Social Work within Community Care

Abstract

Although the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 is rightly seen as a watershed in the reorganisation of the delivery of services within local government, the effects of such changes on professional development are only just beginning to be seen. Not for nothing was the 1989 White Paper entitled ‘Community Care in the Next Decade and Beyond’. Systems, organisations and professions take time to adapt to fundamental changes in philosophy about how services should be delivered, to whom and at what cost. One of the fundamental questions is the extent to which social work has been required to adapt, and has adapted, to such changes. This book is intended as a guide for social workers, particularly student social workers, who are located within the system of community care. It seeks to give a realistic but a positive view of the demands that are made upon them by new ways of working, but also seeks opportunities for rethinking the knowledge base of social work, its skills and values which are appropriate to an era of change.