Tony Gilbert

Power and Social Work in the United Kingdom A Foucauldian Excursion

• Summary: This article explores relations of power in social work using insights drawn from the critical ‘toolkit’ emanating from work of French philosopher, Michel Foucault. The article discusses the relationship between Foucault’s conceptual tools of ‘knowledge and power’, the emergence of ‘the modern subject’ and the concept of ‘governmentality’. Despite ongoing pressures, professional expertise persists as a core element of neo-liberal government in the management of the population. We use a Foucauldian perspective to explore two issues central to contemporary practice: surveillance and discretion that epitomise dualism of power relations. On the one hand, surveillance brings with it a potentially problematic process especially in context of top down managerial power; yet, on the other hand, discretion is much more focused on what Foucault (1977) calls ‘the microphysics of power’ with opportunities for ‘resistance’ from the bottom up. • Findings: Professional expertise creates a paradox where surveillance and discretion operate within similar social space as the expression of power relations that encompass the matrix of users, carers and social workers. On one hand, surveillance restricts practice however; on the other, complexity opens the space for resistance and new formulations of power relations. • Applications : Exposing social work activity to a critical stance enables the exploration of relations of power identifying how commitments such as empowerment and anti-oppressive practice become detached from their original radical and humanitarian moorings to feature now as components of oppressive discourses they might once have challenged.

Professional discourse and service cultures: an organisational typology developed from health and welfare services for people with learning disabilities

This study focuses upon the effect of social policy upon a particular area of service provision. It is influenced by the Foucauldian concept of governmentality and the proposition by Lewis et al. that social policy needs to be understood in local contexts. Only through understanding the partial and fragmented impact of policy can we gain a clear insight into the outcomes for users. The study is undertaken through an exploration of the micro politics of organisations providing health and welfare services for people with learning disabilities. It involves an approach to discourse analysis that focuses upon text developed from interviews with service providers, which is brought into contact with published literature in an iterative process. The interpretation of the text produces four themes: power, trust, citizenship and managerialism. The development of these themes and a further holistic interpretation of the text suggest an emerging organisational typology. A typology based upon different articulations of the themes noted that work to produce particular outcomes for service users.

Training, knowledge and confidence in safeguarding adults: results from a postal survey of the health and social care sector in a single county

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between safeguarding adults training, staff knowledge and confidence.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 647 responses from a cross sectional postal sample survey of the health and social care sector in Cornwall, were analysed.Findings – Differences in knowledge and confidence around safeguarding were observed between staff groups and agencies. Training contributed to an approximately 20 per cent increase in knowledge and a ceiling effect was noted. Confidence linked knowledge and action. More confident staff offered more sophisticated responses regarding improving safeguarding processes.Research limitations/implications – Low response rates and the specific context limit generalisability. Knowledge and confidence measures were simplistic. Further research is needed on the mechanism of action by which safeguarding adults training is effective.Practical implications – Safeguarding adults training and a targeted approach to the analysis...

Engagement and early termination of contact with a community-based early intervention service for personality disorder in young adults

Background: Few studies have examined factors associated with continuity of care in a community‐based early intervention service for personality disorder in patients aged 16–25.

Personalization and sustainable care

Personalized services are developing across the western world as a social policy response to user demands for more tailored, effective, and flexible forms of health and social care support. In the UK this process is being implemented under the ‘mantra’ of personalization that is also seen as a vehicle for promoting civil rights through increasing participation, empowerment, and control while also promoting self-restraint by having users manage the costs of their health and social care. This paper reviews the existing research evidence for personalization albeit limited and identifies themes for future research within a framework related to sustainable care.

“I Don’t Want to Live Like This Anymore”: Disrupted Habitus in Young People “At Risk” of Diagnosis of Personality Disorder

This article reports on interview data gathered from 27 young people involved with a street-level service for young people considered “at risk” of diagnosis of personality disorder. Interviews with a self-selecting sample of young people explored the events that led to their initial contact with the service. Using Silverman’s twin-track approach, narrative analysis provided a description of “how” these young people describe their lives in terms of “I don’t want to live like this anymore” while “what” they describe provides an often harrowing account of dangerous relationships and social isolation. In the process, we draw on a theoretical framework developed from the work of Pierre Bourdieu, particularly, his notion of crisis. This is used to locate individual experiences in a broader social context and to suggest that policy and intervention aimed at reducing crisis, promoting reflexivity, and supporting stable adult relationships are key to developing less destructive life styles.

Social theory and emotion: sociological excursions

Purpose – Using the distinction between “private problems” and “public issues” derived from Mills “sociological imagination”, this paper aims to assess how diverse social theory approaches problematise and define the ways in which social life is shaped and organised with regard to “emotions”.Design/methodology/approach – The papers approach is theoretical and novel in the interpretation of an under‐development theme in social theory, namely, that of emotion.Findings – The paper found, on viewing differing sociological approaches, how emotion shifts the focus of our attention away from the idea of individual, private worlds of emotion to the wider context of social relations and the way in which language is used with power to identify subject positions.Research limitations/implications – This is a general literature.Originality/value – This is an original paper as it is the first time diverse sociological theories have been pulled together to evince an understanding of what we understand by the concept, ...

Readiness of boards of trustees in non-profit and voluntary sector organisations to meet the adult care ‘personalisation agenda’: A case study of a single English county

Summary In a multi-method assessment of non-profit and voluntary sector governance in Cornwall, England, 65 chairpersons of organisations completed a Board Self-Assessment Questionnaire (BSAQ) to identify the level at which the board was functioning. They also commented on their awareness of the Westminster Governments personalisation agenda. In addition, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 17 board representatives from seven organisations to explore organisational support needs in respect of meeting the Adult Care ‘personalisation agenda’. Findings Board members who reported good awareness of the personalisation agenda also self-assessed themselves as scoring higher than other respondents on the six BSAQ factors. Multiple regression analysis indicated that 47% of the variation in personalisation agenda preparedness was accounted for by organisations’ BSAQ scores. Qualitative data highlighted a number of important issues that may impact on the successful development of the personalisation agenda. These included the difficulty voluntary boards have in attracting trustees with appropriate experience, blurring of roles where trustees take on multiple roles some with operational commitments and communication difficulties with the local authority that results in board members stating that they are not sure of what is expected. Applications While the study focussed on a single county the demographic of non-profit and voluntary sector organisations are not dissimilar from other areas which provide some basis for generalisability. Findings also resonate with previous studies of the sector. This suggests that local authorities and adult social care departments have considerable challenges to ensure the readiness of organisations in the sector and the robustness of governance delivered via trustees.