Policy and Social Work Practice

Tony Evans is a registered social worker and has practiced as a mental health social worker. He is Professor of Social Work in the University of London and Head of the Department of social work at Royal Holloway University of London. His research explores the intersection of policy, professional practice and ethics. His published work has focused on the analysis of professional discretion in the context of managerialised public services, moral economies of practice, professional expertise and judgement. He has recently edited [with Fabian Kessl] a special issue of the European Journal of Social Work on travelling knowledge in Social Work.Dr Frank Keating is a Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Care in the Department of Social Work at Royal Holloway University of London where he is Director of Research and Graduate studies. His main research interests are ethnicity, gender and mental health, particularly focusing on African and Caribbean communities. He is a strong advocate for racial equality in mental health services through his writing, teaching and public speaking.

• Social Work and Policy IntroductionDiscretion in the history and development of social workSocial Work Education and Training as a policy issuePrevention and protection: the development of safeguarding in children′s servicesChildren like ours? Policy and practice responses to children looked afterPersonalisationMental capacity and social policySocial welfare policy in racialised contextsInternational social work: understanding social work within social policy systemsDomestic Violence: UK and Australian developmentsLocal policy in a global context: regimes of risk in mental health policy and practice - the community treatment ordersConcluding thoughts: the interface between social policy and social work

Policy and Social Work Practice (Eds. Tony Evans and Frank Keating) is a well-timed contribution to the social work literature. Arriving at a time when the depletion of social work services within the politics of austerity is underscored by a construction of a profession in disarray, this important book reminds us of the historical, social and policy contexts from which social work draws its mandate. As Tony Evans, in his introduction points out ‘social policy is in the DNA of social work’ and if, as he also argues, social policy is the organised response to societal problems, then a book that critically re-examines the links between politics, policy and practice in a period of increasing poverty, inequality and vulnerability could not be more valuable. Tracing developments in social work education, children’s services, children in state care and, adult social care, issues of rights and citizenship emerge as central to several of the book’s chapters while Keating’s chapter on attitudes to racial equality and immigration, reasserts the role of social work in achieving social justice. The book begins with a historical discussion of social work as located within the UK but later explores policy and practice in the international arena. This leads on two final chapters which provide cross-country insights in the areas of domestic violence and, mental health. In a nutshell, this is the book’s strength – its ability to chart the history of social work practice within a changing social policy landscape while providing a valuable resource for contemporary social work across a range of theoretical, geographical and practice borders.