ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the several child welfare workers in City Office through their own biographies. It presents an interpretative understanding of their work from their own point of view. The workers framed their practice within the ideology of child-saving that is typical of the second child saving movement. Native American clients played minor parts in the huge caseloads workers had. The rhetoric of child welfare, enshrined in textbooks and policies, is that child welfare practice is an important part of social work. ‘The profession of social work is the single profession that is most clearly identified with the field of child welfare’. The requirement was a Master’s degree in social work, or a Bachelor’s degree in social work supplemented by one year’s professional experience, or a Bachelor’s degree in any field, but ‘preferably related to social work/supplemented with two year’s professional social welfare experience.
