We are a pair of women based in the north of England. We came together in 2014 as part of an evaluation of a project that supported women leaving prison. A decade on, we use this space of ‘Voices from the front line’ to reflect on what we have collectively achieved. We share with the reader how and why we came together and how our collaborative work reveals institutional harm and failure. As we have captured elsewhere, and as a central focus of this special issue, the relationship between welfare and criminal justice interventions is complex. Failures in one part of the system can drive harmful intervention in another. Understanding and challenging the interlocking nature of these different forms of institutional power is critical. To do this, we must not only challenge harmful policies and practice but also rethink how we produce knowledge. In this article, we challenge ourselves and the reader to consider what our experience means for policy, practice and research.
Scholarship on social work and human rights is increasingly steering the debate towards praxis and the development of action frameworks. However, these efforts have hitherto not explicitly inquired into how such approaches contribute to transformative change. Addressing this issue, we engage with dialectical critical realism to embed the ongoing discussions in broader theories of change and unravel the transformative potential of human rights discourses. The result is a meta-theoretical model, ‘NAME-IT’, which systematically unpacks how the dialectic between the reality and the promise of human rights can guide social workers towards transformative action. It forwards human rights as a struggle concept and invites practitioners, researchers and educators to name their violations for what they are. This provides guidance to stretch the discourse of human rights beyond the perimeters of neoliberalism and embed it in an agenda fit for critical and radical social work.
Social work is a very young profession in Hungary. Radical social work exists despite the fact that in the eyes of the current authoritarian ‘hybrid’ regime, the ‘Global definition of social work’ is also radical. Its ideas are primarily popular among young people and those who criticise the conceptual framework of aid, as defined by the governing party. In practice, non-governmental organisations, with their own approach, provide services.
An inherent element of capitalism is the creation of refugee crises, and states’ imperialist policies are one of the main reasons for the ‘refugee crisis’, as we have recently seen happening again with the Palestinian population. Simultaneously, states’ social policies and the human rights approach frequently do not promote people’s needs and human dignity. All these are inextricably linked to social justice and are the main concerns of social work. This article briefly mentions the housing policy in Greece for refugee young adults. It also presents the collaboration between the Greek Social Workers Action Network and collectives and the media to promote public intervention. Moreover, it introduces an alternative/critical form of claiming rights through advocacy and activism as a tool for shaping social policy from below. Specifically, we reveal advocacy practices opposing legislation to remove the right to an extension for health reasons for young formerly accompanied minors staying in shelters.
This article explores the conceptual and theoretical foundation of experiential knowledge. A scoping review shows that limited studies have so far been published about experiential knowledge in the context of social work. Although the value of personal experiences is commonly acknowledged, these are generally not considered ‘real knowledge’. Two main problems are identified, the first being that in dominant positivist scientific conceptions, experiential knowledge is not seen as scientifically relevant. The second is that, epistemologically, it seems problematic to turn personal experiences into collective knowledge. Regarding the first issue, it is argued that from a social-constructivist angle, experiential knowledge is valid knowledge. Not only can denying the value of knowledge based on lived experiences be considered an epistemic injustice, but it also ignores it as a valuable resource for professional education and practice. The second issue needs to be further explored considering the complex processes of experiential knowledge production, using the opportunities that narrative and participative social work research methods offer.
The Prevent Agenda, introduced in 2006, is a counter-terrorism strategy aiming to address radicalisation and extremist behaviour. This systematic literature review (SLR) focuses on its impact on child protection social work, examining how it influences roles, responsibilities and decision-making processes. Analysing articles, governmental reports and relevant literature, the review explores outcomes, such as improved inter-agency communication and heightened awareness of radicalisation risk factors. However, much more pronounced in the literature are very significant concerns that arise about potential biases in targeting, marginalising Muslim minorities and alienating families from support. This SLR offers insights into the multifaceted effects of Prevent on child protection social work, families and communities. Identifying trends and knowledge gaps contributes to understanding how counterterrorism intersects with child welfare. The review’s implications inform policy, professional training and future research for a balanced approach to national security and child and family well-being.
The article examines the use of manuals in child and family social work in Wales and Norway and considers their application in the structuring context of New Public Management and evidence-based practice. It is based on findings from a comparative survey-based instrument distributed to social workers. The problem statement is: what are social workers’ attitudes to and experiences of manuals in professional practice? The key research foci are: ‘How often do you use manuals?’; ‘Why do you use manuals?’; and ‘To what degree do you think manuals are useful to ensure the quality of the work you perform?’ Both workforces use manuals, though more so in Norway than in Wales. This is related to the fact that there is direct and stronger pressure from governmental agencies in Norway than in Wales for provider organisations and workers to deploy manuals. The uptake of manuals in Wales appears to be prompted more by worker self-selection and/or imitation of their usage in cognate practice settings. Norwegian workers to a larger extent than those in Wales think that using manuals enhances the quality of work. We discuss possible conceptual, institutional and practitioner-based reasons for the varied relationship between manuals and their application and highlight under-researched areas.
Resilience has attracted immense interest for researchers and practitioners. Arguably, resilience is a laudable quality, and post-COVID-19, the need for resilience is greater. Most studies examining resilience are socially blind and place emphasis on individual responsibility. Developing this critique further, this is the first study that draws significantly on the ideas of Charles Wright Mills and his defining principles to relate the ‘private’ concerns of being resilient to the ‘public’ context that creates this experience. This article presents a qualitative study that investigated how student social workers perceived resilience in their practice. A total of 16 social work students were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The aim of the article is to analyse the capacity for resilience to be deployed as a means of exercising domination over social work students in order to exploit and control them. An alternative conception of resilience is promoted that advocates a collective response to the challenges facing social workers.
Mental health provision in England and Wales has fluctuated between promoting social work as a valued, distinct contributor and viewing it as an adjunct to a generic workforce. Perspectives are divided on whether the profession should emphasise social work, mental health work or a cross-disciplinary blend, and definitional attempts have proved challenging, with wide variation in practice. This article explores how mental health social workers view their professional identity across practice contexts. Using a mixed-methods approach, 248 mental health social workers completed an online survey, and 30 undertook a subsequent semi-structured interview. Survey data were statistically analysed using Kruskal–Wallis H-tests to explore differences across settings. Qualitative interview data were analysed using a framework thematic approach. Participants demonstrated a strong but flexible professional identity, adopting a multifaceted, fluid sense of self that prioritised the aspect of identity most relevant to the context. Contrary to narratives of poor articulation, this was framed within a specialist knowledge- and values-based perspective that influenced practice approaches and accommodated context without requiring external validation. This fluidity suggests a need to move away from restrictive task-based definitions of social work in order to actively engage the workforce in developing professional roles that embrace this flexibility to offer holistic services.
