ABSTRACT
Social work practice governed by fashionable theories
Social work has only recently become a profession. It began with the voluntary distribution of alms — hence the name almoner. There was little time to train social workers in scientific methods on the short one-and twoyear courses which were hastily created to provide the increase in numbers needed in the 70s after the Seebohm Report, let alone time to give them experience of the joys and pitfalls of research at first hand. The results are predictable. Social work practice is too often subject to the vagaries of whatever theory is'fashionable at the time and the casualties as always are the children. A recent study of social work decision-making in child care (Vernon and Fruin 1986) found that even when it was clear from the outset that a child would be unlikely to return home, proper permanency planning was not initiated early and the child drifted on in temporary placement.
