There is much uncertainty about the future for local authority social work. Almost anything is possible as social services departments are broken up and new structures emerge for adult and children's services. Social workers are feeling de-skilled and de-motivated and many want to leave the profession. They suffer a constant barrage of unfair criticism and scapegoating and there is a downward spiral in which it is increasingly difficult to fill jobs. What on earth has gone wrong?

Much of the blame must surely be put on councils themselves for failing to understand the services they run and, worse still, rejecting the values of social work. The culture of managerialism and creeping privatisation have had an enormous impact on social work practice. There have also been problems associated with bad political leadership, incompetent re-organisations, a bullying, macho style of management and managerial avoidance of responsibility. This has produced a culture of defensiveness where everyone's survival depends on learning how to pass the buck and watch your own back.

When I entered the profession thirty years ago social workers and their employing organisations took it for granted that they shared certain values, based on compassion and caring. There was at least a broad consensus about the aims of welfare provision, even though the inherent paternalism went unchallenged. Now, many social workers seem confused about their values, possibly because training courses theorise about values in an over-academic way, or because of the endless barriers to putting their values into practice. At the same time employing organisations are increasingly taking on the values of the market and allowing the provision of services to be subjected to the processes of competition and liberalisation. Consequently, it is now very difficult to identify a common set of values shared by social workers and their employing organisations.

Some of these problems have been brought about by the recent re-structuring of councils which has created a split between policy and operations. The new corporate political process does not fit easily with the role of modern social services. Firstly, it exacerbates the problems of confused and contradictory assumptions about the social work role. Councillors assume that social services simply provide help to children and vulnerable adults and focus their attention on the views of consumers and users of services. Senior managers may support this view, in order to obtain funding, but privately recognise that social work is gradually moving away from a supportive role to one of assessment and regulation. To confuse matters further, there are various powerful groups in society, including politicians, policy-makers and academics, who promote a benevolent notion of 'social care' based on the myth that services are universal and preventative and can deal with a wide range of need - which is misleading. Whilst the provision of 'social care' services is important social work also has a social control function. Furthermore, although social services are theoretically available to people from all social classes, in practice they are increasingly targeted on the disadvantaged and the poor. Within this context of unwarranted assumptions about the role of modern social services it is not surprising that some social workers get confused about their role.

Secondly, the new council cabinet of an elite group of managers has no understanding of the realities of social work and feels no obligation to support good practice. Its concerns are essentially about service delivery and performance and the aspect of management concerned with staff care is completely missing. Management is subjecting social workers to ever closer scrutiny and control but does nothing to simplify the social work task, nor does it ensure that the task given to social workers is achievable. A complex job is actually being made more difficult through ever increasing bureaucracy and paperwork.

Furthermore, the current reforms in social services, and the accompanying changes in policy and practice, are doing nothing to restore the confidence and morale of social workers. Organisational changes, new performance assessments, new procedures and practices, aimed at improving the delivery of services, are actually working to undermine good social work practice. Part of the problem is the move to 'business management' processes within councils and the constant pressure on social workers to justify their existence and explain what they are doing, while those at the top do the 'important thinking' and provide 'leadership'. The legitimacy of this business-like approach has been enhanced by the increasing preoccupation with evidence-based practice. Those at the top are regarded as guardians of the public interest and those at the front line are the problem as they allegedly fail to serve the public well. The overall effect of these changes has been to keep social workers under ever tighter managerial control. Meanwhile, social workers are expected to deal with very complex situations while finding that no-one at the top is willing to accept appropriate managerial responsibility. Furthermore, their attempts to raise concerns and to suggest ways of improving services are generally dismissed by management and those who speak out risk being disciplined or sacked.

One effect of the modernising agenda is to reduce social work to a set of pre-determined tasks; the dynamics of the helping relationship are completely ignored. Managers are under pressure to ensure that social workers do the basics, as defined by targets and procedures. Most social workers do the basics well, but they also do a lot more. The social work task of caring for children in need and for vulnerable adults requires a consistent, caring relationship and an understanding of the wider context of social problems and the barriers to change. Managers should recognise this and support social workers as they struggle with the dilemmas of day-to-day practice. They should also accept that whatever social work services are provided the outcomes for clients, especially in terms of personal growth or development, cannot be objectively measured.

It can only be concluded that most politicians, policy-makers and senior managers are incapable of grasping the realities of the human experience that underpin social work practice. They are not interested in the inner worlds of the emotions and relationships and assume that the surface of life is all that really exists. They operate skilfully in the external world, especially in the formal world of work and public life, but they lack a deeper understanding of the personal and private world and the paradoxes and contradictions of everyday life. They have developed a way of thinking and use of language (e.g. stakeholder, human and knowledge capital) that is outside the practices and ways of knowing of social workers. More importantly, their policies are not informed by the practice experience of social workers and are impossible to put into practice.

Obviously, there is a problem with any debate about the future of local authority social work because of the contradictions which are inherent within the social work role. A radical analysis of the problem is needed which puts at the centre of the debate fundamental questions about the relationship between the individual and the state. At present social work performs a function for the state in managing and controlling the disadvantaged and distressed. Social workers may not like this but they should face up to this reality. There is also the question of whether local government is losing the capacity to be responsive to the local situation as so much control is now exercised by central government. Social workers therefore need to re-examine the value judgements underpinning their work and the class-biased nature of the structures within which they work. Social workers may discover they bring a different set of values to the job from those of their employing organisations. In some cases the conflicts and contradictions they experience can be paralysing.

We obviously need confident social workers with appropriate training. However, the quality of the service they provide is dependent on the extent to which they are supported and valued by their employing organisations. The best employers are those who value the experience-based knowledge and skills of competent workers and are concerned with the professional development of all workers; the best organisations are those where hierarchy is kept to the minimum and front-line teams have a clear commitment to the aims of the organisation. Thirty years ago social workers were held in greater public esteem than today and enjoyed a brief period of co-existence with their employing departments in which they felt sufficiently clear about what they were being asked to do. Since then the culture within local authority departments has become more controlling, hierarchical and authoritarian. The future for local authority social work does indeed look bleak. The only glimmer of hope is in the continuing support for the notion of public services integrated at the local level and the involvement of user groups to make councils more responsive to the needs of communities.

If social workers were given more respect and recognition and allowed to use their professional judgement there might be some hope of making the job more satisfying and worthwhile. The current absurdity of mature, experienced social workers who have dedicated their working lives to practice being made to undergo re-training illustrates the problem. Obviously, social workers must keep up to date with new methods of working but some training courses are nothing more than accepted notions of good practice re-invented by those who have no sense of history.

Social workers must demand that local authorities cultivate and nurture talent at the front-line and create such attractive conditions of service that the morale of teams is raised. The last thirty years has seen considerable development in the knowledge base of social work. In stable, committed and supportive teams this collective knowledge and wisdom could evolve into mature practice and local authority social work could once again earn the respect it deserves.

Hilary Searing

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