ABSTRACT
Social work has long been associated with two apparently contradictory themes: those of care and control. Children in local authority care can be placed there precisely because they are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. While the child is cared for, controls are often being placed on the parents. The use of such authority sits uneasily, it would appear, with the notion of ‘choice’, one which has been strongly pursued in recent years. Allied to a response to need, choice would seem to provide, through social work, an appropriate micro-level (in societal terms) response to social exclusion. To the extent that the capacity to exercise choice requires the removal of internal constraints, authority-based actions – those regarded as the controlling actions of social work – may be said to promote self-determination and, hence, the capacity for choice.
