Consolidating the responsibilities of social workers in social services departments, 1974–1989

Chapter nine focuses on the considerable amount of attention given to formal reviews of the roles and responsibilities of social workers in social services departments during the period 1974 to 1989. Reviews took place in the context of widespread concern about child abuse and the extent to which social workers had been effective in their response, and of an acceleration of community care policy involving the closure of hospitals and children’s homes.