Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
76
result(s) for
"Rogowski, Steve"
Sort by:
Neoliberalism, austerity and social work with children and families: challenges and critical/radical possibilities
In the UK, neoliberalism and associated austerity have dominated social work and welfare provision over the last decade. Consequences include severe financial cuts to social work with children and families, as well as public services generally, and large increases in poverty and inequality. Despite increasing numbers of people in difficulty, the social work and welfare system has become more punitive and presents ongoing threats to social work’s commitment to human rights and social justice. This article examines such developments and includes the views of practitioners. Despite the strength and depth of challenges, it argues that critical/radical possibilities remain for practitioners to work both individually with service users and collectively. Such opportunities need to be taken with a view to working towards a more just and equal society, this being a much-needed antidote to the unequal neoliberal world we currently inhabit.
Journal Article
Social Work with Children and Families: Challenges and Possibilities in the Neo-Liberal World
The 1970s saw social work as the rising star of the human service professions in the UK. Since then, the profession has been under attack from the media and politicians, this coinciding with changed ideological, political, economic and social circumstances. Practitioners' expertise and effectiveness were questioned and they were blamed for scandals, notably in relation to abused children. There have been changes in their organisation and practice whereby a profession based on knowledge, understanding and skills has become a so-called profession with managers now dominating what practitioners do. Relationship-based work has been transformed into a bureaucratic focus on the assessment of risk and rationing of resources and services, together with a more controlling, moral policing role. Focusing on developments in England in relation to children and families, I argue that, although what remains is a limited version of social work's possibilities, there remains scope for a radical/critical practice that involves working alongside users on the problems they face.
Journal Article
Margaret Thatcher’s legacy for social work with children and families: critical possibilities?
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had a significant impact on economic, political and social life in the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere. The neoliberal changes she initiated were continued and intensified by subsequent Conservative, New Labour and now Conservative-led coalition governments in the UK. She left a particular legacy regarding the welfare state and social work, the former being gradually being dismantled, while social work has been transformed into a narrower and more restricted role. Practitioners are now largely concerned with rationing resources and risk assessment/management, with users having to be responsible for themselves and their families. If they do not do this, there is a punitive turn - having their child(ren) removed and adopted. Despite the neoliberal Thatcher legacy, and resultant significant challenges for social work, critical practice is both possible and necessary. It is a practice that engages with the issues that lie at the root of social injustice, namely growing inequality in a neoliberalised world.
Journal Article
Critical social work in child protection/safeguarding: challenges and (fewer) opportunities
Social work in the UK is under ever more pressure to do the bidding of the government of the day, whether this is under New Labour with its targets and checklists, or the current Conservativeled coalition government's authoritarian response to put 'troublesome' families on the straight and narrow by getting them back into work. Managerialism, and resulting bureaucracy and proceduralism, ever more dominates as managers control what practitioners do and how. All too often the focus is on rationing and risk assessment/management, the result being that minimal help and support from social workers are available to children and families. This article focuses on social work in relation to child protection/safeguarding - the 'heavy end' of practice. It acknowledges the difficulties in practising critically (and indeed radically) in current managerial circumstances. However, it argues that all is not lost, and that some critical possibilities remain. Furthermore, such practice is necessary as otherwise the way is left open for supporters of the status quo rather than those aiming for an emancipatory practice aimed at equality and justice for all.
Journal Article