Social Services Research Group
Patricia Higham, member of the Assembly for Social Care and Social Work Education, Training and Research, discusses the importance of social care and social work in the context of a changing environment, and the need for a 'collective voice'.
Social care is modernising its workforce, training, and qualifications to promote higher standards. Over time, the social care registers in all four countries of the United Kingdom will include all social care workers - a sign of social care's growing professionalism.
Social work is in the process of becoming a protected title throughout the United Kingdom and a recognised profession. The former notion of professionalism, typified by unequal use of power over people who use services, is now discredited. The current emphasis on social inclusion suggests a new definition of professionalism based on
Social care workers provide personal care and support services to individuals, families and communities (NISCC 2005) to meet their common human needs, give them quality of life (Social Care Association 2005) and enhance capabilities to help people become as independent as possible (Wing, 1978).
Although the United Kingdom's designation of social work as the professional arm of social care is disputed because it does not accord with international recognition of social work as the over arching profession, the alliance of social work and social care develops more effective practice through collaborative activities. The large social care work force and its professional arm, social work, benefit from their mutual alliance.
Through collaborating with each other in skill mix teams, the alliance will develop more effective practice. Social work has achieved more impact through its link with social care. Social care's workforce needs qualifications and better career structures; social workers can mentor social care workers to develop their practice. The establishment of skill mix teams may further this kind of relationship.
Social workers identify social work values as a distinctive feature of the profession. One of social work's most successful achievements is the way it reviews and adapts its values by drawing on new ideas from outside social work. The social model of intervention, which originated within the disability movement, has become important to social work and social care.
Like social work, the social care work force professes the value of respect for persons, promotes social inclusion, and seeks to empower people who use services. Social work and social care successfully promote their values to a wide audience. Roche and Rankin (2004) affirm this view by attributing the introduction of 'personalisation, choice, user empowerment, and user involvement aspirations' (p. 4) to social care.
Acknowledging shared aspects of values rather than claiming their exclusive ownership provides a way for social workers to establish multi professional partnerships. The social worker is a guardian of values. This does not constitute a claim of exclusivity in relation to values, but a consistent attempt to keep values at the forefront of practice.
Social work adopts a spirit of critical enquiry through research, collaborative enquiry, evidence based practice, reflexivity, and use of self. High expectations of a newly recognised profession of social care and social work require a critical voice that contributes to knowledge.
Social work research makes distinctive contributions to social science research activity, contributing to evidence-based practice and research-minded practice for social care. Social work research promotes social inclusion through its selection of research topics (TSWR, 2000). Braye and Preston-Shoot (2004) argue that social workers should not only be competent technicians who are fixers, but also critical thinkers - well-rounded professionals with knowledge and judgement to address strategy issues.
Social care and social work change and adapt to new social concerns and organisational structures. The broadly based nature of social care and social work constitutes an asset for building partnerships with people who use services and their carers.
New service delivery requirements specify 'joined up' integrated services that tackle social exclusion. New roles in social care may include a health and social care support worker, a community enabler, an 'ordinary life' worker for person-centred planning, and an individual champion for people who use services (Waddilove, 2004).
Social work education is generic and therefore provides a good basis for understanding the totality of issues confronting people who use services. Social workers have the potential to develop 'whole systems' thinking about situations and people, rather than being limited to perceiving just a part of a situation. Social workers combine multiple roles that balance empowerment and emancipation with protection and support: planner, assessor, evaluator, supporter, advocate, protector and manager. The essence of professionalism lies in exercising judgment in selecting and combining appropriate social work roles for a particular situation.
Social workers' roles will change as people who use services and their carers exercise more choice and take up self-assessment of need, direct payments, and personal budgets.
Needs assessment may become a shared exercise with the social worker in a new enabling supportive role. Professional social workers are ideally suited to undertake the role of service navigator (Rankin and Regan 2004 a, b) to guide users and carers experiencing multiple needs through the maze of services.
Hughes (2002) hints at the development of a new role of social educator - the social pedagogue who promotes individual wellbeing through informal educational strategies that empower people with the knowledge and skills to manage their lives. Lorenz (2003) considers social pedagogy to be part of a framework of socioeducational care work that should lie within the remit of social work and social care.
Social care is diverse in nature and purpose, defying description, but this breadth helps it to develop flexible new services. Although social work may be portrayed by its changing nature rather than agreeing a specific definition, the international definition of social work has gained support within the United Kingdom: social work is 'a profession which promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being.
Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work' (Topss UK Partnership, International Association of Schools of Social Work, International Federation of Social Workers 2001). The definition of social work's purpose may change as it links more closely with social care. So too may the concept of professionalism, particularly as people who use services and carers are empowered to express their views of what they want from service provision. Social work and social care's distinctive quality is their holistic practice with a range of situations and people, an ideal attribute for developing multiprofessional partnerships, now seen as essential to better service provision. British social work and social care promote participation, empowerment, and emancipation.
The debate about what social work (and by implication, social care) are meant to be and do will probably never cease: 'Social work adapts and changes in response to social, political and economic challenges and the demands of contemporary social welfare policy, practice, and legislation' (QAA 2000, 2.2.3).
Social work and social care provide a flexible range of skills that include protecting individuals by assessing risks, and empowering individuals to gain more control over their lives.
Social workers and social care workers use conceptual themes to develop their practice: social work as art (England, 1986) calls for creative and empathetic practice; the use of self is the way social workers translate the different requirements of people who use services and their carers, legal statutes, agency procedures, methods and theories into purposeful ethical practice; and social role valorisation (Wolfensberger 1992) is used by social care workers to change institutionalised practices.
Social workers and social care workers sometimes find it difficult to identify the skills they possess compared with other professions. This misses the point about social work and social care's potential to work holistically with situations and with individuals. A positive attribute may be found in the amorphous nature of social care and social work (Roche and Rankin, 2004). Cozens (2004) argues that social care and social work's diversity gives them the ability to wrap around other services and be flexible.
Social work practice has to address the balancing dilemma of managing the tension between empowerment and protection, a difficult endeavour particularly when the user of services disagrees with the need for a particular course of action. There are no easy answers. The balancing dilemma prompts the social worker to exercise power with self-awareness - and to develop honest truthful practice.
Social workers' creativity in constructing new ways of working is important. As people who use services and carers exercise more choice, they pose a challenge to social workers' traditional roles. Sharing power is difficult for the professional, and that is why social workers must consider their use of self and develop self-awareness that can help prevent the misuse of power.
British social care and social work have frequently worried about their survival, in part because they have depended on continued governmental support for their existence. This concern prevented many workers from developing a broad vision of what social work and social care can become in the future.
Social work and social care practice need to gain more confidence in their own ideas and begin to express their collective voice, thus influencing the direction of social policy.
Social work and social care lack a strong united voice for their professional roles. Regulatory bodies are government funded. In various ways, they exert control over social work and social care.
A collective voice needs to be organised outside of governmental structures. The Assembly for Social Care and Social Work Education Training and Research is an attempt to organise a collective voice for umbrella organisations within social work and social care that are engaged in creating the empirical evidence base for social care and social work, and for promoting the development of competent practitioners.
The Assembly is a virtual organisation that would act as a network. It would seek to speak collectively for social care and social work education and research to champion, promote and protect the value, knowledge and skills base of social care and social work; contribute to effective practice and policy that delivers positive outcomes for people who use services; network across United Kingdom social care and social work education and research representative organisations; and foster and maintain interaction between the Assembly and government bodies and key agencies involved in the changing delivery of social care and social work services.
Organisational change is transforming the caring services. The new professionalism emphasises multi professional working, integrated services, and partnerships with people who use services. New combinations of roles will develop for social workers and social care workers, but social work and social care must seize the opportunities for change and develop a collective voice.
This article and references is available on the SSRG website www.ssrg.org.uk SSRG Subscribes to the aims and objectives of the Assembly. Colin Kelsey is SSRG representative.
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