Editorial: The Future of Social Work

Social Work strives to balance both a management and a welfare function. In January, the British Association of Social Workers held a day conference: ‘Talking about the future of Social Work’. Rogowski (2015) noted that ‘practitioners have become increasingly embroiled in bureaucracy and subjected to managerial constraints aimed at rationing resources and assessing/managing risk, rather than meeting need’. A conversation about the future of social work is critical in a rapidly changing environment where social work is being opened up to privatisation, there is an increase in rationing for adult services, social work education is altering with an emphasis on fast-track training and accreditation is being shaped by the government and not by the profession. The articles in this edition point to the place for social work practice to be rooted in professional commitment developed through practitioner research, and partnerships promoting knowledge exchange between social work academics and practitioners.

In line with these concerns, Stewart Collins writes about ‘The Commitment of Social Workers in the UK: Committed to the Profession, the Organisation and Service Users?’ He argues that there are clear benefits derived from the commitment of social workers, which are associated with effort, productivity and high retention and low turnover rates. An individual may have a high commitment to their profession, but not to their organisation. Research suggests that in order to encourage commitment, social work organisations should focus on respecting, recognising and valuing the positive contributions of social workers, maximising their time for caring, ongoing work with service users, provide good salaries, appropriate working conditions and manageable workloads.

MacRae, Smith and Cree in their article, ‘The Role of Practitioner Research in Developing Cultures of Learning in Children and Families Social Work’, report on a knowledge exchange project between a Scottish university and local authorities implementing practitioner research projects. To optimise the potential of knowledge exchange activities they identify the need to work with managers as well as practitioners, to implement learning and incorporate it into existing continuous developmental activities, process and systems over time.

Tony Stanley and Helen Lincoln also write about ‘Improving Organisational Culture—The Practice Gains’ and examine the leadership and conditions needed for a great organisational culture? They argue that there are unprecedented challenges to local authority funding and day-to-day operations, and that social work agencies need to locate and build on the components of excellent practice with a focus on learning through staff inclusion. Stanley and Lincoln argue for a paradigm shift to learning organisations; with the voices of social work staff and service users being important constituents in any cultural shift.

Margaret Pack in ‘Learning to ‘Think on Our Feet’: Producing a New Digital Resource for Teaching Social Work Students about Reflective Decision-making in Child Protection Practice in Australia’ also examines the idea that partnership between academics in social work and practitioners employed in the local social work profession will develop new knowledge to underpin evidence-informed practice. The paper outlines an innovative approach, embedding online digital resources depicting complex decision-making, to prepare students for situations in which they are facing disclosures of abuse and neglect involving child protection. How social workers bridge the theory to practice divide to evolve a reasoned course of action is one of the contested areas of social work practice. Partly this is because decision-making is informed by many complex factors such as personal ethics, values and organisational policies and frameworks. Pack suggests that decision-making remains a neglected area of the social work curriculum.