The Interplay Of Structural Social Work Essay

The Interplay Of Structural Social Work EssaySocial work serve seeks to promote human well- existence and to redress human suffering and inequity..Such practice maintains a particular c erstrn for those who ar most excluded from fond, economical or cultural processes and structures.Consequently, social work practice is a policy-making activity and tensions between rights to cargon and defend and self-determination are genuinely much a professional concern(OConnor et al, 2006, p.1)The Brown family case study leave behind be referred to by dint of break the see in an attempt to explore and discuss the lived experiences of service users. With such an array of difficulties faced by the family, in revisal to be able to provide analysis and critique, many of these difficulties and their correlativity at heart social work practice forget not be explored. The essay willing begin with examining the political background from Margaret Thatcher to the current Coalition organiz ation and emphasize their continued functionalist ideologies. It will also discuss sociological constructions of the family, scantiness, power, and managerialism.The prolific cases of the deaths of Victoria Climbi and Baby P direct to such media scrutiny and a downward turn in public perception of social workers. As a prove, this has led to changes in social work practice with minorren and families. ascribable to the current austerity measures, social workers gatekeeping of resources and having to beseeming stringent thresholds often result in limitations being put on families and creating what ..describes as a revolving introduction syndrome. The Brown case study refers to there being intermittent enfolding from social services over several years, which supports the suggestion of a revolving entry syndrome. Although the case study is not explicit, I think it would be prophylactic to assume that departures faced by the Brown family may apply suggested that they meet the s ection 47 threshold set out in the Children feign which would support triggered social work involvement with the family. However, if the involvement has been intermittent, this would suggest that once significant pretend had diminished the involvement with the family was stopped which suggest risk led practice was employed rather than a needs led (Axford, 2010).Munros recent review of child protection (2011) included 15 recommendations. there is not scope to discuss each recommendation but she urges the authorities to accept that there will inevitably be an element of uncertainty, to digest professionals to have a greater freedom to use their professional creative thinker and expertise, and to reduce bureaucracy. The response from politics is to accept 9 out of the 15 recommendations (DfE, 2011)PovertyThe case study highlights that the Brown family are pendent on welfare benefits and that they find it difficult to manage their finances. Therefore, they are essenti in ally documentation in poverty. Poverty can be described as a complex occurrence that can be caused by a shake off of issues which can result in inadequate resources. It impacts on childhoods, life chances and imposes cost on societyChild poverty costs the UK at least 25 billion a year, (equivalent to 2% of GDP) including 17 billion that could increase to the Exchequer if child poverty were eradicated. Public spending to deal with the side effect of child poverty is approximately 12 billion a year, about 60% of which goes on personal social services, school education and law and criminal justice. (Hirsch, 2008 Joseph Rowntree Foundation,p.5)Cross national studies have suggested that child poverty is not a natural occurrence. Moreover it is a political occurrence, the product of decisions and actions do by the government and society. Attention concerning a settlement culture has filtered through different political parties and have been utilised with renewed enthusiasm since the go vernance of the coalition government in 2010. These assertions of dependency create propaganda about the attitudes of the workless and they suffer the wrong impression of the previous efforts of the Labour government to tackle child poverty who focus was to direct increased welfare payments towards those people who are working in low paid jobs. The coalition is currently decrease benefit payments to families in work. As a result of these cuts, many children will evidently be thrust back into child poverty ().A possible contention is that the coalition government argue that they seek to hold dear the symptoms of poverty, rather than the causes. However, their analyses of the causes are at best partial or incomplete. objet dart in-work poverty is acknowledged, it is often buried beneath the rhetoric of welfare dependency (ESRC, 2011). The suggestion that previous methods to tackle child poverty have inevitably robbed people of their own responsibility and therefore led them to bec ome dependent on the welfare state that simply hands out exchange is absurd (Minujin Nandy, 2012).Work is frequently referred to as the favoured route out of poverty. Although the government have introduced numerous policies to make work pay there are countless families that still do not earn enough bullion to attempt to lift their family out of poverty (Barnardos, 2009). More than half of all children currently living in poverty have a reboot in paid work (DWP, 2009). The Brown family have both parents out of work, with Anne having never been in paid work and Craig struggling to find fixedness employment since leaving the Army 8 years ago. Both parents have literacy difficulties and so require a complex package of support to change them to improve their life chances of gaining employment that pays above the minimum wage in order for their family to no longer be living in poverty. jibe to the code of practice (HCPC, 2012) social workers are required toAs mentioned previously, accompanying Neo Liberal governments uphold a functionalist ideology that frequently locates poverty in terms of personal responsibility and deficits.ManagerialismAs mentioned previously, services have changes over the past 20 years and this can be explained by the emergence of a managerial approach to how services are being delivered. Intrinsically, managerialism is a basic set of ideas that transpired from the New Right criticisms of welfare and is founded on the notion that public services need to be managed in the alike(p) way as profit-making organisations (Harris Unwin, 2009). In the UK there has been a rise in managerialism which can often lead to weakening the occasion and autonomy of social work practice. In the pursuit of becoming accountable and impartial, managers are attempting to control or prescribe practice in increasing detail which inexorably leads to reducing the opportunity for practitioners to implement individual reasoning. As a result, this leads to polici es that patch up rules that can often be described as inept and unsusceptible for the service user. Therefore, the tussle between the managerial and the professional control in social work practice is often a contested issue (Munro, 2008). As managerialism takes more control, then a shift towards defensive practice develops which results in procedures that are insensitive to the needs of families. In essence, the professional role of a social worker can be progressively trim down to a bureaucrat with no possibility for expertise or personalise responsesIn addition, a managerial approach causes conflict, as it emphasises the need for targets that will assess performance and the delivery of services (Brotherton et al, 20120). Furthermore, there is a correlation with an apparent distrust or autonomy of professionals. This has led to an upsurge in scrutiny by a variety of inspection bodies such as Ofsted and this has been extremely significant in the area of child protection future (a) the high-profile cases of the deaths of Victoria Climbi and Peter Connolly.