Assimilation,control, mediation or advocacy? Social work dilemmas in providing anti‐oppressive services for Traveller children and families

This paper explores dilemmas facing social work in England in providing anti‐oppressive services for Travellers, particularly those who lack secure sites. A context is provided by outlining the conflict between Travellers and the majority society, and its expression in oppressive legislation, policy and practice. The implications of the corporate local authority role for relationships between Travellers and social services, and the specific history of Travellers and welfare, are also explored. The remainder of the paper draws on findings from a Nuffield‐funded study of policy and provision by English social services departments for Traveller children and families. Provision is undermined by mutually difficult relationships between Traveller communities and social services, and competing demands on social services in relation to professional values and support of Travellers’ rights, and their simultaneous contribution to local authority control of unauthorized camping. However, newer developments in some social services departments may be able to generate more positive relationships with Travellers, to promote their individual and cultural rights, and build partnerships with voluntary agencies which have a significant role in work with Travellers. The implications for social services departments wishing to develop their policies and practice with Traveller families are outlined.     

An evaluation of an innovative audiotape method for keeping social care staff up to date with the latest research findings

A small scale exploratory evaluation of an innovative way (using audiotapes) of keeping social care staff informed about research findings is described. The research was mainly qualitative in style, and explored (i) the extent to which the audiotapes raised knowledge about issues at an individual level, and (ii) subsequent changes in agency practice in terms of discussing and sharing literature‐based information over a period of several months. The study was undertaken in four social services departments in England. A total of 29 social care staff answered an initial questionnaire before exposure to the tape itself. Following exposure, four focus groups involving a total of 25 social care staff were undertaken to reveal their attitudes to the content and style of presentation. Finally, three months later, 20 of the original 25 social care staff answered a further round of questions on subsequent use of the tapes as part of practice development. Results generally revealed that social care staff responded well to more informal, conversational styles of presentation on the tape but were critical where a more formal ‘lecture style’ was adopted. Their uptake of research messages was very driven by the specific demands of their own individual work role. Broader relevance for disseminating research results to social care staff is discussed.     

学校社会工作的本土化研究

在西方国家以及我国港台地区,教育界和社会福利部门均要求政府加强学校社会工作的服务,学校社会工作已在预防、补救和遏止青少年问题上起到了不可替代的作用。而在内地,学校社会工作的实务及研究尚处于开拓阶段,迫切需要探讨出一种切合实际的本土化的发展模式。     

医务社会工作者：他们的工作与专业训练

英美医务社会工作起源于医院社会工作,北京协和医院社会工作开创亚太地区和中国医院社会工作的先河。蒲爱德是中国医院社会工作服务模式的奠基人。她首次系统阐述开展医院社会工作的必要性、重要性和紧迫性,科学总结协和医院社会土作服务模式,明确提出医院社会工作者的配置原则、职责范围、服务方法和专业训练途径,为当代中国医院社会工作人才队伍建设提供宝贵历史经验,具有重要的现实意义、理论意义和政策意义。     

Identifying and comparing competencies for social work management: a practice driven approach

The study explicates a competency-based model of contemporary social work management practice and compares this model with frameworks derived from earlier studies. Using a purposive sample of 184 social work managers throughout the country, an exploratory factor analysis yielded twelve sets of competencies required of today's social work manager. A comparison of the present model to earlier management frameworks reveals that substantive changes in the nature, scope, complexity, and priorities assigned to management competencies and skills have transformed the role of the social work manager over the last decade. Implications for social work manager education are reviewed and future research directions are proposed.     

改革开放30年以来中国医务社会工作的历史回顾、现状与前瞻

(接2012年第5期)五、中国社会福利时代与医务社会工作发展前景2010年是中国社会政策、社会立法、社会管理、社会服务、社会建设与社会福利元年,标志中国总体性社会福利制度,包括国家福利、儿童福利、家庭福利、妇女福利、残障福利、老年人福利、军人福利、社区福利和社会化福利时代来临,以改善民生为重点的社会建设和中国特色社会福利制     

Implementing Community Social Work from a Social Services Department: Some Issues

Summary The proposal in the Barclay Report on the role and tasks ofsocial workers for ‘community social work’ as astrategy for social services departments is assessed The writerargues that the voluntary sector has significant roles and prioritiesoutside the social services, that government priorities forencouraging the voluntary sector emphasise other areas of workand that involving voluntary groups in official initiativesmay be seen as going against the independence of some groups.The motivation of groups and individuals in the voluntary sectorwill be important, but various research and practice shows thatindividuals, informal groups and mutual aid groups may be difficultto involve in a substantial programme. The climate of opinionin the field of volunteering and the social background of clients'neighbours may provoke hostility. Experience of community worksuggests that official initiatives may lead to resistance andconflict rather than involvement, and there may be ethical problemswith compulsion.     

Organizational support for evidence-based practice within child and family social work: a collaborative study

Research in Practice works in collaboration with over 50 English local authorities and voluntary childcare organizations, to explore new and dynamic ways to increase the use of quality evidence to improve services to children and families. One Research in Practice initiative was a two‐year collaborative project involving the social services departments of six local authorities. This paper reports on how the views of more than 100 professional staff involved with the provision of services to children and families have been gathered to offer insight into how evidence‐based practice can be supported or frustrated in social care organizations. The findings suggest considerable uncertainty about the nature of evidence in social care and its validity in relation to decision‐making, policy and planning. Mechanisms essential for the dissemination, implementation and adoption of research messages are underdeveloped and tensions exist around the explicit use of research evidence within reports and reviews. Many practitioners and teams may be excluded from making decisions based on the best available research evidence through lack of access to internet resources and adequate information dissemination mechanisms. The paper concludes that there remain considerable areas for further debate if evidence‐based practice is to become a reality in work with children and families.     

Needs Assessment, Street-level Bureaucracy and the New Community Care

In the wake of the Seebohm reforms of the personal social services, a number of studies were carried out in the 1970s to explore the role of frontline professionals in identifying and meeting social need. A common finding was that social workers behaved like "street-level bureaucrats", using their discretionary authority defensively to manage an otherwise overwhelming workload. In the 1990s, top-down assessment and care management systems were put in place as part of community care reforms. Their aim was to reduce the scope of professional discretion so as to standardize responses to need and control demand according to resources available. In this paper, the authors consider the success of new systems in controlling "bottom-up" decision-making by drawing on a recent empirical study of needs assessment practice in three types of social work team. They point out that the assessment practice of those teams facing the highest bombardment rates was most obviously criteria-driven, reinforced by the use of new technology. Rather than creating informal stereotypes to manage demand, social workers could mobilize legitimate forms of rationing to protect their time and other resources. Yet the sense of professional identity, the level of frontline autonomy, and the ways in which this was exercised, varied across the different types of team. The authors conclude, therefore, that the scope of discretionary space available to frontline staff in social services departments, and the practices to which it gives rise, are empirical questions only adequately addressed by methodologies able to connect with "bottom-up" decision-making.     

Need, allocation and justice — on priorities in the social services

Cuts in public spending and financial constraints faced by Swedish municipalities have led to an increased interest in issues concerning priorities. This interest reflects a practical need to meet current rationing with accurate allocative decisions, where the interests of different areas and categories of users are dealt with in a well-considered way. In social work, these needs today are obvious. The article raises issues concerning priorities with relevance for social work in the Swedish social services. The purpose is to develop a conceptual and theoretical framework regarding how priorities on different levels of decision-making are made, where the main focus is on different principles as grounds for and forms of prioritizing. Central are the following questions: What actors can be identified in the process of shaping priorities in social work? What are the principles behind allocative decisions made on different levels of the municipal organization? Which categories of potential and actual users gain advantages or suffer disadvantages from different allocative principles? A theoretical division into first- and second-order decisions and of allocations from notions of efficiency, justice and self-interest offer the main structure for the article. First-order decisions are political decision-making concerning the total amount of resources distributed to various sectors or programs. Second-order decisions deal with the issue of how to allocate given resources among claimants or possible users. Efficiency is discussed from the aspects of productivity, marginal utility and longterm effects. Material principles of justice dealt with are the principles of need, increment, contribution and merit. Self-interest is discussed in terms of self-serving bias, group-oriented interests and professional gain.     

Child and family social work: organizational context and identity

In the years since 1948, child and family social work has, to differing degrees at different times, sought to identify itself with a national centrally directed service, with the local service organization, with its clientele and with an independent source of professional regulation. Changes in the organizational context in which the work has been carried out over this period have affected the prospects for the development of a secure identity. The effects of the following are considered: national structures, particularly in relation to children's departments between 1948 and 1971; the corporate local authority; the managerial function in social services departments; social care; specialization; the detailed scrutiny of practice; care management and the Children Act 1989.     

Voices From the Front Line: State Social Workers and New Labour

Summary The article explores the condition of state social work in Englandtoday. It is based on interviews with experienced social workersemployed by local authority social services departments acrossthe north of England. These front line state social workersprovide a penetrating insight into the diverse ways in whichtheir work has been transformed and degraded and the mannerin which the needs of clients have been largely ignored. Fromtheir perspective, the election of a Labour government in 1997proved to be a massive disappointment and many social workersreported that it has further undermined state social work practice,workers and clients. The paper seeks to offer an explanationby noting the neo-liberalism of Labour's social policy and thedire consequences which flow from New Labour's fixation withwaged work as the principal solution to social exclusion andpoverty. Above all, it seeks to provide an opportunity for theviews of front-line state social workers to be heard.     

Nursing Home Social Services Directors Who Report Thriving at Work

Nationally representative data from a sample (n?=?928) of full-time nursing home social services directors were used to investigate whether knowing characteristics of the social environment at work can help to explain which directors report job thriving. Two-thirds of directors reported they were thriving in their jobs. Multiple regression results show that thriving is increased by job autonomy, being treated like an important part of the team, having enough time to identify and meet resident psychosocial needs, not having to do things that others could do, and being clear what the social services role is. Findings suggest that addressing these aspects of the social environment and social services role will likely contribute to increasing a sense of thriving at work among social services staff members.     

1998 Human Rights Act: Social Work's New Benchmark

Summary The 1998 Human Rights Act makes the European Convention on HumanRights directly enforceable by the United Kingdom's courts andtribunals. This represents a major constitutional change andwill allow statute law and common law to be assessed, or reassessed,according to the rights laid down in the Convention. This hasmany implications for social work policy makers, managers andpractitioners. It will require the Convention rights to be atthe heart of social work practice. The ability of service usersto challenge decisions by social services departments will nolonger be dependent upon the traditional approach to judicialreview. Compliance with the Convention will now feature in legalchallenges. It is essential that the practice of social workembraces the principles outlined in the Convention. In manyrespects, they are rights that practitioners and others recognizeas being basic expectations of service users, and making themdirectly enforceable can only be for the good. However, we shouldnot underestimate the effect that the legislation will have.This article outlines the legal effects of the 1998 Human RightsAct and illustrates them by reference to examples from socialwork practice.     

The social services response to unaccompanied children in England

In England, social services departments have a duty to provide care and protection to unaccompanied asylum seeking children from the point they arrive in the country. In recent years, research studies have identified a number of practice and policy issues of concern regarding the social services response to unaccompanied children. This paper focuses on three broad issues that emerge from the literature. The paper explores research concerns associated with (i) the referral and assessment process, (ii) the use of the child welfare legislative framework, and (iii) a number of issues arising from the provision of placements and other support offered to unaccompanied children. The findings of the research reviewed demonstrate that there are indeed clear grounds for concern. However, this paper argues that the evidence base is relatively weak and that as a result we know very little about the nature and context of the social work response to this group of children and young people.     

Social work education: state of the art

In assessing the appropriateness of contemporary social work education to its context, the article assumes that social work practice and education must relate to its social reality. The article argues that, since the 1970s, that reality has changed in relation to the role of the welfare state, perceptions of economic growth and the independence of the state. As a result, the roles of civil society, the community and welfare personnel have changed, with implications for social work. At the same time, the earlier tendency of social work to avoid the major social issues of the day is no longer appropriate, and the article outlines five major issues needing to be addressed by social work. In conclusion, the article presents four options that social work education should, as a total profession, address, if the profession is to play the roles demanded of it by its contemporary social reality.     

Social Work Knowledge of Community-Based Services for Older Adults: An Educational Model for Social Work Students

Social workers are often the key link between older adults, their families and community-based services. Thus, knowledge about older adults and community-based care is imperative for social work practice. Evaluation data are provided on a national multisite effort (N = 353) from 35 schools to assure graduate social work student's competency related to community services for older adults. Results suggest that the educational model as described in this article sets forth positive outcomes in the education of aging savvy social workers. Ongoing social work education is needed to meet the burgeoning needs of the geriatric population.     

Social work knowledge of community-based services for older adults: an educational model for social work students

Social workers are often the key link between older adults, their families and community-based services. Thus, knowledge about older adults and community-based care is imperative for social work practice. Evaluation data are provided on a national multisite effort (N = 353) from 35 schools to assure graduate social work student's competency related to community services for older adults. Results suggest that the educational model as described in this article sets forth positive outcomes in the education of aging savvy social workers. Ongoing social work education is needed to meet the burgeoning needs of the geriatric population.     

The Administrative and Posthospital Care Outcomes of Discharge Planning

Early and comprehensive discharge planning is a widely accepted and anticipated social work role. It is generally supposed that discharge planning has positive implications for both the hospital and the patient. A research project was designed to assess the effects of a staff development program aimed at instituting a comprehensive discharge planning model by social workers in a general hospital in Israel. One group of patients received social work services based on the discharge planning model. A comparison group of patients received the standard services provided by the department. No differences between the groups were found in time elapsed before first social work contact or in length of stay. However, patients in the study group were likely to be released to a more appropriate and stable setting than were patients in the comparison group. Furthermore, there was a greater likelihood that their posthospital care plans involved a combination of services from both formal and informal settings. Implications of the findings are discussed as well as the integration of research into ongoing social work practice.     

'I Needed to be Told that I Hadn't Failed': Experiences of Violence Against Probation Staff and of Agency Support

Correspondence to Brian Littlechild, Division of Social Work, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AB Summary The research presented in this article was undertaken to establishthe extent of victimization of various groups of staff in thecounty of Hertfordshire's Probation Service. In particular,it aimed to examine issues of gender in relation to such victimization.Staff were invited to detail incidents which they had experienced,and what factors led them to decide what to do about such incidents.In particular, reasons for reporting—or not reporting—wereaddressed. The research also had the aim of analysing how staffviewed issues of violence from their own perspective, and theirsuggestions for improving safety at work in relation to suchviolence. The research demonstrates that, in the main, probationservice staff are safer than their counterparts in, for example,social services departments, and that they report incidentsof physical violence to a greater degree than other incidents.It highlights that sexual aggression is not uncommon, but islargely unreported. The research also shows that staff who havebeen victims have clear ideas of the support they should receive,and how agencies should respond in a positive manner to aggressors.