1. SOCIAL SERVICES- HISTORY AND
AREAS OF PRACTICE
HCS103
Acknowledgement: Some slides from Karen Bell
2. REVIEW FROM LAST WEEK
What is Social Work?
- Internationally recognised profession
- Accredited at tertiary level
- Professional body (AASW)
- Code of practice, body of knowledge, methods, skills
- Core values
4. ORIGINS OF SOCIAL WORK
UK – Charity Organisations
Society(COS)
USA - Settlement movement (SM)
Australia – penal colony to free society,
dual influence of COS and SM
5. UK CHARITY ORGANISATIONS SOCIETY
• Late 19th century – industrialisation > serving
capitalism
• Social casework – correcting people, social control
• WORLD WAR 1 – trauma
• 1920s – role of SW is community work, social policy
and casework
6. KEY POINTS ABOUT COS
• Poverty seen as an individual issue
• ‘Deserving’ / ‘undeserving poor’
• Lack of focus on societal / collective factors
• Individual casework approach (micro level)
7. USA- SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT
• Society not providing to all adequately
• Need for egalitarianism, redistribution
• Community based, more group work, political activism, reform
• Poverty seen a structural issue, rather than individual problem
• World War 1 – trauma – more focus on individual work in addition to
other levels of practice
• 1920s – Decreased influence of Settlement Movement, increase in
psychoanalysis, Cold War context / McCarthyism, reformers seen as
‘risks’
8. KEY POINTS ABOUT THE SETTLEMENT
MOVEMENT
• Poverty as a social ‘structural’ issue
• Increased focus on collective, societal issues
• Poverty as a social issue
• Emphasis on group work, community development,
advocacy, policy, social change (meso, macro level)
9. DEVELOPMENT OF
AUSTRALIAN SW
• Dual influence of UK & US
• Context of colonisation and
dispossession
• Emerges from middle class
women’s view of needs of
poor
10. AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL WORK TIMELINE
• Anna King – established Female Factory 1804 for poor females in the
new colony – housing, work & training
• Caroline Chisholm – welfare and work reforms
• 1887 – COS active in Melbourne- hospital almoners – push to train
almoners
• 1940s – degree training for Social Work at Uni Sydney, then
Melbourne, Adelaide
• 1946 – AASW formed – increasing advisory role to Universities re
educational needs of Social work
11. IMPORTANT PERIODS FOR SOCIAL WORK
1930s – Great Depression – re-emergence of social
action, radicalism. View of poverty as individual ‘fault’ is
challenged by global recession.
1940s – ‘person-in-situation perspective in SW,
strengthening of generic SW
1960s & 70s – Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movements,
Women’s Movement, student activism – re-emphasis on
social activism and macro-level practice in SW
12. 1960s & 70s (cont)
- Community development becomes part of mainstream SW
- Increased emphasis on radical SW & criticism of individual
casework as means of social control
1980s
– Economic context
- decreased radicalism, though increased influence of
feminism & class not seen as the only disadvantage
- Multidimensional perspective gathers influence in SW
13. 1990s – current
- rise of managerialism, neoliberalism,
economic rationalism
- human services as ‘business’
- emphasis on efficiency, quality
management, etc rather than social
- changed funding arrangements based
managerial outcomes rather than client
outcomes / effectiveness
14. KEY POINTS
• Major social changes / crises can
lead to changes in thinking
(ideology)
• These can lead to changes in policy
and responses to issues
• Changes to professional practice /
knowledge base of professions such
as social work
15. AUSTRALIAN CULTURAL
INFLUENCES AND THEMES
• Colonisation – terra nullius
• Indigenous issues
• Increased post - WWII migration
• Multiculturalism
16. THE AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL
WORKERS (AASW)
• Formed 1946 at federal level
• Member of International Federation of Social
Workers (IFSW)
• IFSW has representation at the United Nations
17. AASW
• Monitors practice standards
• Accredits university BSW courses
• Competency guidelines, code of ethics
• Provides continuing professional education,
member accreditation, journal, conferences
• Promotes objectives of SW
• Offers Student memberships! Please see
resources folder
18. KEY ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
• Respect for unique value of
individuals
• Client self-determination
• Social justice
• Professional integrity
19. METHODS OF SW PRACTICE
Individual casework
Case management
Group work
Community development
Advocacy
Social action
Policy
Research
22. MODELS OF PRACTICE
Traditional
- casework, individual / family focus
Radical
- structural / environmental aspects of an issue taken
into account and become target for interventions
Critical/reflective
- combination of individual casework principles and
structural considerations, multidimensional approach to
Social Work
23. SOME KEY TERMS
Economic rationalism / Neo-liberalism
- reduced government service provision & funding, market
principles dominant,
Managerialism
- market & commercial management principles used in
welfare service delivery, outcome measures based on
commercial principles, accountability procedures arguably not
suited to welfare context
Privatisation
- reduced government role in service provision, competitive
tendering for funding based on market principles, increased
service delivery by private organisations, profit motive
24. RECURRING THEMES IN SOCIAL WORK
Ideology and locus of intervention
- Pursuit of individual adaptation or social change?
- Social order or social change?
- Social care or social control?
- Targeting individuals, communities or society?
25. Converging typologies of practice
- Traditional – consensus, individual
- Radical Marxist - conflictual, community
- Radical reformist – multidimensional/multilevel
practice
RECURRING THEMES IN SOCIAL WORK
26. Ideology, charity & social policy
- Residualism – charity & deserving poor
- Social nation – state control
- Entitlement and citizenship rights – legal political
& social
- Mutual obligation – income support etc
RECURRING THEMES IN SOCIAL WORK
