Voices of Women in Rural India: Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Education

Women self-help group participants in rural northern India described living with social and economic challenges, including persistent poverty and discrimination. Self-help group participants, teachers, administrators, and parents discussed rural education. Stakeholders talked with a social work student serving an intensive internship in a grassroots non-governmental organization. A grounded theory approach guided data collection, coding, and analysis. Self-help group participant data themes included the empowerment of women and development of entrepreneurship. Education stakeholders revealed a need for increased access to education, especially for girls and young women. Therefore, recommendations centered on “3 E’s” – empowerment, entrepreneurship, and education. American and Indian social workers, community organizers, and social work educators have much to learn from each other in the quest for social and economic justice

A Structured Narrative Literature Review of Approved Mental Health Professional Detention Decisions: An Infusion of Morality

In England and Wales, Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) may make applications to detain people in hospital under the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983 as amended 2007. This paper seeks to establish what the available academic literature has to say about AMHP detention decisions. A structured narrative literature review was conducted with the identification of twenty-five included texts that were thematically analysed interpretively. Risk, accountability, and morality are identified as dominant themes in this review. Risk is prominent, but on closer inspection risk is infused with morality. Morality is the merging of the personal and professional domains, the use of self to understand another. Accountability is situated between morality and risk, inextricably linked on both sides with authors identifying a fear of responsibility for adverse consequences. Sub-themes of emotions, intuition, uncertainty, coercion, and alternatives (to admission to hospital) were also found. Analysis of nearly thirty years of literature regarding ASW/AMHP detention decisions tells us that they are not based solely on technical judgements; morality permeates the decision. The literature is justified in evincing risk in detention decisions, but the prominence of risk overshadows accountability and belies the influence of morality

‘You just have to work with what you’ve got’ Practitioner research with precarious migrant families

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor and Francis in Practice on 09/10/2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/09503153.2017.1385756 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Undocumented migrant families experience high levels of food poverty, exclusion from mainstream benefits, and sometimes from social work services. This is an under-researched area for social work in the UK, and there is no statutory guidance for social workers on supporting undocumented migrants. Practitioner research is one way of ‘visibilising’ their experiences. Six migrant families accessing a voluntary sector stay and play project were interviewed using a practitioner research model of semi-structured interviews on the themes of food, access to services and children. The research found that families responded to their situation with a seemingly contradictory strategy of resignation and resilience. The implications for practitioners working with this user group are considered, and suggestions for support services for this group of families are offered

‘Does My Haltung Look Big In This?”: The Use of Social Pedagogical Theory for the Development of Ethical and Value Led Practice

The aim of this article is to set out how the use of social pedagogical Haltung can support the exploration of values and how this informs and shapes a practitioner’s direct work. Haltung is a German concept that has no direct English translation but means ‘mind set’, ‘ethos’ or ‘attitude’ (Eichsteller, 2010) and relates to an individual’s value base. Mührel’s (2008, cited in Eichsteller, 2010), sets out that a social pedagogical Haltung is based on the two concepts of empathic understanding and regard. This paper argues that the use of a social pedagogical Haltung gives practitioners a philosophical framework to support the reflection of core values and ethics held on a personal level. It also supports an understanding of how these influence practitioners and students when using ‘self’ in relationship based practice. The understanding of Haltung is important but for social pedagogical practice to be undertaken it also has to be demonstrated by actions. The reflective activity Values Alive in Practice, set out in this article, provides a tool for social workers, practitioners and students to critically explore their own values and practice and make more meaningful connections between their Haltung and their behaviours demonstrated in their everyday work. In the UK, values and standards for social work practice are set out by British Association of Social Work and Social Work England. Arguably, these have, at times, been reduced to a checklist for students and practitioners and can lack more in depth and explicit links to practice. The analysis of practice is more likely to focus on the skills and abilities of practitioners rather than the value base that underpins these. Whilst the understanding and key application of core knowledge and skills is essential for competent social work practice (Forrester et al., 2019), this article argues that it must also be supported and shaped by ethical principles. This article seeks to explore how social workers can be supported to adopt value led approaches to complex work within an outcome focussed culture

Beyond Legalism in Turbulent Times: Re-grounding UK Social Work in a Richer International Human Rights Perspective

Human rights have always been intrinsically woven into social work, but in the UK, often in a way that is either vague or wholly legalistic. In this article, we make a case for embedding a broader and richer concept of human rights in UK social work practice and education. We contrast the international social work perspective on human rights with that of UK professional codes and suggest that the narrow and uninterrogated conceptualisation of human rights in the UK may be acting as a barrier to UK social workers fully understanding and engaging with broader human rights agendas of the sort found in international practice. We argue for the merits of regrounding UK social work in this broader human rights concept, in which radical and emancipatory approaches can be underpinned by a common and unifying rights-orientated perspective. We make this argument, initially, in the context of the Human Rights Act 1998 remaining in UK law, which we see as entirely necessary for the protection of human rights in social work in the country, but insufficient for a broader, richer concept. We also, however, consider a scenario in which the Act is replaced by a British Bill of Rights and argue that such a development would present a further urgent need for embedding a broader human rights concept in UK social work. We close by setting out some of what such a concept might involve

Independence in complaints procedures: lessons from community care

This article looks at internal complaints procedures and considers the role of independent elements in procedures which are designed to be simple, informal and low cost. Taking the example of local authority community care services as a case study, the article discusses research which looked at the views of complainants, potential complainants and those who run the procedure. Most people do not make formal complaints at all and very few people seek an independent review of their complaint. When they do seek such a review, they expect it to be transparently independent of the body complained about. The article concludes that the current system of local authority complaints review panels or committees does not provide the independent element that complainants seek

Social workers welcome refugees to the UK – joint statement and call for action by the Association of Professors of Social Work (APSW), British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Joint University Council Social Work Education Committee (JUC SWEC) and Social Work Action Network (SWAN).

In November 2015, the Association of Professors of Social Work, the British Association of Social Workers, the Joint University Council Social Work Education Committee, and the Social Work Action Network (SWAN) agreed a joint statement and call for action on the refugee crisis across the EU. This statement was also supported by colleagues from the legal community in their call for action to the UK government and appeared on Monday 12 October 2015 in The Times and The Guardian. Dr. Kate Smith contributed to drafting this statement

Rights, resposibilities and remedies BASW's model compliants procedure

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:90/20524(Rights) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo