Introduction: social work in crisis

A recurrent theme over the last 40 years, broadly covering the move away from ‘classic’ welfare statism to the neoliberal period in British politics, has been the perceived ‘crisis in social work’. At times this has been focused on a claim that the profession is too concerned with ‘political correctness’, rather than carrying out statutory state duties (Philpot 2000). Occasionally, it is deemed to be a ‘failing profession’ because of its perceived role (whether central or marginal) in a case involving the death of a child (Corby 2005). While, at times, politicians generate the crisis by attacking social work as an ‘easy target’, often alongside an attack on welfare recipients (especially benefit recipients), to play to their support base (SWAN 2013).

Of course, in the debates generated around each of these examples, there may be elements or aspects of social work theory or practice that we can reflect upon, learn from and improve. We do not need to be defensive. We should be much more assertive about what we do right and open to the idea that we can improve some aspects of our activities. But this notwithstanding, the impression is that social work is always in some form of crisis situation – and, at heart, this opens up questions about the nature and viability of what we might term ‘the social work project’ (the possibility of an actively engaged profession, committed to working alongside, and in support of, individuals and communities striving to bring change to their lives and environment).

At present this sense of crisis is more entrenched than ever. Ten years of austerity and 30 years of significant welfare transformation (if we date this from the 1987 Conservative Manifesto commitment to introduce internal markets into health and social care via what would become the NHS and Community Care Act 1990) have made life far more difficult for social work service users, reduced the scope for practitioners to intervene in meaningful ways to support vulnerable people, embedded market forms of delivery onto the ‘social work business’ and, as a consequence, opened up significant debate over the nature and task of contemporary social work.