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The 1970s saw social work as the rising star of the human service professions in the UK. Since then, the profession has been under attack from the media and politicians, this coinciding with changed ideological, political, economic and social circumstances. Practitioners' expertise and effectiveness were questioned and they were blamed for scandals, notably in relation to abused children. There have been changes in their organisation and practice whereby a profession based on knowledge, understanding and skills has become a so-called profession with managers now dominating what practitioners do. Relationship-based work has been transformed into a bureaucratic focus on the assessment of risk and rationing of resources and services, together with a more controlling, moral policing role. Focusing on developments in England in relation to children and families, I argue that, although what remains is a limited version of social work's possibilities, there remains scope for a radical/critical practice that involves working alongside users on the problems they face.

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INTRODUCTION: Neoliberalism, the belief that free market economies are the best way to achieve human well-being, continues to dominate economic, political and social life in the UK, Europe and the globalised world. In the UK the welfare state has gradually been dismantled and become more punitive, the market place has been introduced, and social work has been de-professionalised and transformed into a narrower, more restricted, role. Instead of relationship-based work, practitioners are largely concerned with completing bureaucracy speedily to ration resources and assess/manage risk. Moreover, in relation to children and families, parents need to be self-responsible and, if they fail, a punitive response awaits: being told to change their behaviour/lifestyle or face losing their children to adoption.APPROACH AND CONCLUSIONS: Drawing and building upon my previous work (for example, Rogowski, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016), this article outlines the neoliberal changes and challenges to social work with children and families in the UK, arguing that critical practice is ever more necessary. Such practice entails working alongside children and families on the issues at the root of social injustice, notably growing inequality in the neoliberalised world. Importantly, examples of what such a practice might entail are highlighted.