ABSTRACT

At any stage in his daily work a person may have to think about the most desirable way of implementing a given pol­ icy, or even decide whether or not to carry out a course of action ordered by another which he himself believes to be morally wrong. Problems of this sort, depending on circumstances, may or may not arise out of anyone *s daily work. But the work of the social worker is such that by its very nature it cannot but lead to value-problems, and this for several reasons. In the first place, the very idea of having some form of social work system embodies value-judgments, for it presupposes that there are certain categories of people who ought to be given help of certain kinds, and that there ought to be special occupations to provide this kind of help. How best to provide this help, in terms of both general policy and specific in­ stance, poses a second set of value-problems. Third, complex value-judgments are generated by the questions of whether there are special skills which it is possible for a social worker to acquire, and, if so, in what manner it is permissible or desirable for him to exercise them. Finally, there are questions of value raised by the direc­ tion in which social work is or ought to be evolving, and, in particular, whether it ought to become more or less 'professionalised' or 'institutionalised'. These ques­ tions of value, and many more besides, arise, we said, out of the very nature of social work. But what is the nature of social work?