United Kingdom

The parents who are asylum seekers or refugees come from Pakistan, Sierre Leone, Papa New Guinea, Somalia, Togo, Nigeria and Eritrea. The students are in their final years studying social work or  occupational therapy at New College Durham and Teesside university, plus there is a psychology student from Teesside university and a social work, criminology and sociology student from Durham University.

Together the group of 30 have met weekly for the past nine weeks to identify and explore the gaps that exist between parents and professionals. Practitioners have been invited to each session which have been planned on a range of themes which were  identified as key gaps in the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees. This has included the police, housing workers, educational and social service staff who have shared the discussions and taken key issues back to their agencies to identify further how gaps can be mended.

A key focus within the group is to share cultural perspectives and experiences.

An evaluation of the programme will be made available.

For further information about this gap mending programme please contact Helen Casey; helen.casey@newdur.ac.uk

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Perhaps the most significant victory of the DPM involved the establishment of anti-discrimination legislation in 1995, though it needs to be recognised that the Disability Discrimination Act watered down the movement’s aims. The DPM has brought together disabled people from across impairment groups who have argued collectively that disability is a rights issue rather than a care issue, and who have identified traditional charities (run ‘for’ disabled people by non-disabled people) as being part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

In the current climate of austerity, many disabled people’s organisations are struggling to generate income to carry on working. Many organisations have already disappeared.

By Dr Colin Cameron, Northumbria University

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Social work practice in Great Britain

The majority of social work within England is still delivered through local authorities, in what is traditionally termed statutory social work: i.e. working within legal statute. However, this has been a misnomer for a number of years, as ‘statutory social work’ has been undertaken by private companies, charities and third sector organisations in a number of fields; primarily fostering and adoption. This trend is beginning to increase with the ‘spinning out’ of local authority service provision to mutual, community interest companies, social enterprises, not-for-profit and for-profit companies. In both adult and children’s services the Coalition Government have been running pilot ‘social work practice’ schemes; where smaller social work led organisations, independent of local authorities, provide services for vulnerable children and adults.

This movement towards scaling down social work delivery through local government is certainly reflected in the employment opportunities for qualifying social work students. In 2009 students could effectively pick and choose the jobs they wanted. Four years later and the situation have completely reversed, with local authorities recruiting and employing fewer social workers.

Ostensibly, social workers in England still should adhere to the definition of social work from the International Federation of Social Workers and International Association of Schools of Social Work:

However, the reality is often that social workers are torn between the expectations and demands of a very process driven system of prioritising case loads, and their commitment to their service users. Social workers can also be expected to provide services to service users through such schemes as the ‘Troubled Families programme; providing an immediate ethical dilemma for many professionals. The issue facing social workers in both children and adults is that of eligibility and the constant raising of thresholds making preventative work very difficult; placing an emphasis on safeguarding and protection.

Social work in England is in a massive time of flux in terms of where and how it is practiced; who guides and regulates practice, and how we prepare students for practice. There is a clear move towards making social work a Masters level qualification; with new Step Up to Social Work and Fast Track programmes; whilst at the same time limiting the widening participation agenda.

By John MacDonough, Senior Lecturer, London South Bank University