reviews : Family Groups in the Community Barry Knight, Mirian Gibson and Simone Grant Voluntary Service Council 1979; £3.50

Abstract

case work derived from the behaviourist school and open to effectiveness testing, appears little used and even frowned on. ' &dquo;Radical&dquo; social work is criticised both in its promulgation (&dquo;their almost total inability to deliver their revolutionary message in words comprehensible to anyone save secondrate graduates in sociology&dquo;) and in its operation (described as a &dquo;fun-revolu-tion&dquo;). A Committee of Inquiry into social work is called for, and so, presumably because they do not want to &dquo;pre-empt such an inquiry, Brewer and Lait themselves make precious few suggestions in their final chapter, &dquo;What Is to be Done?&dquo;. The reaction to the book in the various organs of social work has been over-defensive and panicstricken. The authors have some very important things to say, many of which we in probation ignore at our peril.