Divisions of Labour in the area teams of Social Services Departments

Abstract

In 1971, the personal social services provided by local authorities in England and Wales were reorganised to create the new Social Services Departmentsl, in large measure along the lines recommended by the Seebohm Report.2 The work and the workers of the old constituent departments were brought together so that the new departments and their fieldworkers became responsible for a wide range of services for a highly varied clientele, including children and their families, the mentally ill and handicapped, and the elderly and physically handicapped.It is only recently that any close interest has been shown in the way these large organisations have responded to the very diverse makeup of their clientele, especially at the fieldworker level. However, questions are now being asked about the range and composition of the work being undertaken by field staff who work in the area teams of Social Services Departments. A second line of enquiry looks at the variety of fieldstaff available in the area teams and asks: 'Are different types of fieldworker more likely to be working with some client groups and problem areas than others?' The distribution of work and workers, seen as a function of the characteristics of each, thus offers a second order of comment and analysis.

Dominant images of social work: a British comparison of general practitioners with and without attachment schemes

“…This is a division generally used by social workers themselves (Fitzgerald, 1978;Howe, 1980). The constituent areas were:…”