Beyond Retroduction? -- Hermeneutics, Reflexivity and Social Work Practice

Correspondence to Susan White, University of Manchester, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester Summary Over the last three decades qualitative research methodologieshave been in the ascent within social science. Yet social workevaluation studies have tended to be quantitative in nature,conventially relying upon the generation of criteria againstwhich interventions are retrospectively judged. The generationof such criteria inevitably depends upon pre-suppositions, whichin themselves go unresearched. As a consequence the .sense makingactivities on which social work interventions depend are renderedimmune from critical analysis. This reflects a broader tendencyfor social work to cling to naive realist epistemologies, whichare arguably obsolete within the interpretive paradigm in whichits activity is properly located. By examining the debates withininterpretive social science, this paper argues for an approachto social work assessment which avoids the pitfalls of naiveobjectivism and the nihilism of anarchic relativism, whilstretaining creativity, imagination and hope.     

From Hollis to the Orange Book: Developing a Holistic Model of Social Work Assessment in the 1990s

Correspondence to Margaret Lloyd, School of Social Work, University of Manchester, Dover Street, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary Amidst questioning of its essential identity, social work iscurrently developing new procedures and training programmesin assessment, traditionally one of its core activities. Thedemand for this redevelopment has been created by the changingprofessional climate in both probation and social work practice,in particular the response to legislative changes such as theNational Health Service and Community Care Act 1990. This paperexamines the established model of social work assessment inhistorical context and identifies its shortcomings for practicein the 1990s. It argues that despite the apparently diverserange of assessment tasks now undertaken by social workers andprobation officers, there remains an identifiable, common setof skills. Moreover, unless social work anchors these assessmentskills in a conceptual framework, retaining a sense of its ownhistory, the essential character of social work assessment willbe lost amidst mechanistic procedures and competing philosophies.This paper suggests a typology for making sense of the rangeof assessment tasks in current practice, arguing that this mustbe rooted in a holistic theoretical and philosophical model.The term ‘social work’ is used in its generic senseto include probation practice.     

Parton, Howe and Postmodernity: A Critical Comment on Mistaken Identity

Correspondence to Carole Smith, School of Social Work,, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Dover Street Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL Summary In their contributions to the debate about social work, modernityand postmodernity Parton(1994) and Howe (1994) argue that therecent changes in social work practice can best be understoodas features of, or responses to, the postmodern social orderin which it is located. This has led, they argue, to an increasingfragmentation of the profession and an undermining of its formalknowledge base. We will argue here that, not only does suchan argument oversimplify the nuances of the ‘postmodernity’question, but it represents a misreading of the pressures affectingpractice at this time, which are more properly attributableto the operation of the discourses and ideologies of a particularphase of late capitalism and high modernity.     

The Role and Achievements of a Professional Association in the Late Twentieth Century: The British Association of Social Workers 1970-2000

Correspondence to Malcolm Payne, Manchester Metropolitan University, Didsbury, Manchester Summary The formation in 1970, in concert with wider policy trends,and the work of BASW during its first 30 years are reportedand assessed. The structure, internal issues, finances, personnel,professional and social policy work and publishing operationsare considered together with contemporaneous commentary on itsachievements. Conflict around membership policies and its professionalassociation role in relation to trade union activities wereinherent in its formation. Professional achievements includedwork on accreditation of social workers, a code of ethics andthe ‘new professionalism’, including client participationand case recording. Policy achievements included work on reformof mental health and child-care legislation and campaigns onpoverty and social security and constraints on social servicesexpenditure. Internal conflict and financial insecurity havelimited BASW's impact. However, as a small professional associationin a developing field with other powerful stakeholders, it hasachievements where alliances with other stakeholders and commercialoperators are established and when internal finance and personnelare stable. Professionalization in relation to community activismand trade unionism remains an issue.     

A Survey of Approved Social Work in England and Wales

Correspondence to Prof. P. Huxley, Department of Psychiatry, University of Manchester, Mathematics Tower, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary A survey of approved social workers (ASWs) was undertaken withlocal authorities in England and Wales, to review the provisionand organization of ASW services, and the contribution theymake towards the establishment and maintenance of a comprehensivemental health service. The findings show some variation in provisionwhich is in itself indicative of a variety of factors operatingto produce local and regional patterns of provision. Some ofthese are related directly to policy decisions, others to demographicand geographic variables, while still more are related to teamstructure, workload demands, and generic/specialist issues.The future pattern of mental health social work following theimplementation of the NHS and Community Care Act is consideredin the light of the findings from the survey.     

A Model for the Comprehensive Assessment of Older People and Their Carers

Correspondence to Beverley Hughes, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary Although local authorities and social service departments arein the process of developing systems of assessment in relationto care management, there has been little debate about the principleswhich ought to underpin assessment processes, nor about thepurpose, scope, and content of comprehensive assessment witholder people. This article discusses these issues and proposesa framework for comprehensive assessment with older people andtheir carers, derived from development work with social workersin a number of local authorities. Of particular importance isthe need for comprehensive assessment to embody meaningful mechanismsfor user and carer participation and empowerment; to acknowledgenot only need and risk but strengths and resources; to regardthe older person as the centre of a network of personal, familial,and social factors which together determine her or his qualityof life and level of risk. The implications for practitionersare examined.     

Non-Statutory Mental Health Social Work in Primary Care: A Chance for Renewal?

Correspondence to Malcolm T. Firth, Honorary Research Fellow & Senior Psychiatric Social Worker, 'DEAL', Department of Psychiatric Social Work, 12th Floor, Mathematics Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: malcolm.firth{at}mhsc.manchester.nhs.uk Summary The current status of evidence-based practice in the field ofmental health has led some to question the potential for innovationif social work practice is organizationally proscribed or reducedto a dogged adherence to methodological orthodoxy. Conversely,social work's value base is esteemed disproportionately to itsevidence base. Changing service contexts in the UK, particularlythe emergence of Primary Care Trusts as gatekeepers and commissionersof health and social care services, are providing opportunitiesfor social work to develop a new presence and purpose. The authorsdescribe their work in a small-scale service based in primarycare that anticipated these opportunities, by a retrospectivestudy of 120 cases. A new evidence base that derives directlyfrom practice is suggested as a way forward for social workeducation and training, as well as for service and professionaldevelopment.     

A Profile of Adult Placement Carers

Correspondence to Andrew Gage, Manchester City Council Social Services Department, Adult Homefinding Team, Fenham, 5 Moorfield Road, West Didsbury, Manchester M20 8UZ. Summary This study examines the social and personal characteristicsof the people providing support in their own homes (adult fostering)to people with severe learning disabilities. Comparisons aremade with the general population on social and personal areas.A typical carer is identified and the results lead into issuescurrently affecting carers. Links are drawn between carer characteristicsand service user quality of life which require further study.     

Mapping Comparative Empirical Studies of European Social Work

Correspondence to Professor Steven M. Shardlow, Director Salford Centre for Social Work Research, School of Community, Heath Sciences and Social Care, The University of Salford, Allerton Building, Frederick Road, Salford, Greater Manchester M6 6PU, UK. E-mail: S.M.Shardlow{at}Salford.ac.uk Summary This paper reviews the scope of currently published materialsabout comparative empirical social work research within Europe,published in English over a two-decade period (1980–2000).To this end, the paper is divided into four sections. First,an account of the scope and methods used to conduct this review.Second, a brief analysis of non-empirical published materials.Third, in the bulk of the paper, identified comparative studiesare discussed in depth, with a particular focus upon methodologicalissues. Finally, by way of a conclusion, comments are made aboutthe state of contemporary empirical studies within Europeansocial work, and the relationship of these studies to the constructionof social work knowledge. In addition, some suggestions of possiblesites for improvement in respect of comparative empirical researchabout social work in Europe are made.     

Understanding 'Going Missing': issues for social work and social services

Correspondence to Malcolm Payne, Professor of Applied Community Studies, The Manchester Metropolitan University, 799 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, Manchester M20 8RR. Summary Recent research about young people and adults who ‘gomissing’ raises important issues for social work and thesocial services. Large numbers of young people go missing eachyear, becoming vulnerable to exploitation and at risk of committingcrime and suffering from other social difficulties. Adults leavebehind families with practical and emotional difficulties. Adefinition of ‘going missing’ should focus on absencefrom social expectations and responsibilities. Five groups ofmissing person are identified: runaways, pushaways, throwaways,fallaways and takeaways, reflecting different social situationsin which going missing occurs. It is argued that going missingis one of a range of choices which people in difficulties maymake, depending on their approach to problems in their livesand the availability of opportunities. Effective local co-ordinationto focus on reasons for going missing, on reunions and returnsto residential care or home, and to provide emotional and practicalhelp to people ‘left behind’, are required, providedthat care is taken to protect people who go missing becausethey are subject to abuse and violence.     

An Approach to the Management of the Assessment of Practice Placements

Correspondence to Annie Hudson. Lecturer in Social Work. Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, University of Manchester. Manchester M13 9PL Summary This article addresses some of the issues and problems inherentin the assessment of practice placements. and discusses theefforts of one course to devise a method of managing the assessmentprocess. It begins with an identification and brief discussionof those problems, then moves on to review the development ofthe method and describe the system as it currently operates.The second part of the article discusses the need for continuingattention to both the design of the system and its implicationsfor the roles of those most involved, with particular emphasison the role of the tutor. The article concludes by posing somequestions raised therein which have relevance for current debatesabout the future of social work training.     

Huntington's Chorea and the Young Person at Risk

Correspondence should be sent to J. R. Korer, Mental Health Research Unit, Manchester University, Department of Psychiatry, Stopford Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT. Summary Social workers increasingly find themselves involved with familiesin which one or more individuals suffer from genetic disease.Huntington's chorea is such a condition and has serious implicationsfor other individuals, both in the nuclear and extended family.This paper explores some of the likely responses of young peoplein such families and how they can best be helped. A social workerneeds to be aware of the differing responses to varying degreesof risk and how young people in the situation can be advisedand helped. It follows on from an earlier study (Korer and Fitzsimmons,1985) which looked more specifically at family life within thesefamilies.     

Reading Social Work Competing Discourses in the Rules and Requirements for the Diploma in Social Work

Correspondence to Dr Beth Humphnes, Department of Applied Community Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, 799 Wilmslow Road, Manchester M20 2RR Summary The changes which have taken place across all of social workeducation and practice in Britain introduce a new phase forthe profession in line with wider political and economic changesin the UK. The Rules and Requirements for the Diploma in SocialWork exemplify these changes, and the document containing themis a useful focus for an analysis of what is at stake. Thisarticle employs discourse analysis to examine the ideologicalfunctions of the Dip.S.W. regulations and their relationshipto wider social discourses, having in mind both the discipliningrole of discourse and its possibilities for transformation.It identifies a dominant regulatory discourse, and an oppositionalliberatory discourse which are in dialogue with each other andwith related discourses. The article considers the constructionof social work in the document in its surveillance, managerialist,competence-based functions. The analysis also looks for contradictoryvoices in these discourses and in CCETSW'. Welsh Language Policyand Equal Opportunities Statement, which might offer sites ofresistance and refusal. It is argued that the shape of the stagesocial work has entered into is not inevitable, and the destabilizingpotential of such an analysis creates a space for the imaginationof alternatives.     

Community Work, Social Work: Green and Postmodern?

Correspondence to Mary Lane, Department of Social Work, Social Policy and Sociology, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Summary Opening with a story about community work, this paper exploresdevelopments and challenges in social and political theory andthe implications for social work, particularly for collectivepractices. Feminism, postmodernism and green political theoryare of particular interest. The paper argues for an interpretiveapproach to practice which emphasizes the local and specific,yet aspires to broader political action in the pursuit of socialand ecocentric justice. Feminism has much to contribute to thisexercise, challenging, as it does, a modern/postmodern divide.The emerging discourse of ecofeminism offers a synthesis ofsocial and ecocentric purposes and values as a basis for tacklinginequalities, whilst postmodern feminists enlighten our understandingof difference and encourage us to renounce certainty and lastproofs.     

A Reconviction Predictor for Probationers

Correspondence to Ken Pease, Professor of Criminology, University of Manchester, Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary This paper reports the development of a predictor of reconvictionsuitable for use with probationers. The predictor, based onthe Burgess method of prediction, was developed using a sampleof 750 probation cases and a prediction period of three years.Its predictive power is substantial, being of the same orderas that of the parole predictor (see Nuttall et al., 1977; Ward,1988). Despite the increasing emphasis on offence-focused work in theprobation service, the work of the service is not routinelyor comprehensively measured in terms of its alteration of criminalcareers. By detailing the development of the predictor, andwelcoming experimentation with it amongst individual area probationservices, it is hoped that this paper will encourage a morefocused consideration of the effect of probation supervisionon offending behaviour, and therein facilitate the incorporationof broader service quality issues within performance evaluation.     

The Nature of Child Neglect

Correspondence to Brian Minty, Lecturer in Psychiatric Social Work, University of Manchester, Department of Psychiatry, Mathematics Tower, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary The paper discusses the nature of child neglect, and draws onthe existing literature to provide evidence that neglect canbe extremely damaging to children. This is in contrast to theviews we hear personally from some social workers: that neglectis simply the consequence of material poverty, or a conditionthat need not arouse the same degree of professional concernas physical or sexual abuse. We report on a study of neglectfulfamilies, in which we have attempted to devise a simple instrumentfor quickly detecting the probable existence of neglect. Useof this instrument confirmed that among families referred toan NSPCC Child Protection Team there was a strong associationbetween physical and emotional neglect. Working on the use ofthe first questionnaire we have developed a second and shorterScale of Parental Caregiving, which has yet to be tested inpractice.     

Mental Health and the Asian Communities: A Local Survey

Correspondence to Barbara Hatfield, Lecturer in Psychiatric Social work, Department of Psychiatry, 12th Floor, Mathematics Building, Manchester University, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL Summary The survey of people from the Asian communities in ‘Milltown’included people who used mental health services, family membersof service users, and members of the Asian general public. Personaland social stresses of the group were explored, as were theirperceptions of the ‘causes’ of mental ill-healthand appropriate responses. Although most people saw family andsocial stress as central, a religious dimension was also prominent,in terms both of causes and treatment of mental ill-health.There was no evidence of rejection of mainstream services becauseof a choice on the part of Asian families or communities tobe self-servicing. A range of issues identified by respondentssurrounded the cultural acceptability of services in ‘Milltown’to Asian people. A lack of knowledge of service availabilitywas also apparent, with a heavy reliance upon GP services formental health care in the community. The findings of the surveyare compared with similar studies, where available, which focuson indigenous white British service users. Some findings arecommon; other issues are specific to this Asian group.     

Agency Function and Social Work Principles

Summary The concept of agency function is examined in relation to thenature of the social work task. It is often the case that agencyfunction is seen more as a problem for social work and not asone of its characteristics. It is argued in this paper thatthe agency itself is not responsible for the apparently delicatestate of present day social work, but that on the contrary,the failure to appreciate social work's relationship to societyand social processes in part accounts for its uncertain condition.     

Openness and Contact in Adoption: A Child-centred Perspective

Correspondence to Beverley Hughes, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary This paper reports the findings of a study on the views of birthparents on openness and contact and, in the light of the findings,examines the current trend towards a presumption in favour ofdirect contact between birth parents, child and/or adopters.It argues for a child-centred approach which must discriminatemore clearly between the implications for the child of differentpost-adoption arrangements. The assumptions underlying a presumptionin favour of direct contact are critically reviewed.     

Social Movements, Social Justice and Social Work

Correspondence to: Neil Thompson, Avenue Consulting Ltd, PO Box 2060, Wrexham LL13 OZG, Wales, UK. Summary This paper explores the relationship between social movements,social justice and social work. It examines the role of socialmovements in promoting social justice and considers the influencesof such movements in the development of emancipatory forms ofsocial work practice. It also considers the question of whethersocial work can be viewed as a form of social movement in itsown right. A central theme of the paper is the fundamental tensionbetween social work as a force for social regulation and asa force for social development and emancipation.