TY - JOUR
T1 - Making Sense of Risk
T2 - Social Work at the Boundary between Care and Control
AU - Alfandari, Ravit
AU - Taylor, Brian J.
AU - Baginsky, Mary
AU - Campbell, Jim
AU - Helm, Duncan
AU - Killick, Campbell
AU - Mccafferty, Paul
AU - Mullineux, Judith
AU - Shears, Jane
AU - Sicora, Alessandro
AU - Whittaker, Andrew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - ‘Risk’ has become a central concept for social work practice in countries with more developed social welfare systems. As argued by Hazel Kemshall and colleagues, ‘risk’ has often replaced ‘need’ as the main driver for social work interventions as societies seek to avoid harm to citizens. This shift of focus raises a tension between care (support for the individual or family in their own right) and control (seeking to prevent harm to themselves, each other or other citizens). This article considers some of the key developments in the 25 years since the above article, including the development of risk communication; the growing familiarity with both likelihood and severity concepts of risk; the assessment of risk as part of organisational arrangements to manage risk; and theoretical developments linking social work assessment, ‘working with risk’ and decision-making. In the first part of the article, we explore the care versus control boundary through focussing, in turn, on child and family social work, adult care services, mental health social work and criminal justice social work, and their respective developments. We then further extend two key foci regarding assessment and care planning as well as the use of professional knowledge at the care and control boundary. Our analysis of these developments points towards more nuanced approaches to managing risk and making decisions at these sometimes contentious boundaries.
AB - ‘Risk’ has become a central concept for social work practice in countries with more developed social welfare systems. As argued by Hazel Kemshall and colleagues, ‘risk’ has often replaced ‘need’ as the main driver for social work interventions as societies seek to avoid harm to citizens. This shift of focus raises a tension between care (support for the individual or family in their own right) and control (seeking to prevent harm to themselves, each other or other citizens). This article considers some of the key developments in the 25 years since the above article, including the development of risk communication; the growing familiarity with both likelihood and severity concepts of risk; the assessment of risk as part of organisational arrangements to manage risk; and theoretical developments linking social work assessment, ‘working with risk’ and decision-making. In the first part of the article, we explore the care versus control boundary through focussing, in turn, on child and family social work, adult care services, mental health social work and criminal justice social work, and their respective developments. We then further extend two key foci regarding assessment and care planning as well as the use of professional knowledge at the care and control boundary. Our analysis of these developments points towards more nuanced approaches to managing risk and making decisions at these sometimes contentious boundaries.
KW - Assessment
KW - communication
KW - decision-making
KW - risk
KW - social care
KW - social work
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142393013&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13698575.2022.2147904
DO - 10.1080/13698575.2022.2147904
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85142393013
SN - 1369-8575
JO - Health, Risk and Society
JF - Health, Risk and Society
ER -