Becoming a Social Worker

A Guide for Students

Caroline Humphrey

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781849200585, 9781849200578
• eBook ISBN: 9781446241448
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Travail social

This book explores the journey of becoming a social worker. It is based upon the experiences of social work students themselves and therefore provides a unique ?inside-out? perspective. By showing that personal, professional and political elements are interwoven in students? journeys, the author demonstrates that integrating these elements is vital to critical reflection and relationship-based social work. Content includes social work theory, therapeutic and risk-management interventions, emotional and ethical aspects of practice, political and cultural contexts of practice, and issues around supervision and assessment. The book also :

" includes introductions, real-life case study exercises, points for reflection, diagrams and tables, further reading and resources

" equips new students to reflect upon their own journeying and to learn more effectively from modules and placements

" provides case study material on all aspects of placements such as meeting Key Roles and value requirements

" covers career pathways for final year students, including guidance on dealing with job interviews and occupational stress

This is important reading across a range of modules and will be particularly valuable for new students and students on placement.

Part 1

Becoming a Social Worker in Training

1

Social Work in the UK

Introduction

1.1 A Short History of Social Work

1.1.1 The Origins of Social Work

1.1.2 The Welfare State

1.1.3 Into the New Millennium

1.2 Surveying the Contemporary Landscape

1.2.1 The Organisation of Social Work

1.2.2 Social Workers and Educators

1.2.3 Service Users and Carers

1.3 Official Requirements for Education and Practice

1.4 The Nature of Professional Education

Points to Remember and Questions to Ponder

Further Reading and Resources

Introduction

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This chapter provides an introduction to social work in the UK. We start by considering the history of the profession, which emerged from diverse origins in the nineteenth century, and then became part of a centralised welfare state apparatus in the twentieth century. We will then survey the contemporary landscape to show that social work in the twenty-first century is embedded in diverse organisations, and core terminology around sectors, staff and service users will be clarified. In section 1.3 the official knowledge, skills and values requirements for social work will be summarised in the text and in tables. The final section explains some of the debates which have been reshaping professional education – this will help to prepare you for your role as adult learners.

1.1 A Short History of Social Work

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The history of social work in the UK is characterised by its commitment to the most vulnerable people in society and by the competing agendas for social care, social control and social change which come into play when we ask: why do people fall by the wayside and how can we help them?

1.1.1 The Origins of Social Work

Social work emerged as one of the by-products of the modern capitalist economy. The Industrial Revolution resulted in a mass migration to cities for work and ruptured many family and community bonds, so that when people became unemployed as a result of economic crises or disability they could become isolated, impoverished and homeless. Three types of responses to these predicaments can be identified, each with its own distinctive ideological bias.

First, the Poor Law refers to the institutions established by local government officials to contain those who were unable to fend for themselves in the capitalist economy. These included workhouses for able-bodied people who were homeless and jobless; alms houses for elderly and disabled people who were unable to work; houses of correction for delinquent youths; and orphanages for children (Payne, 2005a). The Poor Law was initiated in 1601 but as the numbers of vulnerable citizens grew century by century, it developed a more punitive ethos to deter people from entering the system. It reflected a conservative ideology insofar as local politicians sought to conserve the status quo whilst providing a safety net to care for and contain the socially excluded. The capitalist ideal was that of self-sufficiency whereby everyone should provide for themselves and their family, but the capitalist system required social order, and hence the containment of people who might otherwise be at liberty to disrupt this social order by vagrancy, criminality or insurrection. So the agenda for social care was allied to the agenda for social control (Mooney, 1998).

Second, a plethora of charities were established by Christian philanthropists in the late nineteenth century. They specialised in one-to-one casework with people who had fallen by the wayside on account of problems ranging from alcohol dependence to prostitution, although this was often supplemented by practical handouts in the form of food, blankets and other necessities of life. Most philanthropists assumed that such problems were rooted in defects in the character of individuals rather than defects in the constitution of society. Consequently, casework was governed by a conservative morality, with people being exhorted to change their lifestyles in the direction of continence and chastity (Woodroofe, 1961). But some philanthropists became critical of the wider society, leading them towards a more radical conception of social problems. For example, the NSPCC was known for its criticism of gender ideologies which vaunted male superiority. NSPCC officers uncovered domestic violence against women, physical abuse of children within families and sexual abuse of teenagers on the streets, most of which was perpetrated by men (Corby, 2005).

Third, a settlement movement developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some wealthy individuals purchased land and property in inner-city areas where they could house homeless families, and where they offered crèches for children and day centres for elderly and disabled people. This marked the beginning of community work as they recognised the value of building supportive communities around people rather than confining them to harsh institutions or offering moral tutelage alongside charitable handouts (Popple, 1995). Several of the benefactors and student volunteers were active in the socialist and feminist movements where they campaigned for social justice and gender equality (Auchmuty, 1989). Here, the agenda for social care is allied to the agenda for social change. In other words, it is not enough to provide a safety net if society continues to spawn the same problems, so radical social workers campaign for changes in social structures and cultures (Langan and Lee, 1989; Stepney and Popple, 2008).

1.1.2 The Welfare State

In the early twentieth century, social work became a recognisable profession with its own training programmes, and several specialist branches flourished within the profession (Payne, 2005a). In the mid-twentieth century, social services became one arm of the welfare state which was set up within the wider project of reconstructing the nation after the Second World War (Lewis, 1998). Initially, it was assumed that the need for social work would be minimal as a result of new institutions and policies designed to provide education, health care, employment and social security for all. In fact, the need for social services continued to grow so that by the 1970s there was a large bureaucratic apparatus to deal with social problems – Social Services Departments in England and Wales; Social Work Departments in Scotland; and Health and Social Services Boards in Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, demand for services continued to be greater than supply. Why was this?

At least three answers can be offered. First, the capitalist economy itself generates massive inequalities of income, wealth and life chances along with spiralling forms of social exclusion, so that at any one time a significant proportion of the population may need additional support (Pierson, 2002). Second, modernity is characterised by perpetual change which brings as many difficulties as it resolves. For example, improvements in health and medicine have brought about increased longevity, but many elderly people living with chronic disease or disability now require long-term specialist care (Bernard and Scharf, 2007). Third, evolution in human psychology tends to lag behind evolution in technology, so that age-old problems such as child abuse can be reproduced across all classes even when material conditions improve (Miller, 1987).

In the late twentieth century, social work was challenged on all fronts. Some were welcome challenges, notably the movement to deinstitutionalise mentally ill and mentally handicapped people and to rehabilitate them within supervised community settings (cf. Goffman, 1961; Jay Committee, 1979). Some challenges were greeted with ambivalence. In child care, the pendulum swung between prevention and protection as child abuse tragedies unfolded (Parton, 1991) and in adult care, social workers became care managers charged with securing the best value-for-money services within new welfare markets (Payne, 1995). But resource cutbacks compromised the chances of effectively implementing any reforms; instead a new managerialism developed to pressurise staff into delivering ‘more for less’ (Audit Commission, 1995). Economic cutbacks can reflect a lack of political commitment to social work and social problems; New Right governments objected to the ‘nanny state’ and preached the virtues of self-sufficiency (Clarke et al., 1987). It is not surprising that during this period social work underwent a further radicalisation in its fight for truth, justice and even its own survival as a social profession. This is encapsulated in its adherence to anti-oppressive practice (Dominelli, 1997, 2002) and its engagement with critical social movements (Humphrey, 2002). Social workers spend most of their working lives with citizens who are structurally and culturally excluded from mainstream society which makes them critical of the political economy as well as ideologies rooted in individualism. The profession also attracts people from subordinated groups, including disabled people, black and minority ethnic people, lesbians and gay men, who have suffered discrimination. So for many social workers anti-oppressive practice reflects their personal experiences and political convictions as well as their professional values.

1.1.3 Into the New Millennium

The New Labour governments which took us into the new millennium were supportive of social work in principle but sought to modernise it in practice; politicians invested money into the profession and into a range of organisations charged with developing and monitoring ‘best practice’ (cf. DH, 1998; Humphrey, 2003). Social work has been the subject of a wide-ranging review as key stakeholders try to work out the balance between prevention and intervention and to ensure that adequate staff and services are in place to meet the needs of future generations (Scottish Executive, 2006; Blewett et al., 2007; Welsh Assembly Government, 2007). One of the most important ideological shifts pertains to the recognition of service users and their user-led organisations as key stakeholders in the future development of social work – as Peter Beresford points out, without this, anti-oppressive practice is more of a rhetorical word than a living reality (Beresford, 2000, 2007).

Beyond this, the effects of globalisation have filtered through to social work in the UK. Students from overseas may come to UK universities to study social work and there are international exchanges so that some students may undertake placements in other countries (Dominelli and Bernard, 2003). Qualified social workers may migrate to other countries for work, although they usually need additional training to learn the language and the law (Healy, 2001). It is clear from research into international social work that although there is a family resemblance between the forms taken by social work, there is also variation in the ways it has been constructed (cf. Payne, 2005a; Lawrence et al., 2009). For example, in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, social work is still closely linked to indigenous religious and spiritual traditions, but in the UK it has become part of a secular and scientific modernity. Students and practitioners need to be mindful of such matters, given that the UK is home to many minority ethnic communities as well as asylum seekers and refugees from across the globe.

1.2 Surveying the Contemporary Landscape

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Familiarity with the organisation of social work is essential for students on placement, and familiarity with core terminology will equip students to think, talk and write about social work more clearly.

1.2.1 The Organisation of Social Work

In the UK, social workers and social care workers are employed in two broad types of settings known as ‘the statutory sector’ and ‘the independent sector’. The statutory sector refers to organisations which have been established by statute (i.e. by Act of Parliament) to deliver services to citizens, and it includes central government, local government, the legal system, health care and education. Devolution in the UK during the 1990s – whereby each of the four countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland acquired its own distinct government – means that there is increasing scope for intercountry variation in the organisation of social services. In Northern Ireland, there is an integration of health and social work in Health and Social Care Trusts which cater for adults and children and operate independently of the local government apparatus. Elsewhere, statutory social work is largely based in local government, although some social workers in the statutory sector are employed in multi-professional teams outside of local government – for example, in courts or hospitals. Local government in Scotland is the home to Social Work Departments which deal with children, adults and offenders; Welsh local authorities also combine adult and child care services. There is an institutional segregation between statutory services for children and adults in England. Child care social work is based in Children’s Services Authorities which combine education and social work, whilst multi-professional practice more generally has been consolidated by the establishment of Children’s Trusts and Local Safeguarding Children Boards (Df ES, 2004; HM Government, 2007a, 2010). Adult care social work is based in another branch of local ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• Preface
• Part 1: Becoming a Social Worker in Training
• Part 2: Integrating Knowledge, Skills and Values
• Part 3: Becoming a Qualified Practitioner
• Appendix
• References
• Index