This book is a collection of thirteen edited chapters from different contributors, each presenting their perspective on the nature of evaluation and research and their application to practice. The editors aim to provide a ‘comprehensive treatment of the central issues confronting evaluation in social work’, however, their claims that it is likely to appeal to students, researchers and practitio...

The aim of this discussion is to put participation in social work in ideological, historical and theoretical context. To do this, it will consider social work in the broader context of social policy and identify the two dominant modern political discourses which initially in the UK, but also beyond have provided the context for this discussion. While the discussion comes primarily from a UK per...

Poverty and its etiology have been major subjects of concern for the social work profession throughout its history. This study focused on four causal attributions for poverty: social-structural, motivational, psychological, and fatalistic. More specifically, it examined the differences between social workers' and service users' perceptions of the causes of poverty. Participants were 401 service...

In 2013, Michael Gove, then Secretary of State for Education and Health in the UK coalition government, criticised social workers for laying insufficient emphasis on the 'agency' of individuals and for being too preoccupied with social and economic inequalities. Such a perspective, which is not unique to Gove, needs to be countered by reaffirming the significance of an expansively critical soci...

Adults with physical disabilities living in the community generally live within severe constraints in terms of available health and social services. Independence Care System (ICS) is a Medicaid-based disability care coordination organization in New York City that allows many New Yorkers with physical disabilities to live independently. This article summarizes our program, our experience, our im...

In reply to Dr Benians's article which suggests that social workers at times abuse their authority, three areas can be considered: the broader context of the social work task, the legal process itself, and the contribution made by child psychiatrists.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) has emerged as an alternative to traditional social work practice and has ignited a new round in the decades-old debate about the relationship between knowledge and practice in the field. This article identifies several limitations inherent in the EBP perspective and argues that it would be unfortunate if EBP were to become the new paradigm for social work practice...