ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by asking if social work works. This apparently simple question leads to a consideration of the possible meanings of social work for clients and for social work practitioners. The chapter aims to illuminate approaches to a social worker and the client's view and assessment of the help offered. It provides comment on the status of consumer opinion in the social services. The chapter also focuses on the main evaluative studies in social work. Some kind of evaluative study is often built into new community work projects, even though there is disagreement about the justification for this. One of the major results of the evaluative studies is to highlight two important questions for social workers: one concerns the nature of social work activity, and the second the kind of evaluative research that is most appropriate for social work. Since the publication of this study there have been a number of studies, mostly by American researchers.
