Applying a community needs profiling approach to tackling service user poverty

Summary Poverty across the United Kingdom is a growing phenomenon. Itsimpact on the users of social work services is well documented.This paper puts forward the argument that poverty is a legitimatepart of the social work agenda rather than being seen as a complexproblem which is somehow outside the scope of social work agenciesand best left to politicians and policy makers. Social workpractitioners and managers must not only begin to accept andacknowledge that poverty is a social work issue but also tobegin confronting this challenge in a changing society whereexclusion, social inequality, racism and oppression deny peopletheir citizenship. The community needs profiling approach is proposed as a usefultool in addressing service user poverty whereby practitionersand their agencies can become more aware of the needs of usersand the communities in which they live. It is argued that, armedwith this knowledge, social workers have the potential to becomepart of the solution rather than remaining on the margins ofthe lives of poor people. Using evidence and ideas drawn froma range of community needs profiling research studies and texts,the author offers working suggestions for applying the approach.     

New Labour, Social Justice and Children: Political Calculation and the Deserving-Undeserving Schism

Correspondence to: Barry Goldson, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work Studies, The University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, Liverpool L69 7ZA, UK. E-mail: b.goldson{at}liv.ac.uk Summary Within a context of national prosperity and relative economicstrength, poverty and inequality is rife in the UK. This paperconsiders the broad contours of such social injustice, beforesharpening the focus to examine the specificities of child poverty.The New Labour government has made an ‘historic pledge’to end child poverty within a generation. The paper traces thekey policy initiatives that are being directed to this end and,by drawing on the latest research evidence, it attempts to assesstheir early impact. Whilst it is acknowledged that the government'ssocial justice agenda has made some progress in ‘tackling’child poverty, it is further proposed that a more rigorous redistributiveapproach is required if substantial and sustainable improvementsare to be made. Furthermore, it is argued that the social justiceagenda is conditioned by wider political calculations, whichlimit its scope. In this way the imperative to be seen to be‘tough on crime’ has meant that policy responsesto children in trouble have taken a distinctive and increasinglypunitive form. By developing the argument that New Labour'selectoral ambitions have led it to re-engage with a specious‘deserving’ ‘undeserving’ conceptualdichotomy, the paper assesses the implications for the treatmentof child ‘offenders’ in particular, and the broadersocial justice project more generally.     

Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? Examining the Relationship between Child Neglect and Poverty

Correspondence to Dr Dominic McSherry, Institute of Child Care Research, 5a Lennoxvale, Belfast BT9 5BY, UK. E-mail: dominic.mcsherry{at}qub.ac.uk Summary The chicken and the egg conundrum neatly reflects the way inwhich the debate over the relationship between child neglectand poverty/social deprivation has developed over the last fewdecades. Some would argue that child neglect is the manifestationof a neglecting society that permits child poverty to exist,that is poverty leads to child neglect. Others contend thatit is the way that neglecting parents think, behave and interactwith other people that ultimately leads them to live a lifeof social deprivation and to neglect their children, that isparental characteristics lead to poverty and child neglect.However, these seemingly opposing perspectives can be resolvedif we consider that this relationship, like the ultimate resolutionto the chicken and egg conundrum, is circular and interdependent.     

Infertility Counselling: The Need for a Psychosocial Perspective

Correspondence to Ken Daniels, Head of Department of Social Work, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Summary The expectation of the vast majority of young couples is thatat some stage they will ‘have’ children. Infertilitymeans that that expectation cannot be met and this has personal,couple and social implications. Infertility counselling hasfocused primarily on the psychological or emotional needs ofthe couple. This paper argues that a psychosocial perspectiveis needed, with increased emphasis being given to the socialend of the psychosocial continuum. A case study is presentedto illustrate the range of psychosocial issues that can ariseand suggestions are made regarding how these might be respondedto. These include: responding to the emotional needs of thecouple, responding to the couple and their networks, utilizingself-help and support groups, contributing to an effective teamapproach, using a multi-role approach, being clear about thedifferent components of counselling, and contributing to thesocial policy and ethical issues. Social workers, with theirpsychosocial perspective, are seen to have a unique contributionto make to a more holistic approach to infertility counselling.     

The Impact of New Labour Health Policy on Social Services: A New Deal for Service Users' Health?

Summary The health policies of the Labour Government of 1997–2001included an increased emphasis on social services departments'(SSDs) contribution to promoting health. Three dimensions ofthis policy shift are discussed: first, the drive towards organisationalfusion between elements of the NHS and SSDs; second, the newmechanisms for conjoint funding of health and social services;and, finally, the new policy focus on tackling health inequalitiesby combating social inequalities on a national and localitybasis. In each case, the touchstone of our analysis is the consequencesfor the health and well-being of SSD service users as membersof socially disadvantaged groups. We conclude that New Labourhas taken some steps, particularly reducing child poverty, whichwill have long lasting health and social benefits for actualand potential service users. However, inadequate funding ofSSDs undermines their effectiveness as a partner in integratedhealth and social care. As signalled by service user initiatives,SSDs potential for promoting more equal chances of health andwell-being in ill-health will also not be realised without substantialchanges to current SSD policy and practice.     

Care Programming in Mental Health: assimilation and adaptation

Correspondence to Justine Schneider. PSSRU. University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NF. Summary Two years after the care programme approach in mental healthwas introduced there is still widespread confusion about itsmeaning and its relation to other changes in the arena of communitycare. This paper looks at how care programmes are being implementedand at whom they are being targeted. It also examines the relationbetween care management and care programming and raises somequestions about future developments in the light of communitycare reforms. It draws on data collected during 1992 from threecontrasting health districts, all of which had made considerableprogress in care programming. Sixty practitioners were interviewedabout the theory and practice of care programming. Their experienceis presented here in the context of a review of community careplans for 1992/93 which characterizes the responses of differentlocal authorities to the approach.     

Children and young people with a hidden disability: an examination of the social work role

Summary There has been little research attention paid to the natureand extent of social work intervention with children and youngpeople with invisible impairments. The recent study describedhere found that children and young people with a hidden andstigmatizing impairment received a social work service whichwas at a minimal level. The children and young people were affectedby physically induced incontinence, and described how they facedan environment which created particular tensions. Their parentsconcurred with this overall picture and reported unmet needs.Recommendations are made about social services input, but itis recognized that the level of social services interventionavailable to these families may, in part, be a reflection ofa low priority assigned to disabled children generally. It isargued that, although such an assignment is a common picturein recent research about social services provision to disabledchildren, a change in priorities is needed which recognizesthe importance of coherent support to disabled children as ameans of improving their environment and thereby reducing families'stress levels and the likelihood of abuse or rejection.     

Service users' knowledges and social work theory: conflict or collaboration?

Summary So far, service users have not been systematically involvedin social work theorizing. However, disabled peoples's movements,mental health service users/survivors and other service usershave developed their own knowledges based on direct experienceand they have generated their own conceptual frameworks andbodies of theory. There are fundamental problems in social workseeking to interpret service user knowledges. Their developmentsand interpretation require the direct involvement of serviceusers and their organization in social work theorizing. Thereare strong practical, philosophical and political argumentsfor involving the knowledges and theories of service users andtheir organizations in the process of social work theory-building.This paper considers an inclusive approach to social work theorizing.While highlighting the importance of service users and theirorganizations being effectively included in social work theorizing,it also argues the need for them to have support and opportunitiesto develop their own prior and separate discussions about theory,including social work theory.     

Social Work Ideologies in the Probation Service

Summary The research described in this paper was an attempt to exploresome aspects of social work ideology in the probation service.We were particularly interested to identify the extent to whichprobation officers subscribed to certain ‘treatment model’assumptions about criminal behaviour. The project was designedas a small-scale study in depth of probation officers' socialinquiry practices. The data-collection methods used for thiswere a combination of depth interviews with probation officerswho also completed self-administered questionnaires. We foundthat some probation officers appeared to subscribe to ‘treatmentmodel‘ ideals more than others, but that all probationofficers were treatment orientated towards some of their casesand not to others. Their treatment preferences seems to relateto the seriousness of the offender's criminal history and personalproblems and the recommendation that was being made. Some ofthe implications of these findings for social work practicewere discussed.     

On the Relevance of Informal Social Networks to Social Work Intervention

Summary Taking as its starting point the Barclay Committee's definitionof community in terms of local informal networks, this papersets out to cull some relevant material from the literatureof social networks and to use it to demonstrate the appropriatenessof orienting social work practice to the community. In suggestingan emphasis on supporting rather than supplanting existing informalcaring systems, it is made dear that, if motivated by parsimonysuch an approach risks irresponsibly increasing distress andsocial costs.     

Repeat victim support

Correspondence to Professor Ken Pease, School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH Summary The occurrence of a crime may be regarded as a good predictorof where and when a further crime will occur. In consequence,a practical form of support for victims may well be the preventionof repeat victimization. To a variable and largely unknown extent,this approach is already being implemented by Victim Supportvolunteers. Making such practice routine might provide a worthwhilesupplement to the services which Victim Support already offers.Some ways are suggested in which this approach might be developed.The effectiveness of such an approach would be measured in termsof customer (victim) satisfaction and lower than expected ratesof swift repeat victimizations. It is stressed that Victim Supportmay turn out not to be a viable platform for the delivery ofcombined support—prevention services, although it shouldbe the agency first considered for this role. Possible experimentaltest-beds for such an approach are proposed.     

Tough Love: Social Work, Social Exclusion and the Third Way

Summary This article argues that New Labour's priorities for socialinclusion through employment, and for strenthening civil society,have relegated public-sector social work to a limited role inassessing and managing risks. However, as failures in the government'stop-down, regulatory approach emerge, there will be new opportunitiesfor a broader-based version of the profession to contributeto a more progressive programme.     

Some Implications of an Integrated Model of Social Work for Theory and Practice

Summary This paper is an attempt to assess the significance of the introductioninto this country of an ‘integrated’ or ‘unitary’approach to social work. An attempt is made to clarify the relationshipbetween paradigms, theories and models. The author claims thatan integrated approach to social work may represent a shiftfrom a predominantly individualistic conceptual model of practiceto an interactionist one. These conceptual models are comparedand critiques of the integrated model are examined. The questionis posed: is it possible to have an integrated model of practicewithout an integrated theory? Some suggestions are made concerningthe essential characteristics of such a theory and the possiblecontribution of sociology to its development Finally, some implicationsof the model for practice and for social work education arediscussed.     

Social Work and the Justice Model

Summary Three sets of ideas, which I am calling justice, welfare, andcommunity approaches interact in the criminal justice systemsof England and Scotland. Social workers are usually most influencedby a welfare approach but this approach is always in dangerof becoming arbitrary. The essential values of a welfare approachmight in fact be strengthened by introducing from the justiceapproach ways of structuring discretion. This idea will be examinedin relation to juvenile justice and parole where compulsorypowers back the application of welfare ideas. Ways of ensuringthat social work discretion is confined, structured and checkedwill be considered.     

Value Bases in Social Work Education

Correspondence to Elisabeth Lynn, Lecturer in Social Work, Centre for Applied Social Studies, 9th Floor, Chemistry Tower, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK. Summary In this paper the two values of social justice and personalcaring are identified as key ideologies within social work education.Their presence is traced within a historical ebb and flow oftheory and practice and it is argued that this dialectic isembedded in social and individual systems. Based on fieldworkresearch with social work lecturers and practice teachers, itis argued that anti-oppressive social work needs a reflexivetheory/practice model to provide an understanding of how structuralpower affects all aspects of an individual. This demands a workingsynthesis of the two values of Personal Canng and Social Justicewithin an understanding of a multiple approach.     

Some Answers About the Reverse Tariff: A Reply to Paley and Leeves

Summary Paley and Leeves have recently offered a critique of PaulineHardiker's work on the recommendations made by probation officersin Social Enquiry Reports. They maintain she neglects significantfactors which have a direct bearing on the recommendations,that her model is insufficiently dynamic and that it confusesoutcomes with processes. However, on inspection it is foundthat neither the empirical material introduced by Paley andLeeves, nor their theoretical challenge, is of sufficient weightto be able to sustain their criticism.     

Social Work as an Aspect of Primary Health Care: The Social Workers' View

Summary This study is based on an analysis of social workers' viewsof their work with 168 clients referred over a six month periodin 1977 in a health centre setting. A wide range of referralswas made and there was close collaboration with other primaryhealth care professionals as well as outside agencies. Far morepsycho-social problems were encountered by the social workersin the course of their intervention than were apparent on referral,although most of the work was short term. Social work with theindividual predominated and a variety of traditional socialwork skills were employed, although the elderly received relativelylittle help with emotional problems and were offered mainlypractical help. Social workers' perceptions of their clientsare discussed in relation to their choice of methods of interventionand feelings of efficacy. The attachment scheme emerges as generallyfruitful both in terms of social workers' job satisfaction andclients benefitting from a multi-disciplinary approach; howeverthe need for closer inter-professional collaboration in meetingthe needs of the elderly is highlighted.     

Care Management and Information Provision: Towards a Reasoned Method of Assessing the Range and Extent of Problems and Needs in Child-Care Social Work

Correspondence to Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA Summary The new managerialism associated with care management has, aswith other areas of health and welfare work, promoted ideasof efficient use of resources, quality assurance and the capacityto audit the work of welfare agencies. This approach placesa high premium on measurement, and emphazises a long-standingdesire to develop instruments the use of which would providethe basis for resource allocation. This paper presents a methodby which such data can be rigorously generated and analysed.It uses as its basis an instrument of established reliabilityand validity, designed to collect data on problems identifiedin clients in the child and family care social work group. Ituses a combination of principal component and cluster analysisto provide a clear picture of the nature and range of problemsand the grouping of cases with similar characteristics. Thesedata provide a quantitative basis upon which judgements aboutresource allocation can be made.     

Theory and Practice in Social Work: A Re-examination of a Tenuous Relationship

Summary This article discusses the need for an agreed framework withinwhich a genuinely reciprocal relationship between social worktheory and practice could be developed. After pointing out theinconsistencies of the present relationship, the author goeson to conclude that three main obstacles stand in the way ofthe achievement of this goal. He cites firstly, the presentdesign of the social work curriculum, with particular referenceto the underlying principle of eclecticism; secondly, the negativeattitudes held by many in the profession towards science asa means of evaluating competing concepts; and thirdly, the lackof an acceptably rigorous field work evaluation procedure whichsocial workers could use to register their impact on the morenebulous aspects of their work. Suggestions are made as to howthese obstacles might be overcome.     

Collective Action Among Private Tenants

Summary The paper describes the action of a group of low-income tenants,inexperienced in dealing with bureaucracies or in understandingthe complexities of landlord-tenant law, who attempted to improvetheir living conditions by using the Government's Rent Tribunal While the legal remedies provided under the Rent Acts were effective,the tenants were reluctant to use them until they had organizedas a group. This was because of the particular relationshipthey had with the landlady who made it difficult for them todiscuss with her their rights as tenants. Their only way ofchanging this was through collective action We discuss the use of conflict strategies in a short-term issue;that is, in fighting a landlady for better living conditions(both lower rents and adequate repairs). It illustrates thedifficulty of mobilizing a group of people whose ususal everydayexperiences are that it is difficult, if not futile, to takeaction to improve their situation. This is so in spite of machineryset up by the Government to arbitrate over rents for privateproperty. The difficulty lies in the precarious financial positionin which deprived groups often find themselves, making it easyfor them to fall into rent arrears and therefore be liable toeviction from their accommodation. It is difficult also becauseproperty owners are more likely to have easy access to the legalmachinery. These tenants are usually in no position to holda landlord to his side of the contract because they lack theresources to pay the legal fees entailed