Social work legitimacy: democratising research, policy and practice in child protection

Abstract

This article analyses the concept of legitimacy as applied to the use of power in statutory social work with children and families in the UK. It draws on literature from police studies and criminology, in which the concept is a stable one that continues to be heavily researched and analysed. Police and social workers bear comparison in respect of legitimacy because of the significant powers they use on behalf of the state with direct implications for the civil and human rights of their fellow citizens. The article defines legitimacy in theoretical terms before applying the concept to social work. Here, perceptions of fairness in the distribution of resources, the quality of treatment people receive, and the quality of decision-making are critically examined. The article then proposes a democratising agenda across the three domains of social work research, policy, and practice. Through challenging social work’s legitimacy and analysing its relationship to social democracy, it is argued that new ways may be found to realign practice with the values of human rights and social justice that are said to underpin the profession. Given the severe socioeconomic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on many families, these questions acquire a particular urgency.

Sobre la legitimidad de la intervención social

“…La legitimidad de la intervención está relacionada con la credibilidad de los criterios aplicables en la evaluación de situaciones, tanto por las instituciones como por la población que recibe las prestaciones sociales estatales. Es interesante, por ejemplo, el estudio de Warner (2021), quien describe una mayor disposición a legitimar la intervención social por parte de la población potencialmente susceptible de ser incluida en programas y servicios sociales. Una investigación desarrollada por Loughran et al (2010), describe que la legitimidad del rol profesional del trabajo social se relaciona con factores diferenciadores, tales como la formación especializada en un determinado campo de problemas específicos.…”

The Strengthening Mechanism of the Relationship between Social Work and Public Health under COVID-19 in China

“…Altshuler and Webb pointed out that a legitimacy crisis is caused by the unclear definition of role expectations and the professional/educational requirements related to state certification [ 32 ]. Warner proposed that legitimacy may be addressed in three domains: new knowledge based on shared value, institutional arrangements, and conditions for social work practice [ 33 ]. In studies on Chinese social work, Wu Lei pointed out that the improvement of legitimacy is based on a profession’s effectiveness [ 34 ].…”

Towards a critical decision-making ecology approach for child protection research

“…The powerlessness of children and the desire to protect them from terrible acts of harm can make invisible the terrible acts of both structural and personal violence inflicted on their parents and communities. Finally, the power of the child protection agency operates in low visibility and poor accountability environments with populations who bear the brunt of social inequities, affecting its legitimacy and procedural fairness, especially amongst communities most affected by child protection systems (Keddell et al, 2021b; Warner, 2021). A critical perspective on child protection grapples with these multitudinous issues, ranging from the societal to the institutional to the interpersonal.…”