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.
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.
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
111 SIX Managerialism and the social work business Chapter summary The rise of managerialism and the social work business under Thatcherite and New Labour governments were based on neoliberal themes of economic competitiveness, social policy being subsumed to the needs of the economy, limited government/state intervention, and controlling public expenditure. From this, managerialism aims to control what social workers do and how, while the social work business is concerned with reducing public spending and extending market forces into social work/care. Key
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
Exploring various aspects of social work from an anthropological perspective, this original book uses an ‘outsider’ position to develop a reflexive dialogue with social workers from England and elsewhere in Europe.
Bell, an anthropologist, worked alongside social work educators and social workers for many years. She widens our insights into social work by offering thought-provoking examples suggesting how social work practitioners view their occupation and their practice, and how wider society views them.
Blending research and personal reflection to critically examine social workers’ preoccupations and contributions to society, the author explores identities and definitions in social work, making this book refreshing reading for academics, researchers, students and practitioners.
What is the relationship between social work and the state? Who controls which services needs are addressed and how? This important book looks at social work responses in different countries to extreme social, economic and political situations in order to answer these questions. Examples include: war situations, military regimes, earthquakes and Tsunamis. The results show the innovative nature of grass-roots provision and social work intervention and will be of interest to all social work academics, students and professionals.
1 ONE Introduction: The rise and fall of social work? Chapter summary Broad preliminary considerations such as Enlightenment and modernity, political, economic and ideological issues, and the challenges from postmodernism are considered here, as well as aspects of my social work biography. The chapter also deals with the structure and organisation of the book including social work’s beginnings, its zenith in the 1970s, and developments since then as neoliberalism took hold and continues. Key learning points • Despite many challenges, social work remains a
