This collection charts the key developments in the social work field from 1970 to the present day and shows how by fully understanding social work’s past, we can make better progress for practitioners and service users in the future.
It brings together a broad collection of experts from across social work who trace how thinking and approaches to practice have changed over time, examine key legislative developments in the field, look at the impacts of major inquiries and consider the re-emergence of certain specialisms.
Providing students and practitioners of social work and social policy with a full picture of the evolution of social work, it also shares important insights for its future directions.
Rogowski’s second edition of this bestselling textbook responds to the major changes to social work practice since the first edition was published. It is fully revised and updated to include new material that is essential for students and practising social workers today.
Taking a critical perspective, Rogowski evaluates social work’s development, nature and rationale over approximately 150 years. He explores how neoliberalism is at the core of the profession’s crisis and calls for progressive, critical and radical changes to social work policy and practices based on social justice and social change.
This new edition is substantially updated to explore:
• the impact of austerity policies since 2010;
• failures to realise the progressive possibilities which followed the death of ‘Baby P’;
• contemporary examples of critical and radical practice.
It also includes a range of student-friendly features including chapter summaries, key learning and discussion points, and further reading.
97 6 Practising social work Guy Shennan Introduction: a practitioner’s account Given the nature of social work, with all its messiness, it might be fitting to begin a chapter on changes in social work practice since 1970 with something of a paradox. The logician Irving Copi presented the philosophical problem of identity (in the sense of sameness) across time via the following two statements about change, each of which appears to be true, but inconsistent with the other. 1. If a changing thing really changes, there can’t literally be one and the same thing
5 1 Social work in 1970 Keith Bilton Social work in 1970 was practised in many settings. In the public sector there were social welfare officers, mental welfare officers and child care officers, based, respectively, in local authority welfare, health and children’s departments. Education departments employed social workers in child guidance clinics, and also education welfare officers and youth and community workers. The National Health Service (NHS) employed social workers in its hospitals. Probation officers serving the courts were also social workers
173 10 Social work with offenders Terry Bamford I spent eight years in the probation service when the traditional duty to ‘advise, assist and befriend’ still applied. The words, taken from the 1907 Probation of Offenders Act, described the approach of probation for most of the 20th century. The Morison Committee (Morison, 1962) had reaffirmed the probation role as one of treatment, rehabilitation and reformation. Latterly, public protection, risk assessment and offender management have become the words used by government and the leaders of the service
90 FIVE The professionalisation of social work? Chapter summary Professional social work’s zenith came under Thatcherite attack because of the alleged incompetence of practitioners and their radicalism. As a result, professional education increasingly moved to a concern with training and competencies as employers became more influential in the Central Council for the Education and Training in Social Work. This continued under New Labour, despite the introduction of the social work degree and an emphasis on continuing professional development. Key learning
Taking a critical and radical approach, this book calls for a return to mental health social work that has personal relationships and an emotional connection between workers and those experiencing distress at its core.
The optimism that underpinned the development of community care policies has dissipated to be replaced by a form of bleak managerialism. Neoliberalism has added stress to services already under great pressure and created a danger that we could revert to institutional forms of care.
This much-needed book argues that the original progressive values of community care policies need to be rediscovered, updated and reinvigorated to provide a basis for a mental health social work that returns to fundamental notions of dignity and citizenship.
Drawing on a range of theorists and competing perspectives, this substantially updated and expanded second edition places social theory at the heart of social work pedagogy.
This book imaginatively explores ways in which practitioners and social work educators might develop more critical and radical ways of theorising and working. It is an invaluable resource for students and contains features, such as Reflection and Talk Boxes, to encourage classroom and workplace discussions.
This new edition includes:
· An extensive additional chapter on Foucault
· Reworked and expanded versions of the chapters featured in the highly-praised first edition
· Revised Reflection and Talk Boxes
· New and updated references to stimulate further reading and research
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed fresh light on the ways that social media and digital technologies can be effectively harnessed to support relationship-based social work practice. However, it has also highlighted the complex risks, ethics and practical challenges that such technologies pose.
This book helps practitioners and students navigate this complex terrain and explore and build upon its multiple opportunities. It uses real-life examples to examine how practitioners can assess the impact of new technologies on their professional conduct and use them in a way that enhance public confidence and relationship-based practice.
The authors explore how digital technologies can support multiple areas of service including social work with children, families and adults, mental health social work, youth justice and working with online communities. They also consider regulatory questions and provide a roadmap for good practice.
Involved in educating social work professionals? Overwhelmed and demoralised by the current climate of cuts to services and over-regulation? This unique book written by practice educators, students and academics offers hope.
This collection of innovative approaches to social work placements addresses subjects including sustainability, student-led services, overseas placements, the value of the third-sector, supporting students from minority groups and the visual arts. The international and diverse contributions offer practical guidance and challenge conventional approaches to placement finding, teaching and assessment in field education.
Written from a global social work perspective this is essential reading for anyone responsible for ensuring quality placements for future professionals.
