Towards Practising Social Work Law

Abstract

Increasingly from the early 1980s the relationship between the law and social work was critically scrutinised. Research highlighted deficiencies in social workers’ knowledge and use of legislation. It identified practitioners’ concerns about the practice relevance of their learning about law, and unease about acting as statutory agents (Ball et al., 1988; Davies and Brandon, 1988; Vernon et al., 1990). Reports into child abuse tragedies criticised the failure of practitioners to identify and observe their legal duties, and to use positively their available legal powers (DHSS, 1982; Beckford Report, 1985; Carlile Report, 1987). They suggested that social workers disliked an authoritarian role and the use of legal intervention in social work practice.