Social work

History

The practice and profession of social work has a relatively modern and scientific origin, and is generally considered to have developed out of three strands. The first was individual casework, a strategy pioneered by the Charity Organization Society in the mid-19th century. The second was social administration, which included various forms of poverty relief – 'relief of paupers'. Statewide poverty relief could be said to have its roots in the English Poor Laws of the 17th century, but was first systematized through the efforts of the Charity Organization Society. The third consisted of social action – rather than engaging in the resolution of immediate individual requirements, the emphasis was placed on political action working through the community and the group to improve their social conditions and thereby alleviate poverty. This approach was developed originally by the Settlement House Movement.

This was accompanied by a less easily defined movement; the development of institutions to deal with the entire range of social problems. All had their most rapid growth during the nineteenth century, and laid the foundational basis for modern social work, both in theory and in practice.

Professional social work originated in 19th century England, and had its roots in the social and economic upheaval wrought by the Industrial Revolution, in particular the societal struggle to deal with the resultant mass urban-based poverty and its related problems. Because poverty was the main focus of early social work, it was intricately linked with the idea of charity work.

Poverty relief

With the decline of feudalism in 16th century England, the indigent poor came to be seen as a more direct threat to the social order. The first complete code of poor relief was made in the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 and some provision for the "deserving poor" was eventually made in the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601. It created a system administered at parish level, paid for by levying local rates on rate payers. Relief for those too ill or old to work, the so-called 'impotent poor', was in the form of a payment or items of food ('the parish loaf') or clothing also known as outdoor relief.

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 completely overhauled the existing system in Britain and established a Poor Law Commission to oversee the national operation of the system. This included the forming together of small parishes into Poor Law Unions and the building of workhouses in each union for the giving of poor relief.

Private philanthropy

The 19th century saw a great leap forward in technological and scientific achievement. There was also a great migration to urban areas throughout the Western world, which led to many social problems. This galvanised the socially active, prosperous middle and upper classes to search for ways to ameliorate the physical and spiritual conditions of the poor underclasses. A new philosophy of "scientific charity" emerged, which stated charity should be "secular, rational and empirical as opposed to sectarian, sentimental, and dogmatic".

Most historians identify the Charity Organization Society, founded by Helen Bosanquet and Octavia Hill in London in 1869, as the pioneering organization of the social theory that led to the emergence of social work as a professional occupation. COS had its main focus on individual casework. It supported the concept of self-help and limited government intervention to deal with the effects of poverty. The organisation claimed to use "scientific principles to root out scroungers and target relief where it was most needed".

Octavia Hill is regarded by many as the founder of modern social work. She believed in self-reliance, and made it a key part of her housing system that she and her assistants knew their tenants personally and encouraged them to better themselves. She was opposed to municipal provision of housing, believing it to be bureaucratic and impersonal. Under her guidance, the Charity Organization Society organised charitable grants and pioneered a home-visiting service that formed the basis for modern social work.

Social action

A stress on social action that developed in the 1880s, was pioneered by the Settlement House Movement. The movement (creating integrated mixed communities of rich and poor) grew directly out of Octavia Hill's work. Her colleagues Samuel and Henrietta Barnett, founded Toynbee Hall, Oxford House in 1884 in Bethnal Green as the first university-sponsored settlement. Another early organization was Mansfield House Settlement, also in east London. In the United States, the settlement movement was established by Jane Addams, a young medical student, and Ellen Gates Starr after Addams visited Toynbee Hall and was impressed by the system. She founded Chicago's Hull House in 1889, which focused on providing education and recreational facilities for European immigrant women and children. By 1913, there were 413 settlements in 32 states.

The concept of the Settlement House Movement was to bring upper and middle class students into lower-class neighbourhoods, not only to provide education and social aid, but to actually live and work together with their inhabitants. This soon inspired a worldwide movement of university settlements. The idea was to help members of the future elite understand the problems of wider society; this was especially important at a time when class divisions were much stronger, social mobility was minimal, and the living conditions of the poor were completely unknown to many members of the upper class.

Further development

By the beginning of the 20th century, these different organizations with their diverse intellectual underpinnings were beginning to coalesce into modern social work. Foundations were established to examine the root causes of social problems such as poverty, and social workers became more professional and scientific in their methodology. The Quaker philanthropist and chocolate manufacturer Joseph Rowntree believed that social evils could be tackled by systematic research, and to that end founded the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 1904. Rowntree wanted to tackle the root causes of social problems, rather than treating their symptoms. His Memorandum of 1904 stated: "I feel that much of the current philanthropic effort is directed to remedying the more superficial manifestations of weakness or evil, while little thought or effort is directed to search out their underlying causes … [seek] to search out the under-lying causes of weakness or evil in the community, rather than … remedying their more superficial manifestations".

The differing approaches to social work often led to heated debates. In the early 20th century, Mary Richmond of the Charity Organization Society (COS) and Jane Addams of the Settlement House Movement engaged in a public dispute over the optimal approach; whether the problem should be tackled with COS' traditional, scientific method that focused on efficiency and prevention, or whether the Settlement House Movement's immersion into the problem, blurring the lines of practitioner and client, was superior.

Welfare state

As the problem of poverty moved up the public agenda, it became increasingly clear that laissez-faire economic policies were not working and that governments had to take proactive measures to reduce poverty, rather than leave the task to privately run organizations. The principles of classical liberalism were being increasingly challenged by downturns in economic growth, a growing perception of the evils of poverty, unemployment and relative deprivation present within modern industrial cities, and the agitation of organized labour. In the early 1900s, the British Liberals under H.H. Asquith introduced various reforms, including health insurance, unemployment insurance, and pensions for elderly workers, thereby laying the groundwork for the future British welfare state.

William Beveridge, often called the 'architect of the welfare state', was pivotal in framing the debate about social work in the context of state welfare provision. His 1942 report on Social Insurance and Allied Services, known commonly as the Beveridge Report, identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease, and went on to propose widespread reform to the system of social welfare to mitigate these problems. The report proved very popular with a war-weary public, and went on to form the basis to the post-war expansion of the Welfare State and the creation of the National Health Service, a free at the point of delivery healthcare provider.

Modern world

Currently, social work is known for its critical and holistic approach to understanding and intervening in social problems. This has led, for example, to the recognition of poverty as having a social and economic basis rooted in social policies rather than representing a personal moral defect. This trend also points to another historical development in the evolution of social work: once a profession engages in social control, it is directed at social and personal empowerment. Critical social work has had a major impact on professional training and social work education since the 1980s and Stephen Webb has edited a major international reference work "Handbook of Critical Social Work" (2018) for Routledge. Webb's critique of evidence-based social work is also the most highly cited article in the field. https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article-abstract/42/4/765/1627016/Influential-Publications-in-Social-Work-Discourse

Practice

Social work is an interdisciplinary profession, meaning it draws from a number of areas, such as (but not limited to) psychology, sociology, politics, criminology, economics, ecology, education, health, law, philosophy, anthropology and counseling, including psychotherapy. It is not a 'single model', such as that of health, followed by medical professional such as nurses and doctors, but like nurses and doctors, social work requires study and continued professional development to retain knowledge and skills in practice. Field work is a distinctive attribution to social work pedagogy. This equips the trainee in understanding the theories and models within the field of work. Professional practitioners from multicultural aspects have their roots in this social work immersion engagements from the early 19th century in the western countries. As an example, here are some of the models and theories used within social work practice:

Contemporary professional development

The International Federation of Social Workers and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) defined social work in this way:

Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge, social work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing.

Its seven core functions are described by Popple and Leighninger as:

1. Engagement — the social worker must first engage the client in early meetings to promote a collaborative relationship
2. Assessment — data must be gathered that will guide and direct a plan of action to help the client
3. Planning — negotiate and formulate an action plan
4. Implementation — promote resource acquisition and enhance role performance
5. Monitoring/Evaluation — on-going documentation through short-term goal attainment of extent to which client is following through
6. Supportive Counseling — affirming, challenging, encouraging, informing, and exploring options
7. Graduated Disengagement — seeking to replace the social worker with a naturally occurring resource

Six other core values identified by the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) Code of Ethics are:

1. Service — help people in need and address social problems
2. Social Justice — challenge social injustices
3. Respect the dignity and worth of the person
4. Give importance to human relationships
5. Integrity — behave in a trustworthy manner
6. Competence — practice within the areas of one's areas of expertise and develop and enhance professional skills

Qualifications

The education of social workers begins with a bachelor's degree (BA, BSc, BSSW, BSW, etc.) or diploma in social work or a Bachelor of Social Services. Some countries offer postgraduate degrees in social work, such as a master's degree (MSW, MSS, MSSA, MA, MSc, MRes, MPhil.) or doctoral studies (PhD and DSW (Doctor of Social Work)). Increasingly, graduates of social work programs pursue post-masters and post-doctoral study, including training in psychotherapy.

In the United States, social work undergraduate and master's programs are accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. A CSWE-accredited degree is required for one to become a state-licensed social worker.

A number of countries and jurisdictions require registration or licensure of people working as social workers, and there are mandated qualifications. In other places, a professional association sets academic requirements for admission to the profession. The success of these professional bodies' efforts is demonstrated in that these same requirements are recognized by employers as necessary for employment.

Professional associations

Social workers have a number of professional associations that provide ethical guidance and other forms of support for their members and for social work in general. These associations may be international, continental, semi-continental, national, or regional. The main international associations are the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW).

The largest professional social work association in the United States is the National Association of Social Workers. There also exist organizations that represent clinical social workers such as The American Association of Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work. AAPCSW is a national organization representing social workers who practice psychoanalytic social work and psychonalysis. There are also a number of states with Clinical Social Work Societies which represent all social workers who conduct psychotherapy from a variety of theoretical frameworks with families, groups and individuals. The Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA) is a professional organization for social workers who practice within the community organizing, policy, and political spheres.

In the UK, the professional association is the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) with just over 18,000 members (as of August 2015).

Trade unions representing social workers

In the United Kingdom, just over half of social workers are employed by local authorities, and many of these are represented by UNISON, the public sector employee union. Smaller numbers are members of the Unite the Union and the GMB (trade union). The British Union of Social Work Employees (BUSWE) has been a section of the Community (trade union) since 2008.

While at that stage not a union, the British Association of Social Workers operated a professional advice and representation service from the early 1990s. Social Work qualified staff who are also experienced in employment law and industrial relations provide the kind of representation you would expect from a trade union in the event of grievance, discipline or conduct matters specifically in respect of professional conduct or practice. However, this service depended on the good will of employers to allow the representatives to be present at these meetings, as only trade unions have the legal right and entitlement of representation in the workplace.

By 2011 several councils had realized that they did not have to permit BASW access, and those that were challenged by skilled professional representation of their staff were withdrawing permission. For this reason BASW once again took up trade union status by forming its arms length trade union section, SWU (Social Workers Union). This gives legal right to represent its members whether the employer or Trades Union Congress (TUC) recognizes SWU or not. At 2015 the TUC was still resisting SWU application for admission to congress membership and while most employers are not making formal statements of recognition until such a time as the TUC may change its policy, they are all legally required to permit SWU (BASW) representation at internal discipline hearings etc.

Role of the professional

The criteria to qualify as a profession have been laid out in comparison to universally admitted professions. Social work, in order to attain a professional status, has also resorted to such comparisons. In Abraham Flexner's 1915 lecture, "Is Social Work a Profession?" delivered at the National Conference on Charities and Corrections, he examined the characteristics of a profession with reference to social work.

The characteristics of a profession, as listed by him are:

1. Professionals are intellectual in character and assume responsibility for their decisions.
2. Professionals are learned in character and proficient to maintain a steady stream of ideas and decisions.
3. Professionals are practice oriented and definite as such in its purpose.
4. Professionals have an educationally communicable technique and they simultaneous develop within their academic discipline.
5. Professionals have their own professional body which advocates for a common social interest and ethics.
6. Professionals have a definite social status attached to their profession.

A social work professional's main tasks may include a number of services such as case management (linking clients with agencies and programs that will meet their psychosocial needs – common in the US and the UK), counseling and psychotherapy, assessment and diagnosis of interpersonal and societal problems or mental disorders, child protection/welfare, human services management, social welfare policy analysis, policy and practice development, community organizing, international, social and community development, advocacy, teaching (in schools of social work), and socio-political research. Every work leads with the aim of providing beneficial services to individuals, dyads, families, groups, organizations and communities to achieve optimum psychosocial functioning.

A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession's focus on individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. Social workers promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients. The term "client" is used to refer to individuals, families, groups, organizations, or communities. In the broadening scope of the modern social worker's role, some practitioners have in recent years traveled to war-torn countries to provide psychosocial assistance to families and survivors.

Furthermore, as a result of social workers' training in counseling and their experience in helping their clients with accessing benefits such as unemployment insurance and disability benefits, they are particularly well-suited to help individuals and families learn how to become financially self-sufficient. That said, there is a need for additional training vis a vis social workers in the financial household management arena. Under some conditions, a raise may trigger reductions in several benefits; therefore, it would be beneficial for social workers to study a financial education curriculum tailored for social workers such as financial social work to fully understand and explain the possible ramifications to clients. In addition, social workers often work with low-income or low to middle-income people who are either unbanked (do not have a banking account) or underbanked (individuals who have a bank account but tend to rely on high cost non-bank providers for their financial transactions). Social workers who have an understanding of financial institutions would be able to guide individuals and families to use mainstream financial institutions and thereby hold onto more of their income and spend less on high cost non-bank financial services.

In the United States, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, professional social workers are the largest group of mental health services providers. There are more clinically trained social workers—over 200,000—than psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychiatric nurses combined. Federal law and the National Institutes of Health recognize social work as one of five core mental health professions.

Social workers in literature

In 2011, a critic stated that "novels about social work are rare," and as recently as 2004, another critic claimed to have difficulty finding novels featuring a main character holding a Master of Social Work degree.

However, social workers have been the subject of many novels, including: