What Is A Meritocracy?
The social work profession emerged in the early nineteenth century as charitable organizations began employing trained workers rather than relying on volunteers. This was a century when disease, laziness, poverty and others were exposed as social evils that needed to be addressed. The movement to stamp out these social evils began with philanthropist women, joined later by charitable organizations and subsequently by the state or government itself (Gorsky, 1999).
The philanthropic women who began the movement operated by passing on an ideology which mainly sought to help people by remoralizing them. This meant that those in need of help had to sign a temperance pledge which was based on the religious beliefs of the day. It was this process …show more content…
which in part led to the birth of somewhat formal charitable organizations and other agencies whose main aim was to help and support the needy. Rogers (2008) states that the claims and needs of those in need of help were not properly assessed at this time. As a result, the benevolent gestures of these organizations were exposed to attacks from “clever paupers”, a practice now known as benefit fraud (Rogers, 2008.p80).
The Charitable Organization Society (COS) was established in 1869 to combat this fraudulent activity. Another reason for its establishment was as a response to competition and overlap occurring between the various charities and agencies in many parts of the UK (Young, 1956). In addition, there were also concerns about the impact of such giving upon recipients. The main concern, as Octavia Hill, a pioneer of this organization pointed out, was that it could lead to a ‘dependency culture’ and a great deal of exaggeration in order to gain money and goods (Rogers, 2008). To address all of these factors, pioneers of COS saw two crucial needs; the need to help self-respecting families who were struggling to keep themselves from destitution, and secondly, to organize and coordinate charities so that the best use could be made of resources (Rooff 1972).
One of the greatest impacts of COS on social work was its encouragement and collection of developing methods. To achieve the aims based on which it was founded, the COS introduced case-paper processes to ensure that there was succession in the work being done by social workers. Case-work methods that had been developed without any format through the nineteenth century were consolidated and developed into coherent plans by the new case-workers (Noel, 1971). The COS emphasized on organization and investigation in its work, leading to notions such as the deserving and undeserving poor.
It is important to point out that as social work continued to develop, so did policy and legislation surrounding it. Whereas focus had been on the behaviour of claimants alone in the past, these policies and legislations led to significant changes in the role of social workers and their practices. The first of such legislation was the Children and Young Persons Act of 1963, which focused social work with children on preventative and rehabilitative work (Arthur, 2007). It also encouraged social workers to change conditions and to reduce the number of children entering the juvenile court or local authority. However, due to poor communication and fragmentation within Social Work delivery, this objective was hardly achieved. The Seebohm committee was set up to suggest solutions to this and other problems. Led by Fredric Seebohm, their responsibility was to “review the organisation and responsibilities of the local authorities in England and Wales, and to consider what changes were desirable to secure an operative family service” (Seebohm.1968, p.11)
The Seebohm report (1968) recommended that all social work services should be integrated into one service. Also, social work should be a family oriented and community based service available and accessible to all as an integrated service rather than separate departments run independently. Staff struggled to cope with this new approach, extending themselves with undefined roles. Some saw them as unprofessional as they were seen to be doing everything. In view of this, the Barclay committee was asked to “review the role and task of social workers in local authority social services department and related voluntary agencies in England and Wales and to make recommendations” (Barclay, 1982, p.vii). The outcome was a recommendation for better communication, collaboration with other services, negotiating and advocating on their clients’ behalf and also acting as rationers and gatekeepers of scarce resources.
Polices and legislations are intended to aid social workers to achieve good service delivery. Although they have mostly been positive, their implementation has also led to tensions in social work practice. They have firstly created a bureaucratic working environment, as Dunning (2011) suggests; “there is a massive increase in paperwork with almost sole responsibility for social workers to complete the process”. Besides bureaucracy, poor communication between various department caused by frequent changes in policies is also seen to detract social workers from their key roles. Another issue is the managerialism and target setting. Social workers cannot take important decisions without consulting their managers; they operate on very tight budgets which often make it impossible to intervene in the manner proposed by the Barclay report.
Following the death of Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter, concerns were raised as to whether these tensions contributed to their death or whether social workers had simply been negligent. This in part led to lord Lamming enquiry in 2003 for Victoria and in 2010 for Baby P. For the former, Lord Lamming made 58 recommendations of which less than 15 were implemented. Some of those implemented was the Children Act 2004 with the notion ;every child matters. In a related development, in 2010, Eileen Munro was asked to review child protection in the UK. The first report which came out of this review was entitled 'A Systems Analysis ' and was published in October 2010. The report described child protection system in modern times as one that has been shaped by four key driving forces. A second report in February 2011, ‘The Child 's Journey ', looked at how children’s cases are processed through the child protection system and how this can be improved. (Munro, 2011)
The above can be considered as part of the government’s overall effort to promote the development of social work in the UK. As part of this process, it has also introduced professionalization into the practice of social work, as suggested by the Barclay report. Social Workers are offered NHS bursaries during training and are also registered with the Healthcare Professionals Council (HCPC) after training. There are also regulations in place to inspect and to ensure quality control by key regulatory bodies like the OFSTED and Care Quality Control (CQC). (Dickens, 2013) Although many important strides have been made in the development of the social work profession, the questions still remain as to whether Social work should still remain. In particular, four key theoretical perspectives question the government’s contribution to the social work profession and the professions own existence.
The first of these is the Functionalists who believe that the government is spending too much resource on social workers. They argue that there are other trained professionals who can perform the role of the social worker. In their view, social work is unprofessional and has lost sight of who really deserves support and who does not (Turner, 2011). Socialists on the other hand believe that Social Workers are making a great impact in the life of the elderly and children in need. They argue that the number of Social Workers is not enough and suggest that they are increased as they are over stretched. Further, socialists believe that with right education, social workers will be able to promote wellbeing and social inclusion.
There is also a pluralist perspective which believes in meritocracy.
By this, they suggest that there should be a social system in which people’s success in life depends primarily on their own abilities and effort. The proposal of a meritocracy has served as an ideology through the dissimilarity that social inequality results from imbalanced advantage rather than prejudice or discrimination (Mcnamee and Miller, 2004). In contrast to the three viewpoints enumerated so far, there is also a post-modernist position which questions the existence of a concept of inequality. As Scheurich, (1997) explained, those in favour of this view reject the use of empirical research to establish objective reality. They believe that this can be done by the independent observer; as such, the postmodernist ethos suggests that the individual’s view of reality is equally valid (Murphy and Pardeck, …show more content…
1998,).
In sum, the social work profession has been through a lot of development as well as setbacks. However, Hugman (2003) pointed out that, the future of ethical social work practice may be lonely, hazardous, ambiguous and fraught. Hence, the future of the social worker is full of uncertainties.
Bibliography
Arthur, R.
(2007). Family Life and Youth Offending:Home is where is Hurt is . Oxon: Routledge.
Barclay, P. (1982). Social Workers:Their Role and Task (the Barclay Report). London: Bedford Square Press.
Dickens, J. (2013). Social Work Law and Ethics. New York: Routledge.
Dunning, J. (2011, May 25). Bureaucracy is damaging personalisation,Social Workers Say. Retrieved 04 26, 2013, from www.communitycare.com
Gorsky, M. (1999). Patterns of Philanthropy:Charity and Society in nineteenth century Bristol. london: Boydell Press.
Hugman, R. (2003). Professional Valves and Ethics in Social Work: Reconsidering Postmodernism. British Journal of Social Work , 1025-1041.
Mcnamee, J., & Miller, K. (2004). The Meritocracy Myth. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Meinert, G. R., Pardeck, T., & Murphy, W. (1998). Postmodernism Religion and the Future of Social Work. New York: Haworth Press.
Munro, E. (2011). Department for Education.The Munro Review of Child Proctection:Final Report - Child Centred Report. London: The Stationery Office Limited.
Noel, T. (1971). Social Casework:Principle and Practice. Old Woking: The Gresham Press.
Rogers, A. J. (2008). Voice from the Voluntary Sector:A comparative study of the impact of Government funding within the Voluntary Sector. Proquest
LLC.
Roof, M. (1972). A Hunderd Years of Family Welfare . London: Micheal Joseph.
Scheurich, J. (2007). Research Method in the Postmodern. London: Falmer Press.
Seebohm, F. (1968). Report of the committee on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Service (the Seebohm Report). London: HMSO.
Turner, F. J. (2011). Social Work Treatment:Interlocking Theoretical Approahes. New York: Oxford Unversity Press.
Young, F. (1956). British Social Work in the Nineteenth Century. London: LondonRoutledge and Kegan Paul.
The philanthropic women who began the movement operated by passing on an ideology which mainly sought to help people by remoralizing them. This meant that those in need of help had to sign a temperance pledge which was based on the religious beliefs of the day. It was this process …show more content…
which in part led to the birth of somewhat formal charitable organizations and other agencies whose main aim was to help and support the needy. Rogers (2008) states that the claims and needs of those in need of help were not properly assessed at this time. As a result, the benevolent gestures of these organizations were exposed to attacks from “clever paupers”, a practice now known as benefit fraud (Rogers, 2008.p80).
The Charitable Organization Society (COS) was established in 1869 to combat this fraudulent activity. Another reason for its establishment was as a response to competition and overlap occurring between the various charities and agencies in many parts of the UK (Young, 1956). In addition, there were also concerns about the impact of such giving upon recipients. The main concern, as Octavia Hill, a pioneer of this organization pointed out, was that it could lead to a ‘dependency culture’ and a great deal of exaggeration in order to gain money and goods (Rogers, 2008). To address all of these factors, pioneers of COS saw two crucial needs; the need to help self-respecting families who were struggling to keep themselves from destitution, and secondly, to organize and coordinate charities so that the best use could be made of resources (Rooff 1972).
One of the greatest impacts of COS on social work was its encouragement and collection of developing methods. To achieve the aims based on which it was founded, the COS introduced case-paper processes to ensure that there was succession in the work being done by social workers. Case-work methods that had been developed without any format through the nineteenth century were consolidated and developed into coherent plans by the new case-workers (Noel, 1971). The COS emphasized on organization and investigation in its work, leading to notions such as the deserving and undeserving poor.
It is important to point out that as social work continued to develop, so did policy and legislation surrounding it. Whereas focus had been on the behaviour of claimants alone in the past, these policies and legislations led to significant changes in the role of social workers and their practices. The first of such legislation was the Children and Young Persons Act of 1963, which focused social work with children on preventative and rehabilitative work (Arthur, 2007). It also encouraged social workers to change conditions and to reduce the number of children entering the juvenile court or local authority. However, due to poor communication and fragmentation within Social Work delivery, this objective was hardly achieved. The Seebohm committee was set up to suggest solutions to this and other problems. Led by Fredric Seebohm, their responsibility was to “review the organisation and responsibilities of the local authorities in England and Wales, and to consider what changes were desirable to secure an operative family service” (Seebohm.1968, p.11)
The Seebohm report (1968) recommended that all social work services should be integrated into one service. Also, social work should be a family oriented and community based service available and accessible to all as an integrated service rather than separate departments run independently. Staff struggled to cope with this new approach, extending themselves with undefined roles. Some saw them as unprofessional as they were seen to be doing everything. In view of this, the Barclay committee was asked to “review the role and task of social workers in local authority social services department and related voluntary agencies in England and Wales and to make recommendations” (Barclay, 1982, p.vii). The outcome was a recommendation for better communication, collaboration with other services, negotiating and advocating on their clients’ behalf and also acting as rationers and gatekeepers of scarce resources.
Polices and legislations are intended to aid social workers to achieve good service delivery. Although they have mostly been positive, their implementation has also led to tensions in social work practice. They have firstly created a bureaucratic working environment, as Dunning (2011) suggests; “there is a massive increase in paperwork with almost sole responsibility for social workers to complete the process”. Besides bureaucracy, poor communication between various department caused by frequent changes in policies is also seen to detract social workers from their key roles. Another issue is the managerialism and target setting. Social workers cannot take important decisions without consulting their managers; they operate on very tight budgets which often make it impossible to intervene in the manner proposed by the Barclay report.
Following the death of Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter, concerns were raised as to whether these tensions contributed to their death or whether social workers had simply been negligent. This in part led to lord Lamming enquiry in 2003 for Victoria and in 2010 for Baby P. For the former, Lord Lamming made 58 recommendations of which less than 15 were implemented. Some of those implemented was the Children Act 2004 with the notion ;every child matters. In a related development, in 2010, Eileen Munro was asked to review child protection in the UK. The first report which came out of this review was entitled 'A Systems Analysis ' and was published in October 2010. The report described child protection system in modern times as one that has been shaped by four key driving forces. A second report in February 2011, ‘The Child 's Journey ', looked at how children’s cases are processed through the child protection system and how this can be improved. (Munro, 2011)
The above can be considered as part of the government’s overall effort to promote the development of social work in the UK. As part of this process, it has also introduced professionalization into the practice of social work, as suggested by the Barclay report. Social Workers are offered NHS bursaries during training and are also registered with the Healthcare Professionals Council (HCPC) after training. There are also regulations in place to inspect and to ensure quality control by key regulatory bodies like the OFSTED and Care Quality Control (CQC). (Dickens, 2013) Although many important strides have been made in the development of the social work profession, the questions still remain as to whether Social work should still remain. In particular, four key theoretical perspectives question the government’s contribution to the social work profession and the professions own existence.
The first of these is the Functionalists who believe that the government is spending too much resource on social workers. They argue that there are other trained professionals who can perform the role of the social worker. In their view, social work is unprofessional and has lost sight of who really deserves support and who does not (Turner, 2011). Socialists on the other hand believe that Social Workers are making a great impact in the life of the elderly and children in need. They argue that the number of Social Workers is not enough and suggest that they are increased as they are over stretched. Further, socialists believe that with right education, social workers will be able to promote wellbeing and social inclusion.
There is also a pluralist perspective which believes in meritocracy.
By this, they suggest that there should be a social system in which people’s success in life depends primarily on their own abilities and effort. The proposal of a meritocracy has served as an ideology through the dissimilarity that social inequality results from imbalanced advantage rather than prejudice or discrimination (Mcnamee and Miller, 2004). In contrast to the three viewpoints enumerated so far, there is also a post-modernist position which questions the existence of a concept of inequality. As Scheurich, (1997) explained, those in favour of this view reject the use of empirical research to establish objective reality. They believe that this can be done by the independent observer; as such, the postmodernist ethos suggests that the individual’s view of reality is equally valid (Murphy and Pardeck, …show more content…
1998,).
In sum, the social work profession has been through a lot of development as well as setbacks. However, Hugman (2003) pointed out that, the future of ethical social work practice may be lonely, hazardous, ambiguous and fraught. Hence, the future of the social worker is full of uncertainties.
Bibliography
Arthur, R.
(2007). Family Life and Youth Offending:Home is where is Hurt is . Oxon: Routledge.
Barclay, P. (1982). Social Workers:Their Role and Task (the Barclay Report). London: Bedford Square Press.
Dickens, J. (2013). Social Work Law and Ethics. New York: Routledge.
Dunning, J. (2011, May 25). Bureaucracy is damaging personalisation,Social Workers Say. Retrieved 04 26, 2013, from www.communitycare.com
Gorsky, M. (1999). Patterns of Philanthropy:Charity and Society in nineteenth century Bristol. london: Boydell Press.
Hugman, R. (2003). Professional Valves and Ethics in Social Work: Reconsidering Postmodernism. British Journal of Social Work , 1025-1041.
Mcnamee, J., & Miller, K. (2004). The Meritocracy Myth. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Meinert, G. R., Pardeck, T., & Murphy, W. (1998). Postmodernism Religion and the Future of Social Work. New York: Haworth Press.
Munro, E. (2011). Department for Education.The Munro Review of Child Proctection:Final Report - Child Centred Report. London: The Stationery Office Limited.
Noel, T. (1971). Social Casework:Principle and Practice. Old Woking: The Gresham Press.
Rogers, A. J. (2008). Voice from the Voluntary Sector:A comparative study of the impact of Government funding within the Voluntary Sector. Proquest
LLC.
Roof, M. (1972). A Hunderd Years of Family Welfare . London: Micheal Joseph.
Scheurich, J. (2007). Research Method in the Postmodern. London: Falmer Press.
Seebohm, F. (1968). Report of the committee on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Service (the Seebohm Report). London: HMSO.
Turner, F. J. (2011). Social Work Treatment:Interlocking Theoretical Approahes. New York: Oxford Unversity Press.
Young, F. (1956). British Social Work in the Nineteenth Century. London: LondonRoutledge and Kegan Paul.