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.     

The Manifest and Latent Lessons of Child Abuse Inquiries

Correspondence to University of Glasgow, Department of Social Administration and Social Work, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RT. Summary This article examines some of the key implications of publicchild abuse inquiries for social work services and practice.It recognizes the positive value of certain of their findingsand recommendations. However, equally important are the unintendedconsequences and latent social functions of inquiries. Thesehave meant that the general public has been able to distanceitself from responsibility for protecting children. Attentionhas been diverted from wider social processes, including adult-childand male-female power relationships. At the same time, the dominantrole of child protection procedures in the statutory sectorhas inhibited the development of preventive practice strategies.     

Working in the Social Services: Job Satisfaction, Stress and Violence

Correspondence to Professor Jan Pahl, Department of Social and Public Policy and Social Work, Darwin College, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury CT2 7NY. Summary A major survey of the social services workforce (Balloch etal., forthcoming), carried out in the Research Unit at the NationalInstitute for Social Work, has produced new data about sourcesof job satisfaction and about the incidence of stress and violence.The survey took place in five different local authorities inEngland, and interviews were carried out with 1276 individuals,selected from four groups of staff: managers, social work staff,home care workers and residential staff. The results suggestedthat those who work in the statutory, social services do experiencemore stress and violence than workers in other parts of thehealth and welfare services. However, different jobs presenteddifferent hazards. In general, home care workers were the mostsatisfied with their jobs, and were also the group least likelyto be stressed or to experience violence in the course of theirwork. By contrast, residential workers, especially those withmanagement responsibilities, were most at risk of both violenceand stress. Men were more likely than women to experience violence,while other groups with a higher than average risk of stressincluded younger members of staff, and managers and social workstaff responsible for elderly people.     

Specialism, Genericism and Others: Does it Make a Difference? A Study of Social Work Services to Elderly People

Correspondence should be addressed to Roger Fuller, Social Work Research Centre, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA Summary A previous paper published in this journal (Fuller and Petch,1991) described a preliminary feasibility study designed toinvestigate the effects of organizing social work teams alongspecialist or generic lines. The main study which developedfrom this work is here reported. The study, using modified casereview forms, compares the way samples of referrals of elderlypeople (n=1232) were dealt with at initial assessment and forup to a year subsequently by 15 social work teams of contrastingorganizational approach. The latter include specialist and genericteams, and comparisons are also drawn with teams adopting aself-styled community social work approach. Although the organizationalagenda has moved on since the study began, the issues are ofcontinuing relevance for the implementation of community care,particularly in view of its growing focus on specialist services.While not arguing that there is any one optimal model of teamorganization, the paper sets out some of the measurable consequencesof opting for the various models; in particular, it emergesthat the strengths of specialization are more clearly apparentin certain aspects of their engage ment with clients than inothers and at certain stages of that engagement than at others.     

Does Area Team Organization Make a Difference?

Correspondence to Roger Fuller, Senior Research Fellow, University of Stirling, Social Work Research Centre, Stirling FK94LA, Scotland Summary The paper describes early stages of a programme of researchdesigned to investigate the effects of different ways of organizingsocial work teams. Initially conceived as an attempt to studythe relative effectiveness of specialist and generic team organization,the focus has been broadened to encompass a range of wider andsometimes cross-cutting organizational variables. After a briefreview of attempts to specify organizational characteristicsand of the methodological problems they pose to the researcher,a preliminary study is reported. This compared services to theelderly delivered by teams exemplifying some of the more prominentorganizational types. The study tentatively identifies a numberof factors which distinguished between teams in social workactivities and in rudimentary measures of client outcome. Thedimensions of further work which would fill out these earlyfindings and explore further organizational effects are sketched.     

Is Gender Inequality in Social Work Management Relevant to Social Work Students?

Correspondence to Ms C. Taylor, Research Fellow, Social Work Research Centre, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA. Summary This paper reports on a study carried out in 1991 based on questionnaireswhich asked 169 female and male social work students about theiraspirations and expectations in respect of promotion in theirfuture career. Underlying the study is a concern about the unequalrepresentation of male and female workers at management levelsin social services in the UK, there being at present a predominanceof male managers. The phenomenon is not regarded as unique tosocial services, but as part of the pattern of gender inequalityin the workforce as a whole. The view that women contribute to the phenomenon by a fundamentallack of interest in, or unwillingness to apply for, promotionwill be challenged. It will be argued that the differences inthe aspirations and expectations of male and female employees,which previous research studies have reported, may be an effectof the experience of the organization rather than a cause ofthe scarcity of female employees in promoted posts. The paper will focus on some of the findings, including students'aspirations and expectations, their opinions about the unequalrepresentation of men and women in social work management, theimplications of this for their own career and whether they considerthis issue is, or should be, a significant component of socialwork training.     

Learning Lessons from the Past or Re-Visiting Old Mistakes: Social Work and Community Development in Northern Ireland

Correspondence to Dr Deirdre Heenan, School of Policy Studies, University of Ulster, Magee Campus, Londonderry BT48 7JL, UK. E-mail: DA.Heenan{at}ulster.ac.uk Summary In recent years there has been a re-emphasis on community developmentapproaches in health and social work in Northern Ireland. Underpinningthese approaches is the belief that local communities can beorganized to address health and social needs and to work withgovernment agencies, voluntary bodies and local authoritiesin delivering services and local solutions to problems. Thesemethods of working challenge the traditional social work focuson individual and family casework interventions. Governmentin Northern Ireland has stressed that community developmentshould no longer simply be an afterthought in key aspects ofHealth and Social Services, but should instead be at the coreof their work. It is now officially recognized that communitydevelopment has the potential to make a significant impact ona broad spectrum of policies and programmes, which are deliveredthrough agencies in both the statutory and voluntary sectors.This commitment to community development has been outlined ina number of key documents and reports. This paper assesses therelationship between social work and community development inNorthern Ireland. The first section looks briefly at the historyof community development and social work and then sets out thecontext in which this move towards the promotion of a communitysocial work approach is occurring. Against this backdrop, acase study of a Family Support Team, which provides a rangeof services in a community setting, is used to illustrate howthe strategy has already been adopted and the lessons of thisexperience are explored and discussed. It is concluded thatwhile this approach has a lot to offer it is not without itsdifficulties. Far from being a new philosophy, community developmentis being reinvented and reapplied. It is therefore crucial thatold mistakes are not revisited and old prejudices rekindled.It is hoped that this article will provide a useful contributionto the current important and necessary debate.     

Social Networks and Social Service Workers

Correspondence to Peter Sharkey, School of Law, Social Work and Social Policy, Liverpool Polytechnic, 98 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5UZ. Summary ‘Networks’ is a word often used in the discussionof social work practice and within social services departments.It was a word which was central to the Barclay Report (1982)and important within the more recently published Griffiths Report(1988) on community care. It is a word also known to sociologistsand anthropologists through the development of ‘networkanalysis’. There is, however, a fairly wide gap betweenits use within social work and its use within social science.This article tries to explore this gap and the ways in whichsocial science ideas might have some use and relevance to socialservice workers. It does this by using some illustrative datafrom a study done of the personal networks of thirty elderlypeople who were all clients of a social service district office.     

User Involvement in Services--Incorporation or Challenge?

Correspondence to Joan Forbes at The School of Social Work, The University of Leicester, 107 Princess Road East, Leicester, LE1 7LA Summary In recent years, users of social work, like those of psychiatry,have been increasingly drawn into the organization and deliveryof social work and mental health services. This has been largelywelcomed as a desirable development by planners, academics andpractitioners in the field. In this article, we reappraise thebroad issues raised by user involvement and consider the implicationsof this trend. Despite the attractiveness of the user perspectivein the policy and delivery of social work and psychiatric services,we point to the dangers of incorporation and moderation of anoppositional position, from which, we argue, users can bestchallenge existing practices and connect with wider politicalstruggles.     

Cutting Edge Issues in Social Work Research

Correspondence to Ian Shaw, Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WT, Wales. E-mail: shawif{at}cardiff.ac.uk Summary Taking the panel report on social work submissions to the British2001 Research Assessment Exercise as a starting point, I commenton some of the central questions facing social work research.These include social work research methodology; social work'srelationship to science; the relationship between social workpractice and research; governance and research ethics; buildingresearch capacity; and establishing research quality. I outlineaction that is needed by social work academics and researchers,social work agencies and government departments.     

A Case for Social Work Evaluation of Social Work Education

Correspondence to Imogen Taylor, Research Fellow, Department of Social Work, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN Summary This paper discusses the importance of evaluation of socialwork education by social work researchers, particularly giventhe increasing demands from different interest groups for socialwork courses to demonstrate effectiveness. It is noted that educational researchers are dominating thefield of educational evaluation, yet it is crucial for the survivalof social work that social work education be evaluated by socialwork researchers. Both the tools and the outcome of such evaluationwill shape the future of social work education and social workitself. Recognizing that cross fertilization of ideas between disciplinesis essential, a model for social work evaluation is proposedwhich is derived from models developed by other disciplinesand integrated with social work practice theory. The resultingresearch model draws a number of parallels between researchand practice, bringing together two groups which are often distantand distinct. The model also brings researcher and user closertogether. The model is analysed in light of its applicationto the evaluation of Enquiry and Action Learning, an innovativeapproach to social work education implemented by the Departmentof Social Work, University of Bristol. Central government funding must be available to ensure systematicand rigorous evaluation of social work education rather thanthe piecemeal research possible so far.     

The Supervision of Child Protection Work

Correspondence to Alan Rushton, Course Director, M.Sc. in Mental Health Social Work, Social Work Department, The Maudsley Hospital, 101 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ, UK Summary It has frequently been recommended that statutory child protectionservices in Great Britain need greater provision of specialistsupervision to support front line social workers. This qualitativestudy, based in social services departments in London, usedthe focus group method to explore the provision of supervisionby team managers in a very pressurized work environment. Thestudy highlights the difficulty of protecting adequate supervisiontime but shows how supervisors can use their skills to conductcase related discussion concerned with developing professionalskills. ‘Inquisitorial’ and ‘empathic-containing’functions are identified and an approach is proposed for combiningthem in training courses for child protection supervisors. Thepaper recommends that supervision training needs to be expanded,to be more precisely targeted, and that outcomes need to berigorously and appropriately assessed.     

Poverty, Social Work and Social Justice

Correspondence to: Gary Craig, Professor of Social Justice, University of Hull, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK. E-mail: G.Craig{at}hull.ac.uk Summary The concept of social justice has become a common part of thepolitical lexicon in recent years, with New Labour identifyingit as a key goal of its social strategy. In this article, Iset out my understanding of what the elements of a social justiceprogramme should look like and apply it to the performance ofthe New Labour government in the policy area which has traditionallypresented a major challenge to social workers, the issue ofpoverty. Finally, I raise some questions about what this analysismeans for the future role of social work shaped by values ofsocial justice.     

Slovenian Social Work: A Case Study of Unexpected Developments in the post-1990 Period

Correspondence to Dr Shulamit Ramon, London School of Economics, Department of Social Policy and Administration, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. Summary The paper contextualizes Slovenian social work in terms of thepolitical, social, economic and cultural changes which Sloveniahas gone through recently. The frame-work of social work educationand services is then outlined. Two major examples of unexpectedinnovative social work projects are outlined and analysed. Theimplications of these examples to Slovenian social work practiceand theory are looked at in the conclusions.     

At the Edge of the Frame: Beyond Science and Art in Social Work

Correspondence to Dean Emilia E. Martinez-B raw ley. School of Social Work, Arizona State University, PO Box 871802, Tempe, Arizona 85287–1802, USA. Summary The central argument in this article is that social work hasalways been a practice at the fringes. The phrase is used inits best sense and in at least two meanings: (1) that socialwork has been at the edges of the mainstream of scientific discourse,not because of any intrinsic deficiency in the profession butbecause of the nature of the practice; (2) that, in the postmodernsense, social work has been a collage where science, art, rationalityand intuition, systematic and asystematic knowledge meet. Inthis latter sense, this article proposes, social work can representa very desirable convergence of paradigms that needs to be acknowledgedand celebrated. Perhaps the most significant contribution ofpostmodernism is that it accommodates this possibility.     

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.     

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.     

Social Work Today

Correspondence to Chris Jones, Department of Social Work and Community Studies, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2TQ Summary This paper argues that over the last fifteen years social workin Britain has undergone a significant transformation. Underincreasing attack, both in the media and from government andits new right ideologues, social work has faced an increasinglyimpoverished client group with fewer resources and growing uncertaintyabout its legitimate role. In this context, legislative, administrativeand financial changes have pushed social work into an increasinglyantagonistic relationship with clients and have left it demoralizedand without a clear sense of direction. The paper looks at theway this change has come about and argues that it has profoundimplications for the future of social work in the reduced welfarestate of the 1990s.     

Ethnicity and Clients' Social Worker Preference: The Israeli Experience

Correspondence to Prof. E. D. Jaffe, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel 91905. Summary Israel's society contains three large ethnic subgroups, oneof Western (Ashkenazi) origin, another from Middle-Eastern (Sephardi)background, and an Arab population group. Social stratificationalong ethnic lines is still common, particularly in the socialservices and human services professions. This article describes an empirical research study of how ethnicstereotypes among Ashkenazi and Sephardi Israeli welfare clientsaffect their preference for Ashkenazi or Sephardi social workhelpers, and compares their responses with other Israeli populationgroups. Using a projective test based on passport photos, itwas found that very clear ethnic preferences exist among bothAshkenazi and Sephardi respondents, and that Sephardi respondents,including Sephardi welfare clients, most often prefer to betreated by Ashkenazi social workers. The cross-cultural, cross-nationalimplications of these findings for ethnic relations, the socialservices and the social work profession are discussed.     

The Implications of Immigration for the Training of Social Work Professionals in Spain

Correspondence to Sonia Hernández Plaza, Area de Psicologia Social, Departamento de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, Universidad de Almería, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, Almería, 04120, Spain. Summary Important demographic changes have been taking place in Spainduring the last two decades as a result of immigration. Dueto an ever-increasing multicultural spread, social work professionalsare faced with the new challenge of providing quality servicesto diverse ethnic populations. After briefly describing themain characteristics of immigration in Spain, their implicationsfor the provision of social services and the need to providemulticultural training for social workers are analysed. Theconceptual framework proposed addresses some of the main variablesthat professionals working with these minorities should takeinto account, emphasizing: culture; language; family support;community resources; clients' explanatory model of the problems;provision of services for multiple problems; ethnic discrimination;and assessment instruments. Some key points for multiculturaltraining in this field are discussed, paying special attentionto the need to develop culturally sensitive and bias-free diagnostictools; accreditation and funding of professional programmes;and cross-cultural competence training. The main contents andobjectives of a multicultural training course for social workersare described.