Social Work and the Community

A Critical Context for Practice

Keith Popple, Paul Stepney

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781403991263
• eBook ISBN: 9781350313255
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Travail social

How important is the notion of community to skilled social work?Thisbook explores how the concept relates to policy, theory and professional practice. With analysis of contemporary social problems throughout a variety of community settings, this book demonstrates how important community-based approaches are to all social workers today.

Part I

The Social Construction of Community

The first part of the book, from Chapters 1 to 3, considers a number of wider developments and contextual themes in our understanding of community.

In Chapter 1 of the book we provide an introduction to the idea of community before outlining its significance for the remainder of the book. The key aims of the book are outlined and in particular we establish why our arguments are important in this early part of the twenty-first century. We consider the way in which the shifting and changing nature of community has impacted on the development of social work since the end of the Second World War. We look at the way community has become a central theme in a number of TV and radio ‘soaps’ as well as being a powerful aspiration in the political sphere.

In Chapter 2 we argue that to appreciate and understand the enduring interest and appeal of the concept of community we need to explore the different, and at times contradictory and contested, theories that highlight the term. We do this by examining the contribution of community studies to our appreciation of the diversity and changing nature of community from the industrial revolution to the present time. We then explore how the British government has increasingly intervened in what is seen as deprived or dysfunctional communities in order to regenerate neighbourhoods and increase economic activity. We note that a constant feature in British social and public policy since the mid-1940s has been the focus on improving life in communities and neighbourhoods. We end by considering a highly topical study from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that examines the impact of economic migration of people from Eastern Europe on communities in the UK.

In Chapter 3 we are particularly concerned with globalisation and the policy of neo-liberalism that has had a significant impact upon levels of inequality and discrimination in local communities. We begin with an analysis of the impact of globalisation and neo-liberalism which stresses the value and the benefit of the economic free-market. We then move to examine how these have produced a range of inequalities, social problems and new patterns of exclusion that are presented through existing divisions of class, race and gender. Our concern then moves to the evolution of the UK’s new communities, by which we mean economic migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and ‘undocumented persons’. This is followed by consideration of what this means for rethinking community as a socially constructed concept. We conclude with the view that the notion of community, although associated with continuity and tradition in popular culture, has radically changed since the 1980s.

1

Introduction to the Idea of Community

Introduction

This book offers a critically progressive and we hope inspiring, contribution to contemporary social work theory and practice. It is primarily aimed at assisting a developing understanding of the relationship between social work and the concept of community. It is written and published at a significant time in the development of UK social work, and social work education, which in our view has much to gain from community-based approaches. The book seeks to effectively engage with the complex social problems inherent in a twenty-first century postmodern society that has closely adhered to the demands of globalisation and neo-liberal economics.

Social work practice is presently experiencing the challenge of the government’s agenda for the modernisation of public sector services, the expansion of a mixed economy of welfare, and the changing organisation of social work and social care services for children and families and for vulnerable people. In the early part of the twenty-first century Lord Laming’s report on the tragic circumstances surrounding the death in 2000 of Victoria Climbié (Department of Health and Home Office, 2003), followed by the publication of the Government Green Paper Every Child Matters (Department for Education and Skills, 2004) which determined the framework for Children’s Services after the Laming Report, and the Children Act 2004 which implemented Every Child Matters, bringing together Education and Child and Family Social Work into a Children’s Services structure, have all shaped services for children and young people. These children services are focused on improving protection, and balancing protection with prevention, in order to enhance the quality of care and improve children and young people’s life chances.

The priorities for adult services are set to promote independence, improve consistency and provide user centred services. The National Framework for Older People (Department of Health, 2001, 2006b) has demanded that health and social services work together to improve the quality of services for older people in their own home, in residential care and in hospitals. This has been accompanied by the claim that the UK is facing a ‘crisis in care’ (Brindle, 2007) due to demographic changes, particularly the rise in the number of very old people in the population, greater geographical mobility, increasing divorce and more women in the labour market and therefore less available to care. At the same time there have been moves to introduce new thinking into the public and private pension systems (Department of Work and Pensions, 2006).

In the field of social work education, qualifying undergraduate and master degrees have replaced the Diploma in Social Work, and the General Social Care Council has been established to inspect and regulate social work programmes, to register social workers and to uphold sound professional standards. The Social Care Institute for Excellence has been established to commission and disseminate a developing knowledge base and to promote best practice in social care services. Social work post-qualifying (PQ) education has been given a boost with the Department of Health restating the view that all practitioners should undertake Continuous Professional Development (CPD) through one of the many approved PQ training courses.

At the same time government social policy has focused on social inclusion, community regeneration and sustainability, partnership working, multidisciplinary collaboration and the development of responsible citizenship. This was reinforced in 2006 with the introduction of the Respect Action Plan (Blair, 2006) to promote community cohesion and tackle anti-social behaviour. Considerable resources have been allocated to the prevention of family problems with initiatives such as Sure Start, which in the first phase emphasised the role of community in the reduction of disadvantage in the poorest areas (Glass, 2005, cited in Quinney, 2006, p. 92). Other developments that have been designed to address social exclusion at the neighbourhood level include the Social Exclusion Unit, which was abandoned in May 2006 in favour of the Social Exclusion Task Force, and the New Deal for Communities. However, as we will see these community-based social inclusion initiatives have had little impact in the fields of social work practice and social work education.

In response to this shifting scenario we have written Social Work and the Community: A Critical Context for Practice in which we explore the antecedents of community and social work, discuss and reflect upon the contemporary situation, and consider the future of social work in the UK and how it might gain from a re-examination of its role and purpose.

It is our contention that contemporary social work is facing a changing and problematic landscape. Modernisation has positioned social work as less involved in the enabling role in the community, and more associated with risk assessment and resource management. Some believe that the ‘soul’ has been stripped out of social work, or at best, the profession can be said to have lost its way (Butler and Drakeford, 2005a). Certainly the profession is increasingly being forced to operate within the government agenda of containment and management of the poor and excluded. Although the UK is considered to have one of the most powerful economies in the world and today’s society is relatively wealthy and prosperous, there continues to be large sections of the community who are not sharing in this prosperity, and the gap between the most prosperous and the poorest continues to widen. Internationally, the gains that derive from the global market have brought losses for many groups and communities.

The government’s own figures indicate 12 million people, which is just under a quarter of the UK population, now live in poverty. This is not a new phenomenon as during the period the Conservatives were in power (1979–1997) the proportion of people living in households below 50% of average income rose from 9% to 24% (Department of Work and Pensions, 2005). These figures are borne out by the findings from a Joseph Rown-tree Foundation study that show that Britain is moving back towards levels of wealth and poverty last seen before 1968 (Dorling et al., 2007). Although New Labour has attempted to reduce poverty with its policy of increasing Child Benefit, and the introduction and changes to the Working Families Tax Credit and the Children’s Tax Credit, benefits for adults have become increasingly conditional upon meeting income and other work tests. New Labour philosophy has centred upon a policy of ‘welfare to work’ with a primary focus on paid work and entrance into the labour market as a means of combating poverty and reducing social exclusion. However, despite the government’s attempts to ‘give a hand-up and not a hand-out’ there has been an increasing demand for personal social services as the UK faces an ageing population (the over 85-year-old segment of the population is considered to be the fastest growing of all age groups, and by 2051, 25% of the population will be over 65 (Department of Health, 2006b)). This has occurred at a time when there has been a decline in the value of real pensions and the introduction of a pension credit scheme which appears to benefit those reasonably well off by giving people who have saved for retirement additional financial reward; social and family fragmentation; the increasing cost of community care; and widening economic inequality. Alongside this there has been a failure of education polices to satisfactorily improve the outcomes for the lowest deciles of children and their opportunity to secure either a place in higher education or satisfactory, well-paid employment on leaving school (Walton, 2005).

Key Aims

It is against this shifting and disquieting background that we have written this book. One of our central tenets is to argue the need for both statutory and voluntary sector social work to reconnect with the communities that it is intended to serve. Without doubt we can claim that there are difficult and challenging times for social work and in embracing this we have set for ourselves seven key aims:

1.To offer a clear and coherent understanding and analysis of the importance of community in social work activity.

2.To provide a theoretical understanding for the location of community in contemporary practice and to analyse the significance of the term community as a central organising focus for social policy, both locally and globally.

3.To discuss the role of community in shaping the recent historical development of social work and social care.

4.To explore the way community might be used as a basis for developing anti-racist, anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice including work with refugees and asylum-seekers.

5.To examine the potential for social workers to contribute to the creation of more environmentally sustainable communities.

6.To consider future prospect and scenarios for social work in the community, working collaboratively with other professionals across different organisational boundaries.

7.To construct possibilities for promoting progressive practice in social work and allied professions in an international context.

The Concept of Community

The concept of community has always occupied an important place in the development of British social work as well as in its contemporary theory and practice. Although as we will later see the term may be considered contested and contradictory, there is no doubt that in relation to social work, community has enjoyed a position of some significance. For example, Eileen Younghusband’s report on the role of social workers in local authority health and welfare services identified community work as one of the three key constituents of social work. The other two approaches were acknowledged as case work and group work (Younghusband, 1959). Later the influential Seebohm Report (1968), which recommended the establishment of ‘generic’ local authority social work services in England and Wales, contained a complete chapter entitled ‘community’. The Seebohm Report led to the reorganisation of social services with the recognition that community was an important element that needed involvement and consultation when delivering effective services. Nearly a decade and a half later the report of the Barclay Committee (1982) was to re-emphasise the case for an approach to social work based upon local, neighbourhood, decentralised strategies which advocated social workers practicing as close as could be possible to service users in what was known as ‘patch’ based work. In both the Seebohm and Barclay Reports community was seen as a source of mutual support and assistance. Six years later the reports by Wagner (1988) and Griffiths Report (1988) were to encourage more appropriate social care in the community. More recently there has been a recognition that the time to take seriously community in social work is now with us and that it might form the basis for promoting well-being, solidarity and respect (Jordan, 2007).

Defining the concept of community has never been straightforward. However, it is important to consider the concept in a little more detail as it provides us with key indicators as to why it has retained such a significant influence in social work.

At the core of the problem of defining community lies a paradox that the term is as much an aspiration as it is a reality. Nevertheless it is clear that the term community does have significant resonance for many people. Politicians of all parties have not been slow in realising this often using the term when wanting to best demonstrate their credentials to the often sceptical and critical voting public, or when calling for a consensus after difficult or contentious issues or events. For example, at the Labour Party Annual Conference in 1998 Prime Minister Tony Blair used community as the theme of his keynote speech talking of ‘One Nation. One Community.’ . . . ‘The crude individualism of the 80s is the mood no longer. The spirit of the times is community.’ Again, after the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001 Blair used his Conference speech to restate the role of the community ‘asserting itself’ to bring people together in troubled times.

Community has been the central theme in a number of long running TV ‘soaps’ such as East Enders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and ‘The Archers’ on BBC Radio 4. In these fictitious neighbourhoods many of life’s dramas and issues are played out to a keenly waiting public. ‘Soaps’ run a number of credible and simultaneous story lines, that provide viewers or listeners with both entertainment and education. So that issues such as teenage pregnancy, divorce, non-school attendance, the death of an elderly member of the ‘community’, alcohol and drug misuse, marital abuse and gay/lesbian relationships are used to reflect societies understanding of them as well as to consider strategies for coping with the resultant responses. The role of the neighbourhood or community is important in this context as it provides the everyday background (e.g. the pub, the small local convenience shop, the community centre, the local school) to the presenting issues and problems. The sociologist Hobson (2002) has argued that it would be a mistake to dismiss the ‘soaps’ as escapist and she reiterates the view above that to be successful the story lines have to connect with the audience’s own experiences in their local communities.

Returning to the challenge of defining community it is helpful here to consider it in three different ways. The first is to recognise that when using the term community we can be looking backwards, maybe to a period in our own lives when even as the social scientists, social workers or the policy makers we are now, we might claim there existed a ‘better’ and more contented time. In echoes of Young and Willmott’s classic study (1957) of Bethnal Green in London, perhaps it was a time when we knew our neighbours, we could walk or cycle safely to school, and when we could play out till dusk in a relatively risk-free neighbourhood. In one sense it feels like a paradise lost; a time of long summers and of people helping each other. The reality is that this version of community where the grass seemed greener, the light brighter and the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Part I: The Social Construction of Community
• Part II: Community as an Area of Social Policy
• Part III: Social Work and the Community: From Theory to Practice
• Bibliography
• Index