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43). As With The Commoditisation Of Any Resource An Important Criteria Is The ...

43).
As with the commoditisation of any resource an important criteria is the ability to be able to measure inputs and outputs. The most fundamental input resource is the social worker themselves. By standardising this input as far as possible, managers are able to provide a service which meets certain basic criteria. As Cree (2003 p.115) points out, the competence-based approach is based on a business model of justifying, measuring, objectifying and articulating a desired outcome
The main criticism of the competence-based approach to social work training is that, as noted by Dominelli, ideas and principles have very little to do with business models that are based upon profit margins; outcomes are very difficult to measure when the subject matter is human beings (1997 cited in Cree, 2003 p.115). Yelloly raises the concern that when competence-based is combined with the marketisation and managerialism the result is an erosion of social work's professional autonomy (1995 pp.19-20, cited in Gould & Baldwin, 2004 p.112).
One of the problems with the marketisation of social work is that it has lead to a fundamental change in the remit of the social worker who is now no longer concerned with meeting the needs of the individual but rather with the management of budgets and resources. Social workers now work in an environment where their employers have had to construct their arrangements for care management and assessment on the basis that these arrangements are intended to play a key role in the rationing of services.
Furthermore, social workers now have to operate within systems of assessment, which rely heavily on lengthy forms and procedures, and detailed eligibility criteria, thereby reducing the social worker's capacity to retain a sense of professional judgment as the basis for practice. Arrangements for purchasing and contracting have introduced skill requirements, which have not commonly been held central to social work. The impact of the whole of this on social work is that there has been a significant reduction on professional discretion and a monumental shift from professional autonomy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cree, V. E. (2003), Becoming a Social Worker, Routledge, London
Gould, N. G. & Baldwin, M. (2004), Social Work, Critical Reflection and the Learning Organisation, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Hants, England
Harris, J. (2003), The Social Work Business, Routledge, Oxon
Lyons, K. H., Lovelock, R. & Powell, J. (2004), Reflecting on Social Work: Discipline and Profession, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Hants, England
Parton, N. (1996), Social Theory, Social Change and Social Work, Routledge, London
Pease, B., Allan, J. & Briskman, L. (2003), Critical Social Work: An Introduction to Theories and Practices, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Australia
Pollitt, C. (1993), Managerialism and the Public Services, Blackwell Publisher Ltd, Oxford
Shardlow, S.

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