'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.     

Mapping Child-Care Social Work in the Final Years of the Twentieth Century: A Critical Response to the 'Looking After Children' System

Correspondence to Paul Michael Garrett, c/o, British Journal of Social Work, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL Summary This paper explores aspects of the Looking After Children: GoodParenting: Good Outcomes system (LAC) (Parker et at., 1991).It is suggested that the scheme, to be used with children andyoung people who are ‘looked after’ by local authorities,needs to be subjected to greater critical scrutiny. The paperseeks, therefore, to situate the LAC system in a social andpolitical context and highlights how it also relates to thedominant operational modalities of social work interventionin the late 1990s. In addition, the paper explores how ‘troublesome’children and ideas centred on ‘parenting’ featurein the LAC discourse. The discussion concludes with an examinationof Action and Assessment Records (Ward, 1995b), the centrepieceof the LAC system.     

Unemployment, Age, Gender and Regional Suicide in England and Wales 1974-90: A Harbinger of Increased Suicide for the 1990s?

Correspondence to Prof. Colin Pritchard, Department of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO9 SNH. Summary The Department of Health's Health of the Nation aims at a substantialreduction in suicide; this is a ‘vote of confidence’in the effectiveness of the community psychiatric and healthservices. However, it will be shown that a number of socioeconomicchanges have occurred which may lead to increased suicide; forexample British male suicide rose in the 1980s, significantlyassociated with unemployment. Though female suicide fell substantiallyover the period, across the regions suicide rates for both menand women were worse amongst the ‘work age’ bands,16–44 years, than the older groups. In respect to therelatively poorer rates amongst younger women, this may be linkedto unemployment and their unfulfilled job expectations. If thesuicide targets are not met, it is feared that the ‘failure’will laid at the door of the community and health services.     

Beyond Social Constructionism: Critical Realism and Social Work

Summary Theories within the social and psychological sciences continueto shape social work practice. However, recent debates withinthese sciences on the shortcomings of ‘social constructionism’,and the attempt to overcome them through a critical realistposition, have so far failed to capture social work's attention.This paper provides a critical overview of these theoreticaldebates, highlighting the shortcomings of social constructionismfor social work. The critical realist challenge to social constructionism,as articulated by the British philosopher Roy Bhaskar, is consideredand its relevance to social work formulated in terms of a returnto ‘depth’ in practice.     

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.     

Yes Minister: Reviewing the 'Looking After Children' Experience and Identifying the Messages for Social Work Research

Correspondence to Paul Michael Garrett, Centre for Social Work, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. E-mail: paul.garrett{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary The heavily promoted Looking After Children: Good Parenting,Good Outcomes (LAC) project continues to exert a powerful influenceon social work in the UK and elsewhere. Despite the repeatedassertions that the documentation associated with LAC is embeddedin ‘objective’ research, this not sustainable onaccount of the failure of the researchers to interrogate theirown normative assumptions and judgements. Specific criticismscan also be levelled at the ‘community study’ connectedto the evolution of the Action and Assessment Records (AARs)which are the key part of the scheme. The system should alsobe viewed in the context of wider pre-occupations about ‘outcomes’.In addition, the project needs to be politically situated andthe researchers' relationship with the Department of Healthshould be more fully explored. In conclusion, it is suggestedthat the LAC experience contains important ‘messages’for the future of social work research.     

Modernity, Postmodernity and Social Work

Correspondence to Prof. David Howe, School of Social Work, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ. Summary For so long in search of a common base, there are early signsthat social work's intellectual outlook is fragmenting. Theunity that was once sought in both theory and practice as wellas policy and organziation is being abandoned. A child of modernity,social work now finds itself in a postmodern world, uncertainwhether or not there are any deep and unwavering principleswhich define the essence of its character and hold it togertheras a cohernt enterprise. The article outlines some of the characteristics of modernityand postmodernity, relating them to the rise of social work,its formation within modern society, and its current conditionin what many observers believe is a postmodern world. Thereare three ‘visions’ within which people look toleam the ’truth‘ of things, including matters offact and matters of value: those centred in God's word (revelation);those centred in the minds of men and women (reason); and thosede-centred and dispersed withing language, meaning and culture(relativism).     

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.     

Statistical Errors in Papers in the British Journal of Social Work (Volumes 1-14)

Summary This paper examines the statistical error rate in the BritishJournal of Social Work (BJSW), volumes 1–14. Half of thepapers (n=175) contain empirical data and half do not. Fifty-nineof the empirical articles are quantitative with statisticalanalysis; they account for 17% of the papers in the first 14volumes. Thirty-nine of these papers (66%) make 57 errors, arate which is comparable to that reported in the British Journalof Psychiatry. Nineteen papers (32%) make serious errors. Examplesof the type of errors are described. The wider use of reliablestatistical advice, prior to undertaking data collection, isrecommended.     

The Effectiveness of Attached Social Workers in the Management of Depressed Women in General Practice

Summary Following early reports of the feasibility and usefulness oflocating social workers in general practice (Collins, 1965;Forman and Fairbairn, 1968; Cooper, 1971) the number of attachmentsto general practice has increased markedly over the last decade(Gilchrest et al., 1978). Although there have been a numberof accounts of the increased co-operation between health carestaff (Clare and Corney, 1982) there has been a dearth of objectiveevaluations of the advantages these schemes bring to generalpractice patients. This paper describes the design, executionand outcome of a clinical trial of social work carried out ondepressed women in general practice aged 18–45. It focuseson the social workers' activities and the clients view of help:more detailed information is described elsewhere (Corney, 1981).     

Older People and Access to Care

Correspondence to Denise Tanner, School of Health and Social Sciences, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK. E-mail: d.tanner{at}coventry.ac.uk Summary At the heart of a number of New Labour health and social policyinitiatives are stated concerns with supporting independence,preventing deterioration and extending access to services. Thisarticle examines the potential impact of these initiatives,including Prevention Grants (Department of Health, 2000b), theNational Service Framework for Older People (Department of Health,2001a), the Fair Access to Care Services Guidance (Departmentof Health, 2002a), and the Single Assessment Process (Departmentof Health, 2002b), on older people with ‘low level’needs who have increasingly been excluded from services targetedat those in high risk categories. Key standpoints for this analysisare research findings indicating what older people themselveswant from preventive services. Central messages, consistentwith those from other service user ‘groups’, arethe need for support services that enable older people to continueto exercise choice and control over their lives. New preventivemeasures are evaluated in the light of these findings and foundwanting. It is argued that recent policy initiatives are likelyto do little to widen access to support services for those withlow intensity needs, and, moreover, that the processes involvedin identifying those at future high risk will detract from ratherthan enhance citizenship. A more diffuse approach to preventionis advocated, based on mutuality, community development, andcapacity-building.     

Probation Practice, Effectiveness and the Non-Treatment Paradigm

Correspondence to Dr Peter Raynor, Department of Social Policy and Applied Social Studies, University of Wales, Swansea SA2 8PP. Summary This paper reports interim and largely positive results fromthe continuing evaluation of ‘Straight Thinking on Probation’,a substantial intensive probation programme in Mid-Glamorganbased on the work of Robert Ross et al. (1988) in Canada. Thepotential effectiveness of this type of programme is then discussedin relation to the influential model of the probation service'srole advanced by Bottoms and McWilliams in their 1979 ‘non-treatmentparadigm’. Are such programmes ‘treatment’,based on a model of offender pathology and therefore in conflictwith the paradigm, or are they ‘help’, based ona model of empowerment? An attempt to answer this question alsorequires consideration of how far the ‘non-treatment paradigm’was itself a response to perceived ineffectiveness requiringrevision in the light of new evidence. It is argued that suchrevision need not threaten the underlying moral philosophy ofthe paradigm.     

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.     

Sleepwalking through an Epidemic--Why Social Work should Wake up to the Threat of Hepatitis C

Correspondence to Dr Ian Paylor, Department of Applied Social Science, Cartmel College, Lancaster University LA1 3HY, UK. E-mail: i.paylor1{at}lancaster.ac.uk Summary One of the many consequences of injecting drug use is the potentialrisk to infectious blood-borne viruses. There is evidence thatthe risk of contracting Hepatitis C (HCV) is greater than thatof HIV. Despite repeated warnings from a variety of sourcesand thousands of new infections among drug users each year andrising incidents of ‘'crack’ injecting, successivegovernments have failed to address a public health emergencyof immense proportions - the HCV epidemic. This article exploresthis issue and the implications it has for social work.     

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.     

Swimming with Dolphins: The Assessment Framework, New Labour and New Tools for Social Work with Children and Families

Correspondence to Dr Paul Michael Garrett, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. E-mail: paul.garrett{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary Local authorities, in England, implemented the Framework forthe Assessment of Children in Need and their Families in April2001. The Framework is the first ‘official’ standardassessment model intended for use in the initial assessmentof all ‘children in need’ under Part 111, section17 of the 1989 Children Act. This new ‘conceptual map’needs to be understood in terms of previous policy documentsand earlier technologies of intervention related to child protectionand, more broadly, child welfare. However, it also needs tobe more expansively perceived, fixed and located as it relatesto other elements in New Labour's political ‘project’.The Framework's preoccupation with an ecological approach toassessments and with questionnaires and scales are likely tohave major implications for social work practice and for micro-engagementswith children and families.     

Towards an Alternative Model of Social Groupwork

Summary This paper arose from our disagreement with some of the suggestionsin an earlier article in this journal (Brown et al., 1982).Before and since, we have both worked in and studied numerousexamples of groups of a type which, according to Brown and hiscoauthors, scarcely exists in British social work practice.This paper explains what we believe to be the actual significanceof the type of group work we refer to as ‘self-directed’,together with our view of its place within wider social work,community work, and groupwork practice. We also give examplesof such groups and conclude that their proliferation would enableworkers to go beyond the alleviation of individual distressinto the achievement of external change.     

Reforming Professional Training and Protecting Vulnerable Adults from Abuse: A Thematic Analysis of the New Social Work Degree's Prescribed Curriculum

Correspondence to Phil Slater, School of Health and Social Sciences, Middlesex University, Queensway, Enfield EN3 4SF, UK. E-mail: p.slater{at}mdx.ac.uk Summary This paper analyses the Prescribed Curriculum of the new Degreein Social Work in relation to the Department of Health themeof ‘protecting vulnerable adults from abuse’. Areview of post-war social policy first establishes the significanceof these terms, both individually and in varying combinations.Subsequently, the phrase as a whole provides the focus for acontent analysis of the three constituents of the PrescribedCurriculum, namely, the Secretary of State’s Requirementsfor Social Work Training, the employment-focussed National OccupationalStandards for Social Work, and the academically oriented BenchmarkStatement for Social Work. With the exception of ‘abuse’,the key terms are all registered, albeit unevenly. This presenceis subsequently enhanced via strategic considerations of ‘logicalimportance’ and ‘organising rubrics’. Finally,terminological variants of ‘abuse’ are traced, withparticular regard to the emerging language of ‘rights’.     

Worker Participation and the Social Service Agency

Summary Is there real sharing of decision-making responsibility withinsocial service agencies? What hope is there for participationby the consumer of services if the agency worker nearest andmost relevant to him has little voice or leverage within theorganization? This paper examines the notion of worker participationwithin the context of the social services department and theprobation service, noting the imperfections of the ‘publicmandate’ behind the authority structure of these organizations.Above all it looks for continuity between the values socialservice agencies publicly represent and the values in theirday-to-day dealings with their own staff and clients. Currenttrade union proposals for worker representation at committeelevel are considered, and Dutch experience in extending theworkers' council from the industrial to the social welfare sphereis presented as one alternative model.     

Social Work, Liberty and Law

Correspondence to Professor John Williams, Department of Law, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DY, UK. E-mail: jow{at}aber.ac.uk Summary The relationship between law and social work is complex. Doeslaw assist practitioners to promote rights, or is it confinedto ensuring accountability and regulating practice? This articleexplores law's role, and its limitations, in promoting liberty,or more accurately ‘constitutional liberty’. Doeslaw provide practitioners with liberty-based values capable,if necessary, of legal enforcement? The paper argues that thereis no simple answer; law impacts on social work in differentways and there is little consistency across and within clientgroups. However, it concludes that law is one of the tools thatsocial workers can use to promote liberty.