Social Work

Our Social Work publishing features books and journals that help to address issues arising from poverty, inequality and social injustice.

The list includes monographs, textbooks and practitioner guides, series, including Research in Social Work co-published with the European Social Work Research Association, and the Critical and Radical Social Work and European Social Work Research journals.

Policy Press is the leading UK book publisher for books on child abuse, child sexual exploitation, child protection and children’s social work.

Social Work

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The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social work has accelerated over the past few years, especially with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This development has had significant consequences for the field. As the use of ICTs has expanded, understanding the impact on social work practice has become crucial. This study’s aim is to synthesise the existing knowledge of ICT use in social work by presenting an overview of the current literature, including studies that have examined the use of ICTs and their identified consequences. A literature review of studies published from 2015 to 2024 was conducted within several databases. The initial search yielded 7,947 studies, 29 of which were included in the final review. The findings illustrate how the integration of ICTs into social work, shaped by organisational policies, client preferences, generational differences and external factors like the COVID-19 pandemic, offers such benefits as enhanced communication and improved time management. However, the incorporation of ICTs also introduces challenges related to professional boundaries, privacy and autonomy. We advocate carefully balancing the challenges of ICT use against core social work principles and conducting further research to bridge the gap between evolving technologies and ethical social work practices.

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Honneth draws attention to three conditions considered essential to support recognition: first, caring relationships producing self-confidence and agency; second, rights involving equal treatment for all, leading to self-respect and respect for and from other people; and, third, solidarity through community membership, involving self- and social esteem. Honneth’s works have been influential for many pieces of writing and research in social work. However, such endeavours have tended to neglect detailed consideration of the enactment of recognition in relation to social workers themselves. Therefore, a major aim of this article is to discuss critically the implications of recognition for practitioners within the structural and institutional context of the UK, including an examination of the role of care within social work organisations, as seen in individual supervision and mentoring. Recognition as solidarity and community is considered in the context of teams, colleagues, peer groups, professional associations and unions. Recognition of social workers’ rights is also explored in relation to minority groups and justice.

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Based on a Danish research project in child and family welfare services, we present reflections, exchanges and dialogue from workshops held at one national and four international conferences (please see details in the ‘Acknowledgements’). The article highlights shared discussions and perspectives on challenges across European countries by examining predictive risk modelling (PRM) technologies in evolving organisational contexts. We provide insights into implications for practice, research and policy based on how social work researchers envision the future of PRM.

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Using emerging themes from The Victoria Climbié Foundation UK’s advocacy casework service, this article highlights how child protection is failing predominantly Muslim children and mothers in cases linked to radicalism. The intention of the article is to highlight parallels between the actions of perpetrators of domestic abuse and those of social workers under the PREVENT duty as part of the UK government’s counter-terrorism policies. In considering some of the key indicators of domestic abuse, we highlight the way in which the state uses elements of manipulation, coercion and isolation in order to purportedly reduce the risk of radicalisation and protect the wider public. However, the counterpoint to this is the disproportionate and significant impact on children and mothers. Taking an intersectional perspective that considers the lived experience of those who are most significantly impacted by the PREVENT policy, we argue that understanding the interplay of race, religion, gender and age is important in cases where there is a risk of radicalism.

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Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and due to traditional values, social workers who provide support for vulnerable women in Iran must navigate within a system that often limits women’s agency and autonomy. Based on ten semi-structured interviews with experienced Iranian social workers, this article illuminates how women’s vulnerability and empowerment are perceived and how women’s vulnerability is addressed in the empowerment process. The findings offer valuable insights to enhance empowerment practice by reflecting on the impacts of cultural norms and values on women’s empowerment. They contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how social workers in Iran perceive and address vulnerability and empowerment.

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This article investigates the challenges faced by Palestinian minority social work students in Jewish practicum settings and the coping strategies they employ for those challenges. Qualitative research derived data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 Palestinian students. Two main challenges were described: (1) insensitivity to the students’ linguistic uniqueness/difference that alienated them from Jewish professional and administrative staff (accusing them of having difficulties with Hebrew and limiting their use of Arabic), hostility to their national uniqueness, opacity concerning their religious difference, and contempt for their different culture; and (2) Palestinian students are burdened with tasks beyond their academic duties, as they are required to juggle many roles, such as caregiver, interpreter and ‘culture broker’, and are required to organise bilingual community events. The interviewees developed five coping strategies: soul-searching/introspection mixed with self-blame; conscious self-censorship; mobilising a coalition for outspoken criticism; demanding change from within the service; and applying a change process.

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The work critically discusses the basis for enshrining care experience as a protected characteristic. Including care experience as a protected characteristic was a recommendation in an independent review, and now several local councils have voted to adopt this as policy. Despite this, there has been little discussion by social workers and academics of the extent to which care experience fulfils the criteria of having a stable definition, evidence of historical and enduring discrimination, and whether such legislative changes have been discussed with the care-experienced population. This research discusses the current evidence base, with reference to academic and grey literature, and finds that there is some fulfilment of the three tenets underpinning the UK Equality Act 2010. Crucially, while this is a means for care-experienced people to be legally recognised, there is a danger that without consultation, this could lead to misrecognition. Recommendations are made to improve the evidence base.

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The rise in mental health issues among young people in Norway led to the introduction of the Individual Placement and Support for Young Adults (IPS-Y) programme. Implemented across 47 labour and welfare offices, the programme targets 16- to 30-year-olds with mental health issues, focusing on employment and education. Individual Placement and Support (IPS) specialists, who are central to the programme, coordinate activities with employers, healthcare providers, welfare agencies and educational institutions. While standard IPS has been thoroughly evaluated, there is limited knowledge about the implementation of the IPS-Y programme. Based on four cases and 22 interviews, this qualitative study bridges this gap by examining the experiences of IPS specialists and collaborating partners, exploring how education functions within the model, and evaluating experiences with the young participants as a target group in the programme. The findings indicate that IPS specialists face challenges navigating the educational system due to its complexity and lack of efficient collaboration structures. IPS specialists are seen as engaged, filling gaps where the system fails and often extending beyond their intended role, as the young participants require extensive effort and flexibility. Our study underscores the need to develop effective collaboration structures for the success of the IPS-Y model.

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This article explores contemporary tensions between care and control dynamics within social work practice through the analysis of UK immigration and counter-terrorism policies. Drawing from qualitative research conducted to examine the impact of ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF), a legal condition for those subject to immigration control, alongside the PREVENT agenda, designed to identify those at risk of radicalisation, this article explores the violent consequences created in this context. Understanding social work as biopolitical, we utilise the concept of entanglement to interrogate how these policies are enacted within UK social work and the effect this has on the individuals and communities subject to them. By exploring the interplay of care and control within NRPF and PREVENT policies, we conclude that the ability of social workers to act in an anti-racist manner is detrimentally impacted by the entanglement of neo-colonial violence, the criminalisation of safeguarding and a politics of confusion.

Open access

Putting disabled people in charge of their own support was a central component of the UK personalisation agenda. Austerity, staff recruitment difficulties and local authority retrenchment have meant that the experience for disabled people has not always lived up to the rhetorical promise. In this context, disabled people with marginalised sexual and/or gender identities face difficult choices in everyday interactions of support that trouble the idea that control routinely sits with them. In this article, we draw on two research studies with disabled people who use self-directed support in which they discuss navigating gender and sexual identity. In both studies, there are opportunities for disabled people to draw on support that is empowering, but we also hear about ‘bad bargains’ that they are sometimes forced to make. We argue that the hard-won goals of choice and control are being degraded and confronting LGBTQI+ and non-binary disabled people with sometimes impossible dilemmas.

Open access