ABSTRACT
Most social workers in the UK are employed by local authority Social Service Departments and organised into local area teams. Social workers spend their time visiting children and families at home, in foster homes, in their office or in other establishments-residential homes, family centres and schools. Social workers' work usually centres around counselling, offering support and guidance to help parents look after their children, and co-ordinating the involvement of other supportive and therapeutic services. Social workers are portrayed as people with particular personal attributes: arrogant and supercilious but at the same time incompetent. The journalist makes the move from the personal to the professional by suggesting that these well intentioned people have become corrupted by their profession. Many social services departments set up child protection strategies and guidance to promote 'good practice'. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
