Social Work as a Practice of Unity and Hope

I am one of those practitioners who can still remember generic social work practice in England. I started in a residential children ’s setting in 1985 and qualified in generic social work practice in 1987 starting in a patch or community team. While the 1968 Seebohm Commission suggested a need to organise unified personal social services in the post-war period, the subsequent reforms resulted in the move to what is generally c alled social work with adults and social work with children and families. In the early 2010s, specialism was also introduced in social work education in England, with the emergence of specialist courses for child and family social work and mental health social work.Trevithick (2011) highlighted that the generalist-specialist debate often lacks clarity and rigour in relation to these key terms. Either approach, she argues, needs to acknowledge importance of the in-depth knowledge and skills required for effective social work practice. Whatever our views about the generic and specialist focus on education and practice, the papers in this edition support Paul Michael Garret ’s message that the diversity of our profession also has many commonalities, underlined by research and theory. A collection of articles in this Issue provides the underlying message that social work is the profession of hope.

Source: British Journal of Social Work - June 28, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research