ABSTRACT
E Education Welfare Officer This description (of what was originally the School Enquiry Officer) became common after 1944, partly as a recognition of the growing welfare functions of education departments, including work in relation to school attendance, free school meals, shoes and clothing, and child employment. The report of a working party established by the Local Government Training Board (Ralphs Report, 1973) referred to the neglect and undervaluation of the work of the EWO, and a more recent research report stated: 'The relative lack of integrity or clarity of function of the role of the EWO raises such questions as what is distinctive about the role, how far is the EWO able to practise particular skills as an individual practitioner, what are the adjacent roles and what are the necessary relationships between these roles?' (Johnson et al., p.135). Dominant issues in relation to the EWO concern the wide variation in duties and organisational structure, the extent to which the EWO should be seen as an education social worker (a specialisation developed in America), and the degree to which the potential of the role is being fulfilled in the interests of parents, child, and school. Johnson, D. et al. (1980) Secondary Schools and the Welfare Network,
Allen & Unwin. Robinson, M. ([ 978) Schools and Social Work, Rout[edge & Kegan
Paul, pp. [65-90.
