Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A note on terminology
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Race’ and racism in modern Britain
- 2 Social work, the state and society
- 3 CCETSW’s anti-racist initiative
- 4 Research findings and the implementation of Paper 30
- 5 Implementing anti-racist learning requirements – the importance of the student/practice teacher relationship
- 6 Practice teachers and anti-racist social work practice
- 7 Backlash against CCETSW’s anti-racist initiative
- 8 Conclusion and recommendations
- Bibliography
4 - Research findings and the implementation of Paper 30
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A note on terminology
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Race’ and racism in modern Britain
- 2 Social work, the state and society
- 3 CCETSW’s anti-racist initiative
- 4 Research findings and the implementation of Paper 30
- 5 Implementing anti-racist learning requirements – the importance of the student/practice teacher relationship
- 6 Practice teachers and anti-racist social work practice
- 7 Backlash against CCETSW’s anti-racist initiative
- 8 Conclusion and recommendations
- Bibliography
Summary
In 1990 and 1991, at the time that CCETSW was introducing Paper 30, a research project was set up at the University of Central Lancashire to investigate its implementation. The research was based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with black and white students from the first two cohort years of the Diploma in Social Work, and with their respective practice teachers. Each student was interviewed three times while they were on placement, in order to ascertain if, over a period of two years, the developments were having an impact on education, training and practice within agencies.
As we have noted, the rules and regulations for the Diploma in Social Work required practice teachers and the institutions in which they were located to enable students (both black and white) to effectively carry out anti-racist practice. The process of implementing the research immediately confirmed the nature of institutional racism in social work agencies, identified as the systematic outcome of institutional systems and routine practices which, in effect, discriminate against members of ethnic minority populations (Williams, 1985; Husband, 1991). As Husband has noted, this can lead:
… to the unhappy consequence that nice people can be accused of being culpable of participating in generating racist outcomes [and that] it is very disquieting for anyone to be told that independently of their own sense of personal agency they are perpetuating a form of racist practice. (Husband, 1991, p 53)
The research revealed three institutional indicators as being instrumental in reinforcing and reproducing racism in social work agencies: the representation of black clients within agencies, the representation of black staff, and the effectiveness of anti-discriminatory policies.
Black client representation
Social work clients have historically, tended to come from the most disadvantaged and socially deprived areas (Barclay Report, 1982; Clarke, 1993; Jones, 1998). This research was carried out in Lancashire, a county faced with disproportionate levels of poverty, poor housing, poor health and education, particularly among its black community (Lancashire County Council Planning Department, 1986; Blackburn Borough Council, 1996), which would indicate a real need for assistance from the personal social services.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Tackling Institutional RacismAnti-Racist Policies and Social Work Education and Training, pp. 59 - 82Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2000