Modernising social work: Critical considerations
John Harris and Vicky White
Abstract
New Labour's modernisation agenda has produced an avalanche of change that has posed formidable challenges for everyone involved in social work, whether as service users, practitioners, or managers. This book provides a radical appraisal of the far-reaching changes in their theoretical, historical, and policy contexts. It is organised into three sections that consider: the inter-relationship of modernisation and managerialism, modernisation's impact on service users, and the ways in which social workers and front-line managers seek to exercise professional discretion for the benefit of service ... More
New Labour's modernisation agenda has produced an avalanche of change that has posed formidable challenges for everyone involved in social work, whether as service users, practitioners, or managers. This book provides a radical appraisal of the far-reaching changes in their theoretical, historical, and policy contexts. It is organised into three sections that consider: the inter-relationship of modernisation and managerialism, modernisation's impact on service users, and the ways in which social workers and front-line managers seek to exercise professional discretion for the benefit of service users within a workplace culture of intensified scrutiny and control. Analysis of a range of key developments in all three areas reveals the modernisation agenda as complex and contested. The book's three sections cover the main issues of the modernisation agenda.
Keywords:
New Labour,
modernisation,
social work,
service user,
practitioner,
managerialism,
front-line managers,
professional discretion,
intensified scrutiny,
control
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2009 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781847420060 |
| Published to Policy Press Scholarship Online: March 2012 |
DOI:10.1332/policypress/9781847420060.001.0001 |
