Sustaining Social Work: Between Power and Powerlessness, Robbie Duschinsky, Sue Lampitt and Susan Bell

Extract

This interesting and innovative volume aims to be a source of support, and suggests that sometimes we read to know we are not alone. The introduction states that the book is oriented by two questions. First, what can sustain social work in this changing context, ensuring that the job is done well? Second, how can social workers sustain themselves in the role, and derive confidence and meaning from what they do?’ (p. 3). There is no doubt that these are important questions in what are challenging times for social work across the UK and beyond, and that books that contribute to that sustenance, as this one does, are very welcome.

Whilst there was much in this book to recommend it, after a first reading, I was left slightly confused and a little frustrated. The confusion comes from a lack of clarity about who the intended readership was. Nowhere could I find this being made explicit, and I was left not sure whether it was aimed at students, qualified social workers or both, and it would have been helpful if this had been made clear. The frustration comes from very limited reference to supervision or agency support structures, with one passing reference to a different kind of supervision—one that does more than managing workloads as being something ‘we can seek’ (p. 139). For me, this is a significant omission, in particular as it is in danger of inadvertently colluding with the idea that social workers are responsible for their own self-care and that the organisation has no responsibility in this respect, and by over-focusing on the inner life of the social worker as opposed to the structural constraints on social work practice.