ABSTRACT
Task-centred practice is a research-informed, problem-focused intervention aimed at helping service users achieve positive personal outcomes. This practice model guides a relationship-based approach between service users and social workers, in which the concept of partnership is central. This chapter focuses on the compatibility of task-centred practice with a modern climate of enduring austerity in the UK and similar challenges internationally. It explores the question of influence and argue that within the English context, at least, little remains known about the actual work social workers do with their service users. Motivational interviewing is identified as one such model that can support task-centred practice. A fundamental difference between methods is, however, that in task-centred practice, goal-setting is preceded by the retrospective exploration of problems. The first exploring-problems stage is completed across two levels: firstly, the initial expression of problems by the service user and, secondly, the considered expression of the problem by the person.
