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1. Introduction Organised Social Work, Since Its Inception In The 19th ...

1. Introduction
Organised social work, since its inception in the 19th century, has been a widely debated issue with experts, policymakers and social workers holding differing views on its basic nature. Even today it remains subject to various interpretations and lacks consensus even on elementary issues like the knowledge, skills or expertise needed of social workers. Despite numerous viewpoints there is however general accord on the commitment of social work to rights and justice and to its main objective of helping, sustaining, and empowering those who suffer from social inequalities. Social work aims to achieve social integration and is very relevant in areas of crime, health, and education. In recent years a number of global social work associations, in their attempt to form common ground have agreed on the following definition.
The social work profession promotes social change, problem-solving in human relationships, and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work (International Association of Schools of Social Work, 2001) (Dixon & Scheurell, 2002)
While the concept of charity is hardly new and the necessity for tending to the poor, the unfortunate and the disabled, an essential tenet of all major world religions, institutionalised social work emerged in the UK, quite surprisingly, as recently as the nineteenth century, and that too at the instance of protestant missionaries who commenced working with poor and infirm people in towns and cities across the country. The British state gradually appropriated the responsibilities of social work to itself (over the first half of the twentieth century) on the premise that charitable organisations, which had neither the infrastructure nor the ability to care for disadvantaged social sections, could at best play a marginal and alleviatory role in the process. The post war welfare state in the UK, which lasted from the fifties until its dismantling in the mid eighties, represented the pinnacle of state initiated social work, with the government constructing infrastructure and systems not just to take care of its citizens but also to specifically protect them from market forces.

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