ABSTRACT
The personal social services had an enormous boost in expenditure immediately following the implementation of the reforms prompted by the Seebohm Committee's Report; its growth was second only to social security in the quinquennium 1976-1981. Bearing in mind that the period has seen high levels of unemployment in all corners of society, one fact becomes clear: social work has offered one career opening that provided continuing opportunities for new recruits. On the contrary, it splendidly illustrates a fundamental assertion: social work is incompatible with dogmatic ideological perspectives, whether they emerge from Left or Right. Scotland led the way towards a new unified superstructure with the establishment of social work departments in 1968. In the 1930s, the beginnings of social work professionalism could be detected, and by the 1950s, probation officers, child care officers, hospital almoners and psychiatric social workers all enjoyed an independent existence, with the first university-based qualifying courses firmly established.
