Twenty years in an open-necked shirt* – A retrospective personal narrative
Keywords:
statutory social work, social work practice, personal narrative, child protection, children, youth,Abstract
This article reflects upon two decades of statutory social work. It is both a personal history and an analytical account. The contested, paradoxical nature of practice is explored and exemplified. The intention of the narrative is to illustrate the experience of child protection work in this contradictory environment. The use of anecdote and opinion is designed to communicate something of what it is to act in such a multi–faceted, continually moving system. Statutory practice is an ambiguous experience of personal agency and political constraint. This account is both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of its subject and by this device some ‘real’, tangible approximation of the practice experience is attempted: the manner of telling is intended to mirror the nature of the subject. Some observations are made concerning developmental shifts and trends in statutory practice over the last 20 years. Some tentative conclusions are offered regarding the nature of this work, those who do it and what is required to do it well.References
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