Introduction: What is the Future of Social Work?

Summary

This volume brings together a number of the UK's most eminent social work professors to ask: what is the future of social work? Social work is regularly deemed to be ‘in crisis’ but after four decades of neoliberalism and ten years of austerity what is left of social work? Or at least, what is left of the dream that the social work profession, adequately funded, could provide a range of ways of working that supported individuals, families and communities during times of trouble? What happened to the expectation that the social work profession could guide people through the intricacies of the welfare and benefit systems offering empathy, hope and (financial) support when vulnerable people made the decision that they wanted to bring about change in their lives? What happened to the dream that social work could be a profession that stood shoulder to shoulder with some of the poorest and most marginalised people in our society and was prepared to ‘speak truth to power’, so that the voices of the marginalised could be heard, their perspectives and ‘knowledge from experience’ considered? Are these aspirations still relevant in the twenty-first century? Or have the years of neoliberalism, managerialism and welfare service retrenchment undermined the profession – increasingly turning it into ‘a job’, reduced to a series of ‘skills’ that can be undertaken by almost anyone, that implement government policies, often in ways that damage those we work with?

These questions shape the contributions to this volume. The book developed out of a series of distinguished lectures held at Liverpool Hope University in academic year 2016/17. Thanks to Policy Press we knew the lectures would become book chapters, so each lecture included time for reflection and contributions from the floor, with the intention that those would be filtered into the final chapters.

First a brief note about the contributors. Each has been involved in the social work field for a considerable number of years. They draw on both their practice and their academic experience – as long-term social work academic leaders within UK social work. Each is well known in the field, each has an established reputation and each is recognised for the rigour of their research and analysis.