The Future of Social WorkDefining and Refining the Roles and Tasks of Social Work in the 21st Century and The Social Work Taskforce

Nigel Horner – Deputy Head of School of Health and Social Care

The Session Locating Social Work’s Life expectancy Can we do anything about it? What’s on the Horizon? Understanding Social Work as a Role, and as a

Profession The Link with Health: Les Liaisons Dangereuses The Future Agenda Other models: Holland and Russia The Radical Critique: RSA and UK

Have we been here before? “……..towards answering the question about the

future role of social work in welfare. The approach I have taken flows from some very quick study of the futurology of social work…… For those of you who are interested, the fare ranges from prophets of doom and disaster, the annihilation of the social worker, the absolute end of the social work profession, to statements of confidence and commitment and prestige in all kinds of areas”

(David Green, Australian Social Work, 1979)

Can We Do Anything About It? Is this inevitable? “Here is Edward Bear…………….coming

downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it”

A A Milne, 1926:1

Roles and Tasks of Social Work in England (GSCC, 2007) Generated by GSCC, with SCIE, SfC,

CWDC, CSCI and OfSTED We believe that social workers share a

distinct set of knowledge, skills and values which are vital to helping improve community well being and enhancing the opportunities of marginalized and excluded people and groups

Core Features of Social Work Social work is a world-wide profession with a

common core It has explicit values and principles which inform

professional judgements on need, risk etc: It has an expanding knowledge base for practice,

integrating research, practitioner and user expertise It applies “social model” approaches to understand

barriers to fulfilled lives

Roles and Tasks It operates in a collaborative way with individuals,

families and groups, and is not a clinical activity; It operates with people in situations of complexity,

uncertainty, risk, stress, trauma, threatened or conflicting interests, and major life change; and

These core roles and tasks are deployed in a diversity of settings

Social work is done with the individual, not to or for

Taskforce findings Our vision for social work is a profession: confident about its values, purpose and identity; working in partnership with people who use its services, so that they can take control of their situation and improve the outcome; working cohesively with other professions and agencies in the best interests of people in need of support; demonstrating its impact and effectiveness and, therefore, its value to the public; committed to continuous improvement, with the training and resources it needs to be effective and a vigorous culture of professional development; understood and supported by employers, educators, government, other professionals and the wider public; and well led at every level: in frontline practice; in influencing the shape and priorities of local services; in setting and maintaining the highest possible standards within the profession; and in influencing policy developments and priorities at national and political level.

Taskforce Themes Theme one: We have been told that social workers feel they do not have

enough time to devote directly to the people they want to help. They feel overstretched by staff shortages and tied up in bureaucracy.

Theme two: We have been told that social workers feel very frustrated by some of the tools and support they are given to do their jobs.

Theme three: We have been told that new social workers are often not properly prepared for the demands of the job and that the education system does not effectively support ongoing development and specialisation.

Theme four: We have been told that the social workers do not feel that their profession speaks with a strong national voice or is well supported at national level.

Theme five: We have been told that systems for managing the performance of social workers are not driving quality first and foremost.

Theme six: We have been told that the social workers feel that their profession is undervalued, poorly understood and under continuous media attack. This is making it hard for them to do their jobs and hard to attract people into the profession.

Social Work Taskforce: Interim Report 2009

Recommendations from the report include:• The creation of a national college for social work Based on the "royal college" model in medicine or Occupational Therapy, the national college would speak to the media about the profession, represent frontline professionals in policy debates and develop practice and training standards.

Greater partnership between employers and educators for the improvement of social work educationAssuring the quality of entrants to the profession, and CPD culture

• Clearer career and progression structure Rewarding frontline expertise as with Senior Teachers, Clinical Psychologists etc: • A much more sophisticated understanding of supply and demand National Workforce Planning issues

Securing the resources social workers need to be effective Time, Technology, Supervision, Training, Research

The NHS Workforce Plan The Skills Escalator is the primary vehicle for the Workforce

Strategy in the NHS Plan Its elements are: 1. Workforce Planning2. Pay structures3. Regulation4. Education and Training Its objective is to develop a coherent and integrated Escalator

across Health and Social Care. The Children’s Workforce Strategy has parallel objectives

The NHS Skills Escalator Framework ………………..a very brief summary

LEVELS QUALIFICATIONS Consultant Higher degrees Expert Registered Practitioner Degrees Skilled Assistant NVQs and Higher NVQs Cadet/ Starter Entry Level Orientation

The Future Agenda

Occupational Standards for Practitioners……but not “profession” specific?

So if w define a level of competence for particular mental health role, who can do it? Medic? Psychologist? Social Worker? OT? Mental Health Nurse? Psychotherapist? Counsellor?

This is a battle between post modern employers and traditional / feudal guilds………..and where does the service user fit?

Professional Autonomy? Employers shape the roles social workers undertake, but How the prescribed roles are undertaken can either be

prescribed as a “technical activity” or will be an individual professional responsibility, by accountability to the regulator and the person receiving the service

There is tension between the need for greater clarity in defining roles and tasks, and to maintaining the holistic, person – centred and flexible basis for social work relationships with individuals, their families and carers

What Roles and Tasks should be reserved

for registered Social Workers? A registered and experienced social worker should always

be involved in safeguarding the well being of, and assessing, planning and managing delivery of any intervention of service required, for children, adults and families:

1. In need of protection or safeguarding/ in danger of exploitation or significant harm;

2. Likely to cause significant harm to themselves or other people;

3. Unable to exercise mental capacity or provide informed consent;

4. Whose future home, care or custody arrangements are disputed

The Intellectual Attributes? Braye and Preston –Shoot (2004) argue that social

workers should not only be competent technicians, who are good fixers, but also critical thinkers – well rounded professionals with knowledge, judgement and wisdom to address strategy issues.

In other words, Social Workers need rational – technical skills within the given status quo, and the capabilities arising from a post modernist critique to “think outside the box”, to make creative links, to embrace flexibility, flux and uncertainty.

The Epochs of Social Work Practice Service provision has been dominated by the

following successive models: 1. Welfarism – social democratic paternalism2. Professionalism – emphasising expertise and professional

authority3. Consumerism – focusing on the service user and the

customer4. Managerialism – privileging managerialist sand

economic/business concerns 5. Participationism – stressing more equal partnerships

between service users, carers and service providers

Epochs and Knowledge The knowledge base is clearest in the Professionalism

phase, because it is one – way – top – down, and imposed;

“to understand social work, therefore, we must understand how knowledge is validated within the profession” (Askeland and Payne, 2001)

BUT….most social work “knowledge” about service users applies equally to teachers, psychologists, doctors, nurses etc:

It is the “knowledge about practice” that is distinctive to Social Work, and therefore it is a “practice discipline”

Russia and Holland Boat repairs and Social Work

practice: a case example from Amsterdam

Knowing the neighbourhood and supported living in the community: a case example from Nizhni Novgorod

The Big Picture “Social work bases its methodology on a

systematic body of evidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation, including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context.” (IFSW News, 2/2000).

SOCIAL WORK MANIFESTO: A STATEMENT BY THE FINAL YEAR STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, SOUTH AFRICA. October 2009 We entered the social work profession because of a commitment to social justice, in

order to challenge poverty and discrimination and to bring about positive change. We did not enter social work to be care managers, supervisors of service users or dispensers of community punishment. We did not enter social work to maintain the status quo. We chose social work because we wanted to make a positive contribution to the lives of the poor and oppressed.

Today social work is shaped by managerialism; fragmentation of services; financial restrictions; lack of resources, bureaucracy and unmanageable workloads. Client-worker relationships are characterized by control and supervision rather than care. We find ourselves in difficult working conditions, being office-bound due to bureaucratic and administrative demands and unable to work with service users in the way that we believe is right. And so as social workers we leave the profession disillusioned and demotivated.

We believe that there is an alternative. Social workers need to be active and involved in social movements. Social workers must be engaged in anti-capitalist efforts. We want to return to a focus on grassroots empowerment of those that are poor and oppressed. Values that should be held include solidarity, accountability, participation, justice, liberty, diversity and equality.

We need to organize ourselves collectively. We need to be conscientised and we need to be willing to challenge the structures that contribute to the failure of social work to achieve its vision. The vision of social work for a better society must be defended.

Social, Work After Baby “P”: Iain Ferguson and Michael Lavalette (April 2009) (www.socialworkfuture.org)

“Managerialism is primarily concerned with bringing the values and practices of private sector management (in reality a wholly idealised and inaccurate version of these practices) into the public sector in general, and social work and social care in particular. Managers, operating within the parameters of “economy, efficiency and effectiveness”, were depicted by the Audit Commission as the “Bolsheviks” of the managerial revolution, which would revitalise what was seen as a “failing profession”. They would do this by: putting in place a strategic vision (usually in the form of a mission statement); introducing common values, which in practice means identification with the organisation, rather than with core social work values; refashioning clients as “customers” and emphasising “customer care”, in reality complaints procedures; an emphasis on “performance review”, through inspectorates such as Ofsted; much tighter budgetary procedures, based on the view that efficient management, not increased resources, is the key to quality services; and “clear leadership”, or in other words, stronger managerial structures”

See “Social Work and Social Justice: A Manifesto for a New Engaged Practice”