Abstract
That state social work has recently entered a new phase in its development is beyond question. This new phase has been signalled by many changes and indicators, some large and others small, but all significant in their cumulative effect. One of the clearest indications of this shift in direction has been in the rapid and acute reductions in personal social services expenditure, with annual growth rates of over 10 per cent per annum between 1969 and 1974 plummeting to cuts of around 1–3 per cent since. The impact of these reductions has been magnified by the consequences of the recession. Levels of unemployment unparalleled in Britain’s post-war period have combined with inflation and all-round reductions in the social wage provided by state welfare to both deepen and widen the extent of acute poverty. Thus a report published by the Association of Directors of Social Services on the implications of the cuts states that ‘never has poverty in material terms been such a major factor in whether people (particularly children) require to be “in care”, or can survive in the community’ (cited in CHC News, December 1981).
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© 1983 Chris Jones
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Jones, C. (1983). Introduction: Restructuring Social Work. In: State Social Work and the Working Class. Critical Texts in Social Work and the Welfare State. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17074-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17074-6_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-27161-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-17074-6
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