Social Work with Children and Families: Challenges and Possibilities in the Neo-Liberal World

The 1970s saw social work as the rising star of the human service professions in the UK. Since then, the profession has been under attack from the media and politicians, this coinciding with changed ideological, political, economic and social circumstances. Practitioners' expertise and effectiveness were questioned and they were blamed for scandals, notably in relation to abused children. There have been changes in their organisation and practice whereby a profession based on knowledge, understanding and skills has become a so-called profession with managers now dominating what practitioners do. Relationship-based work has been transformed into a bureaucratic focus on the assessment of risk and rationing of resources and services, together with a more controlling, moral policing role. Focusing on developments in England in relation to children and families, I argue that, although what remains is a limited version of social works possibilities, there remains scope for a radical/critical practice that involves working alongside users on the problems they face.