ABSTRACT
The goals of practice are primarily determined by agency policy and the social worker’s contribution is to work towards the achievement of those goals. The achievement of change can be attempted in a variety of ways, and this chapter outlines a selection of those strategies regarded as feasible in practice and thought to be effective to some degree, although in many cases their effectiveness is not proven and in some it is subject to serious empirical doubt. The first two strategies are basic to almost all community-based social work: counselling and environmental intervention. Research has shown that breaches of probation are both rare and inconsistent, and, although there may be occasions to justify leniency, all the evidence in child care and behavioural psychology would lead to the conclusion that a social work which threatens sanctions and then never resorts to them is unlikely to gain the respect of those it is trying to help.
