ABSTRACT
In the first years of the new millennium the Labour government tackled exclusion and deprivation in a variety of ways. Sure Start local programmes brought family support services to low-income neighbourhoods. Government measures significantly reduced child poverty. The deaths of two children – Victoria Climbié and Peter Connelly – both under local authority supervision – led to a complete overhaul of children’s services, which were separated from adult services, and to the reform of social work itself. Pressure to minimize risk led to a significant rise in the number of investigative enquiries and interim care orders instigated by social workers to a level that overrode the spirit of the Children Act, as some justices pointed out. Adult services were shaped by the discourse of personalization and co-production, but these were insufficient rhetorical shields from the lengthy period of cuts to local authority budgets from 2010 on, and the increasing role of markets – no longer quasi – in shaping domiciliary and residential care. The collapse of the College of Social Work was an indication of how precarious the position of social work was in relation to governmental authority. The claims of social justice, equality and equal rights remain as pressing as ever in a highly unequal society, exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, in which market performance shapes civic as well as economic values. As a way forward, social science tells us much about specific elements of inequality, which need to be addressed, just as it did in the early days of social work training.
