Social Work, Merit and Ethnic Diversity

This paper concentrates on the issues of merit and diversityin social work. The principal focus is ethnic diversity, usedas an example to illustrate a wider point about diversity. Itis clear that ethnic diversity in particular has become a majorpolitical objective across the public sector as part of the‘community cohesion’ initiative. Several benefitshave been identified and linked to the achievement of ethnicdiversity in the workforce; many of these have appeared in socialwork debate. The argument here is that while diversity has transformativepotential, it must be located within a more radical agenda ifit is to be successful. As a profession with a radical threadto its pedigree, social work is well placed to take this agendaforward.