ABSTRACT
It is easy to take relationship-based practice for granted. After all, isn’t it something that we all do, or at least, all aspire to do? It is so often said to be ‘at the heart of practice’ (as the title of this book demonstrates), that we might ask why do we need to give it any additional attention? And yet as all social work practitioners know, it has become increasingly difficult to make it a reality in recent years, in a world dominated by case-management, by IT and computers-systems, and as social workers struggle to work in ways they feel are authentic and aligned to their personal and professional values and to the promise of relational practice. Additionally, it would also be naïve not to acknowledge the ever-present power imbalance between service users and social workers, which inevitably impacts on the kind and quality of relationships that result, as explored in the Further Reading.
