ABSTRACT
The social workers taking part received training in task-centred casework, but were not relieved of any of their ordinary duties. The project workers collaborated in designing forms to describe their work. The social workers also arranged for the clients to be interviewed by an independent assessor shortly after the last casework interview. The client interviews suggested a further group of such clients - those who were simply too low and depressed to take a grip of their affairs in the way the model suggests. The interviews with the forty task-centred clients who were followed up confirmed the central importance of agreement between worker and client on what the problem was. The fact that client and worker can negotiate an agreed definition of the client’s problem, despite initial differences in perspective, is important given that such initial differences are likely to be common.
