Introduction

This chapter moves the narrative on to look at why and how community social work (CSW) fits with the requirements of UK society today and how social work managers and practitioners might consider moving the idea forward. This will be discussed in general terms; a more practical step- by- step guide will be provided in Chapter 12 of the book. While Chapter 2 focused on how community- orientated and generalist practice can be brought into mainstream casework- orientated settings by individual practitioners, this chapter will focus on what the author is keen to characterise as ‘real’ CSW: an approach taken collectively by an entire team focused on a particular community or communities (as defined in the introductory chapter). The changes required to adopt CSW cannot be taken without considerable planning, co- design and ultimately co- production involving community partners. Statutory social services and social work agencies still have responsibility for legally prescribed duties, including very important safeguarding ones, and care planning for vulnerable individuals, and these cannot be put on hold. Just because we believe that policy makers and agencies have become focused almost entirely on addressing the consequences of poverty and disadvantage rather than looking at its causes and how personal crises might be prevented does not mean that such activity is misplaced.

At the end of Chapter 1, it was stated that the three most cited recent books concerning community practice are concerned more with what is described as ‘community orientation’ than with CSW. However, despite the dearth of contemporary CSW literature, this chapter will draw upon two sources, neither of which mention CSW specifically, but both of which provide important material for our study. The first of these is the latest edition of Margaret Ledwith's (2020) Community Development – A Critical and Radical Approach because, although for a broad community- development audience, it highlights the most important considerations for effective, radical and challenging work in communities. Ledwith reminds us that this involves recognising the causes of the problems and issues commonly encountered in disadvantaged communities, the political context of such matters, and the need to incorporate such understanding in radical practice (practice that leads to change – personal, systemic and political). This is illustrated in the simple iceberg diagram in Figure 3.1.