Children's social work at the crossroads

Pages69-71
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-09-2017-0040
Published date18 September 2017
Date18 September 2017
AuthorDavid Shemmings,Michael Little
Subject MatterHealth & social care,Vulnerable groups,Children's services,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Children/youth,Parents,Education,Early childhood education,Home culture,Social/physical development
David Shemmings and Michael Little
Childrens social work at the crossroads
We could say that social work for children is at the crossroads. Perhaps it has always been thus.
At least in England. Here there is a lot of despondency about the profession; indeed, there is
much despondency about all of the professions. The challenges are well charted in the pages
that follow. But there is also much innovation and development, and some commentators are
highly optimistic about the future.
We felt, therefore, that it was time to catch our breath, take stock and bring together a broad
spectrum of social workers, their managers, government policy makers and academics to report
on their innovations, thoughts, research and other experiences. Most but not all of the
contributors to this double special edition of the journal are from the UK, and in the main they
write about the situation in England. But the opportunities and challenges about which they write
are, we know, alive internationally, even if they play out in different ways in different countries.
The papers we have collected look at the future of social work for children from several perspectives.
Several of the articles deal with the history and the political and socio-economic contexts in which
social work takes place. We then have a series of reflections on public systems, for example
how social work departments process so many more cases than a decade ago or the way that
some system leaders have gone about the process of reform. Then there are articles on practice,
new models of social work and new ways of training. The edition ends with reflections about the
future direction of the profession.
Now all the articles are in, it is time for us to ponder some of the overarching issues. We are not
going to labour this. The point of the edition is to urge the reader to think anew. But there are
some things worth saying in preface.
We have two takes. The first, likely the perspective of greatest interest to most readers, looks at
the challenges from within the profession of social work. The second, looks from the outside,
considering how the situation reflects broader challenges and opportunities for all professions
and for public systems more generally.
Looking out from the inside
In many respects, social work is different from other professions. For example, if we were to ask
groups of doctors, nurses, vets, teachers, health visitors, lawyers indeed almost any
professional group to meet to discuss their role, tasks and functions, they would likely be very
clear about who they are. They would, of course, inevitably differ in how they thought about how
best to undertake their role, but they probably would not struggle to define the role.
This does not seem to be the case with social work, in all its forms but especially in the case of
child and familywork. For many years, therehave been and continue to be major debatesand
disagreementsabout what a socialworker is or even should be. The attemptsof Sir Peter Barclays
committee in 1982 at definition resulted in major fractures among its members that were
unresolved.The result was three differentreports, none of whichwas accepted by the government
of the time. The attempt in 2007 by the General Social Care Council failed to convince the
government of the time, which was lukewarm. The ministers failed to endorse the document
publicly and the work has been superseded by the Social Work Task Force[1].
Why is it so? There are many challenges, but six, all addressed by contributors to this edition, are
particularly important.
David Shemmings is a
Professor at the Centre for
Child Protection, University of
Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Michael Little is based at the
Centre for Social Policy,
Dartington, UK.
DOI 10.1108/JCS-09-2017-0040 VOL. 12 NO. 2/3 2017, pp. 69-71, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660
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JOURNAL OF CHILDREN'S SERVICES
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