Introduction: Why this chapter?

Perhaps it should not have been necessary to write this chapter: social work professional training may not focus much on community social work (CSW) (issues explored in Chapter 11), but its sociological content introduces the student to ideas of how opportunities are affected by class, place of birth, material well- being in childhood and other fundamentals. No one would question the importance of such teaching. However, as Fenton (2019) observes, many students still emerge from university with values reflecting their own background and not the passion for social justice that she rightly believes lies at the heart of social work. If this is true, then it is no surprise that newly qualified social workers may slide into the procedural assessment- based model of social work that is now commonplace, though thankfully not universal. This type of practice varies little wherever it is found, is often delivered from an inaccessible central location and is typically accessed through a call centre or in safeguarding settings through involuntary referral from other agencies (Turbett, 2021a).

The removal of the worker and team from the communities they serve has been intensified through the home and remote working that has become widespread since the pandemic. While home and remote working might have advantages for the worker, it undermines team identity, peer support, learning and relationship- based work, factors recognised in a review based on 29 inspection reports of English children's social services (Ofsted, 2022). In a time of cost- cutting to ensure that essential services are maintained by making savings, there are advantages to employers in reducing office capacity, with instant communication through digital technology available anyway. However, this reduction in estate, with its attendant hot- desking (loss of dedicated personal office space), is highly questionable in the case of social work. Workers who might live a long way from their workplace or community served are expected to make full use of digital technology to complete assessments and allocated tasks. How this can be achieved without the face- to- face contact that is at the root of relationship- based practice requires challenge.