnot limited, but involved a wide range of problems. GPs, however,when contacted, exerted greater influence on social work casemanagement. The article concludes by explaining differencesbetween CPNs and social workers in terms of occupational culture.It suggests, furthermore, that the results arise at least inpart from assumptions of team leadership by GPs, and that socialworkers' and CPNs' behaviour represents different responsesto this.     

Social Workers' Attitudes to Lesbian Clients

Correspondence to Karen Hardman, Department of Applied Social Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX Summary Within British social work there is no model of good practicefor working with lesbian clients. As a prelude to the establishmentof such a model, this paper attempts to ascertain social workers'attitudes to lesbians using a thirty-item attitude (Likert)scale. The implications of social workers' attitudes for practicewith lesbian clients are considered from responses to case vignettes.     

Social Work at the Crossroads

Summary The contribution of social work to society has always been contested.Social workers work with some of the most psychologically damagedand socially disadvantaged people, and are susceptible to publicdevaluing of the services they provide. Indeed, social workhas been subjected to an ever-increasing volume of public debateand criticism, and its claims to professional status are underthreat. Recent years have seen a constant attack on its valuesand principles, which has taken place at political, organizationaland professional levels. Social work practice has been subjectedto increased managerial control and social workers' levels ofautonomy have been reduced. This has created a sense of crisis,which has been experienced particularly within social servicesdepartments (SSDs), the main source of employment for socialworkers. The paper will argue that its survival as a recognizableprofessional activity is dependent on the extent to which itcan redefine its role within society, and re-establish clarityabout its overall purpose and function.     

Conflicts, Conciliation and Social Work

Correspondence to Adrian L. James, Lecturer in Applied Social Studies, Department of Social Policy and Professional Studies, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX. Summary This article seeks to draw together some issues and themes whichare identifiable in recent social work literature and practice,and in the criminal and civil law. It explores the nature ofconciliation as a method for dealing with conflict. It alsoconsiders some aspects of the nature of social work and theprocess by which problems become the object of social work treatment.It is argued that this process can effectively limit the scopefor client involvement in seeking solutions to their problems,and that conciliation might offer some potential for increasingthis, whilst also revitalizing the ethical base of social workpractice.     

The Professional Standing of Work with Elderly Persons among Social Work Trainees

Correspondence to Dr Howard Litwin, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel. Summary A random sample of 93 students of social work in Israel werequeried regarding their perception of the professional standingof work with older people. The general ranking given by traineesto this field of practice was moderate to low. Relatively positiveevaluation of the status of gerontological practice, however,was found to be explained by: (1) a traditional view of therole of the elder in society; (2) the perception that peersattribute prestige to such work; and (3) having had a fieldpracticum in the area of ageing; and was inversely related tounderstanding of work with elderly persons as mainly indirectintervention. The implications of these findings for the promotionof social work practice with elderly people in an ageing societyare discussed.     

Social Work for Social Fitness

Summary Social work has lost the perspective of social relationshipsas ends in themselves, and has become predominantly an impersonal,individualistic technology. Several interpersonal dimensionsare outlined to help fill this social value vacuum, and it issuggested that these can be held together by the concept ofsocial fitness. This is defined as the mutual development ofthe individual and his total network to a fullness of identitywhich is an end in itself and does not depend on the achievementof any other objectives. The kind of power produced by thisfitness is distinguished from power of the impersonal kind,and its meaning for social workers is discussed in relationto material need. Finally, the future development of socialwork is considered briefly in terms of promoting social fitnessthrough work with various kinds of social networks.     

Improving Social Workers' Knowledge Base in Child Protection Work

Correspondence to Dr Eileen Munro, 16 Aquarius, Eel Pie Island, Twickenham TW1 3EA, UK. Summary The present study was conducted to identify recurrent socialwork errors in the forty-five public inquiries held in Britainbetween 1973 and 1994. This article reports the findings relatingto the recurrent criticisms of social workers' knowledge base.The quality of investigations and assessments are repeatedlyfaulted. Also, many problems arise from social workers' failureto be explicit about what they are doing. The merits and shortcomingsof increased training and handbooks to improve practice arethen discussed. It is argued that social workers' widespreadpreference for a personal, private style of working is a majorobstacle to changing their use of theories and to evaluatingpractice.     

Compulsory Persuasion: A Problem for Correctional Social Work

Summary Social work risks being misused as a technique for controllingundesirable behaviour, regardless of clients' expectations orchoices. This approach to social work involves certain underlyingassumptions about human nature which raise considerable ethicaland practical difficulties. Recent trends in the probation andafter care service are considered, together with some researchstudies of the effectiveness of social work in reducing offendingbehaviour. From these it is argued that social work servicesfor offenders are more likely to be effective when the emphasisis on helping with perceived problems and difficulties ratherthan on crime prevention.     

Cognitive-Behavioural Social Work with Children

Correspondence to: Dr Tammie Ronen, The Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel Summary The paper aims to explore the complex and important links betweeninterventions with children, cognitive therapy, and social work.Although children comprise about half of the referrals to socialwork services, they do not generally receive direct treatmentin these settings. Social workers are involved with childrenin the roles of mediator or counsellor and as the supervisorwho is concerned with the placement of the child in appropriatesettings. When the need for direct therapeutic interventionarises, children are usually referred to educational or clinicalpsychologists. Social work as a profession has been foundedupon a psychodynamic approach; however, social workers havealways been concerned with effective treatments, the definitionof clear goals, and the clarification of client needs. Thesefeatures link social work to cognitive-behavioural therapy.Cognitive therapy, although not frequently used with children,is presented in this paper as a means for conducting directinterventions with children which fulfil social work's basictargets and needs.     

Social Work as Uncommon Sense

Summary Social work needs to resist pressures to identify itself solelyat a superficial level of common sense responses to social problems.It has to go beyond this to recognize its use of ‘uncommonsense’ as the means by which social workers cross therelationship gap and respond to their client's needs. The importanceof doing this in the early stages of relationship, as in crisisintervention, are considered, and stress is placed on holdingtogether both the explicit task-related aspect of the relationship,and the less obvious emotional interchange. By means of theiruncommon sense, social workers are enabled to reflect for, andshare with clients their areas of pain, in such a way as torender them more tolerable.     

Changing Social Work Roles in Family Centres: A Social Psychological Analysis

Correspondence to Dr R.J. Brown, Institute of Social and Applied Psychology, The University, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7LZ. Summary This article reports a longitudinal study of field and residentialsocial workers' perceptions of each other in the first ten monthsafter the introduction of a new children and families policyby a large social services department. 1 A central element ofthis policy was the setting up of Family Centres designed tofacilitate closer co-operation between field and residentialstaff. Data was collected from two interviews ten months apartwith 52 field and residential social workers based in two divisionsin the county. Mutual role perceptions indicated a consensusover the traditional division of labour between field and residentialworkers with field workers being seen as having superior skillsin counselling, crisis intervention and case responsibility,whilst residential workers were regarded as better at providingbasic care for and developing close relationships with childrenin care. On only three role dimensions (engendering trust withclients, accuracy in assessments, and preparation work) wasthere any disagreement between the two groups. None of theserole perceptions changed perceptibly over the course of thestudy. However, the social workers' perceived outcomes fromtheir work (for example, pay, training opportunities, promotionprospects, etc.) changed markedly over the ten month period,and varied between the two divisions. In one division evidenceof a changed and more egalitarian relationship between the fieldand residential staff was visible; in the other, both groupsseemed to show a decline in morale and no real change in thetraditional status difference between the groups was apparent.These findings are interpreted in the light of social psychologicaltheories of intergroup relations, and some policy implicationsare discussed.     

Social Workers and Child Welfare

Correspondence to Dr Gunvor Andersson, Lund University, School of Social Work, Box 23, 22100 Lund, Sweden. Summary What problems do social workers at social services offices haveto face in their child welfare work? How do they handle theproblems, and how important is the relation between the socialworker and the child's parents? The research project includes189 child welfare cases with 0–3-year-old children inten local communities in Sweden. The article shows that thesocial work can be categorized into four different types ofwork, where the work done, as well as the relation between thesocial worker and the child's parents, differ. (1) The socialworker is mediating help and support and has a positive contactwith the child's parents. (2) The social worker is exercisingcontrol and authority and has a negative contact with the child'sparents. (3) The social worker is doing treatment-oriented workand has a personal involvement and a relation to the parentsthat is important for the family and not exchangeable. (4) Thesocial worker is solely engaged in investigatory work with norelation to the child's parents, rather a neutral contact. Inthe categorization the concepts contact and relation are differentiated.Only in the treatment-oriented category, encompassing aboutone-fifth of the children, can one speak of a relation. In allcategories there are elements of both help and control, butdifferent ways of handling this doubleness.     

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.     

Predictors of Stress Amongst Social Workers: An Empirical Study

Correspondence to Professor John Collings, Faculty of Health and Social Care, Leeds Metropolitan University Calverley Street, Leeds, LS1 3HE, UK Summary Much of what is known about stress amongst social workers isanecdotal and there is a dearth of systematic research findingson the subject. This questionnaire study examined the perceptionsof work-related stress, and factors contributing to high andlow levels of stress, in a sample of 243 social workers drawnfrom four local authorities in northern England. The samplewas broadly based in terms of a range of personal backgroundfactors, and included social workers in urban, rural and semi-rurallocations. A measure of overall stress was constructed encompassingpsychological and physical aspects, and which permitted an analysisof the relative importance of predictor variables. A varietyof rating scales was used to assess aspects of the work environmentand perceived stressors. The most powerful predictor of overallstress that emerged related to the pressure involved in planningand reaching work targets. The study also identified certaincaseload and supervision-related predictors of stress, but,apart from age and marital status, personal background factorsseemed of weak predictive power. Social workers' perceptionsof their image in society seemed an additional source of pressure.The study findings suggest a need for combining organizationalwith individual oriented initiatives to combat stress.     

Care Management and Professional Autonomy: The Impact of Community Care Legislation on Social Work with Older People

Correspondene to Mark Lymbery, Centre for Social Work, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. e-mail: Mark_Lymbery{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary The 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act appearedto herald a new dawn for social work with older people, whichhad previously been a relatively neglected and undervalued areaof social work practice. The legislation proposed a new rolefor social workers as ‘case managers’, with considerableautonomy and flexibility about the way in which the ‘casemanager’ responded to need. By the time community carepolicy was implemented, the role of ‘case manager’had been transformed into that of ‘care manager’,with a focus which emphasized procedural and managerial requirementsrather than a more flexible professional practice. This paper explores the extent to which this shift has substantivelyaltered the nature of social work practice with older people.It outlines key theories of professions and their applicabilityto social work, and critically analyses the impact of the ‘newmanagerialism’ within social services departments. Thepaper also examines the nature of social workers' practice witholder people following the impact of community care legislation,and concludes that the impact on the social work professionhas been to locate an increasing control of practice with socialwork managers, with potentially serious consequences for thecontinuation of a distinctive social work role in relation toservices for older people.     

Towards Accountability in Social Work: Long Term Social Work in an Area Office

Summary This article reports the results of monitoring the social workof two long term teams in an area office throughout one yearwith the help of a computerized Case Review System. It describesthe characteristics of some 1,400 long-term cases of whom 61%were disabled, visually handicapped and/or elderly and 22% presentedproblems related to children and families. One of the outstanding features was the concentration on surveillanceand review visiting which was reported for nearly three quartersof these cases and was considered the most important socialworker activity in two fifths of them. In over half of theselong term situations no change was expected and nearly threequarters of the cases were to remain open indefinitely. Another striking feature was the somewhat uneven distributionof social work resources among the different problem groups.Although the physically disabled and/or elderly outnumberedthe child/family problems by two to one, they made up only 20%of the cases allocated to individual social workers, while almostall the child and family problems were allocated amounting to35% of all individual caseloads. But the disabled and elderlyreceived far more domiciliary services and aids to daily living. This exercise has brought into sharp focus the question of howto ensure continuous support and surveillance for the very frailelderly, as the occasional social work visit did not appearto be the appropriate means of support, rarely anticipatingor averting crises. The data highlight the challenge which chronically disorganizedand disturbed families present to social work skills. The outcomescast doubt on the wisdom of closing, within the intake stageas low priority, relatively early family problems, and on thesharp division into intake and long term teams. The general issue emerging is the need to formulate more precisesocial service strategies for those who require long term careby others to some extent—the very old and frail, the chronicallyphysically and mentally disabled and children in long term care—andwhat specific contributions social workers can usefully maketo this enterprise.     

A Reflection of The Rising Spectre of Conservatism: Motivational Accounts of Social Work Students

Summary It has recently been argued that the increasing conservatismof Western society is reflected in those entering social work.Pearson, however, has argued that social work recruits by theirchoice of occupation are politically deviant. In this papermotivational accounts of social work students and intendingpsychologists are examined in light of the emerging politicaltrends. Social work students were more concerned with personalgrowth, and later in training with effecting social change,than the intending psychologist. An examination of motivationalaccounts revealed two groups of social work students. The traditionalbase of the profession was represented by a subgroup who wishedto help others and/or effect social change. A second group ofstudents, concerned with the benefits that could accrue to selfthrough social work practice, was also identified. It is consideredthis privatization reflects the dominant ideological trend beinggiven personal meaning by the student.     

Selecting for Social Work

Summary Social work courses need to spell out the characteristics andconsequences of particular selection procedures, as a prerequisiteof improvement. This article reports a survey of applicantsfor a postgraduate social work course, where entry is determinedby two independent, individual interviews. Previous social workexperience and the candidate's degree subject emerged as importantcorreiates of selection. Paired interviewing appeared to operatein an impartial fashion, with a high degree of consistency betweeninterviewers of different kinds, and an absence of hierarchyin resolving conflicts. However, the outcome of interviewingwas partially contingent upon the degree of agreement betweeninterviewers on their initial, individual assessment of thecandidates' suitability.     

Self-determination: Lessons to be Learned from Social Work Practice in India

Correspondence to Dr F. K. Ejaz Research Associate Applied Research Institute Menorah Park Center for the Aging 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood, OH 44122 USA. Summary Self-determination is a controversial principle in social workpractice. On the one hand it is accepted as being central tosocial work and stems from the broader philosophical issuesof autonomy and respect for the individual. On the other hand,there are many doubts about its implications for practice. Thisarticle examines how the Western social work principle of self-determinationis influenced by cultural beliefs and expectations in India. Twenty-six social workers participated in a qualitative studyon the influence of culture on casework practice in Bombay,India. Open-ended questions and case studies were used to examinehow culture specific problems were handled and how workers interpretedand used some of the principles of social work practice. Social workers believed that Indian clients expected to be guidedin a therapeutic relationship. Further, clients were generallyapathetic and fatalistic about circumstances in their lives.Indian social workers came across as being maestros at bridgingeast-west differences. They subtly fulfilled social and culturalexpectations and at the same time enabled clients to assumeenough autonomy to handle their own problems.