Multi Agency Working In Social Work

In the contemporary British social work, it is largely spread the perception of a current crisis, due to rapid changes that take place in our everyday lives. The 'crisis' nature is about the urgent need for this profession to clarify and establish its identity. ‘Indeed we have only the most general ideas of what we are trying to produce, what constitutes the essential skill of the social worker and consequently still more varied ideas as to how to set about it’ (Younghusband, 1959, p.28). The current literature already identified a few key concepts about the nature of the social work role, such as: a function of social integration, support and assistance, ,counseling, advocating, dealing with other policy areas failure, such as health, education …show more content…
Multiagency working it is a vast contemporary topic, that has received considerable attention, in the recent years, having a high importance for some political agendas. In this sense, the Government's white paper, 'Every Child Matters', sets out a model of practice, that aims to involve a large category of professionals, that should collaborate together in an integrated way, in order to promote good outcomes for the young people and children. (DfES, …show more content…
Due to some major concerns regarding the poor and inefficient administration of the resources which continued to be fragmented, in 1980, the Thatcher Conservative Government, started to seek viable solutions, to overcome this crisis, implementing radical reforms of Community Care Act(1990) and NHS. (Griffiths, 1988). As a result of the new imposed measures, all the local authorities were obliged to cooperate responsibly with the medical staff , in order to assess the individuals needs , making common arrangements towards a secure delivery. In child protection, criminal justice, social legislation on disability, were outlined similar collaborative and partnership principles, aiming to widen the importance of 'working together'. The inter-professional perspective was embraced as pivotal and fundamental requirement, that impacted majorly the community care policies of the late 1980 and early 1990s(Biggs and Weinstein 1991). The Audit Commission invoked repeatedly in different reports addressing community care, the strategic role played by collaboration , that must be strengthen and developed. In the following years, it is highlighted an acceleration of research in this challenging domain., including studies of community mental health