ABSTRACT
The unified assessment process within care management being implemented in Wales
is aimed at addressing tensions within the care management system. Students on the
BA (Hons) Social Work programme are required to demonstrate how they develop
and utilise the theory and skills required for assessments within care management
processes. This chapter will explore some of the methodological considerations in
applying theory to the assessment role within care management. The focus will be on
the unified assessment process to explore tensions between the eclecticism of theories
offered to social work students and the tensions created through an assessment process
which, it is argued, perpetuates a reductionist functionalist position. This position
leads to an insufficient consideration of values, critical evaluation and deploys
front-line knowledge to second place within the assessment process. Moreover it
fails to account for social workers’ emotional experience of their relationship with
service-users. In short, the procedural aspect of assessment becomes more important
than the quality of the assessment itself as the former seeks to meet the structural
needs of an organisation in accruing information rather than meeting the actual needs
of service-users.
