Who Controls Social Services?

Abstract

Social workers are responsible for working with people so as to empower them to take control over their lives. This is intrinsically contradictory, though, because it implies that the empowering professionals are in control. Many initiatives aiming to give people choice and power are compromised in a similar way. It is important for practitioners to explore these and other similar problems and paradoxes raised by efforts to advance practice in this area. This chapter examines the issues affecting the practitioner engaged in increasing the control of services by people receiving those services and their carers.