Background
to the
Research
- Until recently social workers
in NI have had to operate within the context of communal, paramilitary
and state violence. Within this context the concept and operationalisation
of social justice has been largely absent from social work theory
and practice. Yet social justice has become a central plank of the
current peace process in NI.
- This article explores the
challenge faced by social workers in accommodating social justice
into policy and practice in a society emerging from political conflict.
Research
Approach
- The authors offer a critical review of
social work policy and practice in NI from the late 1960s to the current
day.
Main Findings
The Technocratic Expansion
- In the early 1970s the role of social work
was boosted through the formation of an integrated health and social
service. During the 1970s and 1980s the profession developed within
a technocratic administrative structure that was part of the British
government strategy to manage the Troubles.
- The service moved from its relatively
minor and traditional welfare function in local government and hospitals,
to emerge as a key young profession within the new state bureaucracies.
It can be argued that, at least in practice, the boards succeeded
in distancing statutory health and social services from discrimination
and sectarianism.
- Within this structure the voices of civil
society were largely excluded and accountability and openness were
weak. Clients and communities were usually only engaged within the
context of social workers managing social problems.
The Rise of New Manageralism
- The 1990s heralded a period of 'new manageralism'
that was marked by financial retrenchment, welfare pluralism and fragmentation
of services. The promotion of general management and the introduction
of HSSTs and market-based approaches to the delivery of care, combined
to weaken the influence and power of social workers.
- Social work staff tended to compete with
other professionals within the trusts and with employees from voluntary
and private sectors for limited resources. At the same time frontline
practitioners faced rising pressure from an unsympathetic legal system
and more tightly regulated central government inspections.
- The current phase is characterised by
a sense of struggle for social work in the face of competing demands
in the wider process of conflict resolution.
Social Work and Social Justice
- Social work needs to engage with the diversity
of experience and need being expressed within contemporary society
in NI. In order to connect with this new dynamism the service must
shift its practice ideology away from the controlling and technocratic,
to that of an engaging empowerment. In doing this it can play a part
in the larger movement towards the creation of progressive forms of
organisation and activity in statutory, voluntary and community sectors.
- Social work in NI needs to accept its
clients as citizens and recognise its own citizenship rights and responsibilities.
This requires a more cohesive and assertive professional identity
that has at its core a commitment to social justice that acknowledges
social and cultural diversity, inequalities and disadvantage.
- The profession contains within it the values,
knowledge and skills necessary to engage with the opportunities that
are emerging in relation to both the state and civil society.
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