Routledge Advances in Social Work A NEW HISTORY OF SOCIAL WORK VALUES AND PRACTICE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE John H. Pierson A New History of Social Work This book provides an overview of the main developments in social work over its 200-year history. From its beginnings in the early 19th century through to the present day, it recounts the efforts to create a fairer, socially just society through its work with individuals and families. Throughout, by focusing on individual cases as well as major ideas behind practice, this book invites the reader to step into the practitioner’s world as it unfolded. Providing a fresh, critical history of social work in Britain, the book covers the practical assistance for families and individuals in poverty in the 19th century; women’s social work with destitute mothers and children; social work’s response to wartime needs; the development of specific domains of social work such as hospital social work, psychiatric social work, moral welfare and children in care; tackling racism; and social work in a market society. The reader encounters the society that social workers and their users wrote about, thought about and sought to create. Covering critical points of dispute along with overarching visions that would take the profession – and society – forward, the book explores the ideologies, moral constructs and social forces that shaped everyday social work. A New History of Social Work will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work and will be particularly relevant for modules on introductions to social work and the foundations of social work. John H. Pierson worked for Cheshire Social Services for many years before moving to teach at Staffordshire University, from which he has just retired after 30 years. He is the author of Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion: Promoting Social Justice in Social Work (Routledge, 2016), among many other publications. Routledge Advances in Social Work https :/ /ww w .rou tledg e .com /Rout ledge -Adva nces- in -So cial- Work/ boo k- serie s / RASW Challenges, Opportunities and Innovations in Social Work Field Education Edited by Ronnie Egan, Nicole Hill and Wendy Rollins The Challenge of Nationalist Populism for Social Work A Human Rights Approach Edited by Carolyn Noble and Goetz Ottmann Reforming Child Welfare in the Post-Soviet Space Institutional Change in Russia Meri Kulmala, Maija Jäppinen, Anna Tarasenko and Anna Pivovarova Women, Vulnerabilities and Welfare Service Systems Edited by Marjo Kuronen, Elina Virokannas and Ulla Salovaara Post-Anthropocentric Social Work Critical Posthuman and New Materialist Perspectives Edited by Vivienne Bozalek and Bob Pease Rights-Based Community Practice and Academic Activism in a Turbulent World Putting Theory into Practice in Israel, Palestine and Jordan Jim Torczyner Social Work, Young Migrants and the Act of Listening Becoming an Unaccompanied Child Marcus Herz and Philip Lalander Assessing Culturally Informed Parenting in Social Work Davis Kiima A New History of Social Work Values and Practice in the Struggle for Social Justice John H. Pierson A New History of Social Work Values and Practice in the Struggle for Social Justice John H. Pierson First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 John H. Pierson The right of John H. Pierson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pierson, John H., author. Title: A new history of social work : values and practice in the struggle for social justice / John H. Pierson. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge advances in social work | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021008567 (print) | LCCN 2021008568 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367110055 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032024219 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429024276 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Social service--Great Britain--History. | Great Britain--Social policy. Classification: LCC HV245 .P54 2021 (print) | LCC HV245 (ebook) | DDC 361.309--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008567 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008568 ISBN: 978-0-367-11005-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-02421-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-02427-6 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9780429024276 Typeset in Times New Roman by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India For Terry Philpot, with immense gratitude for the years of friendship and collaboration – and for our ever continuing conversations on society, politics and social work. Contents List of figures viii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 Family visiting and the relief of poverty 5 2 The relieving officer as first state social worker 28 3 State and charitable social work 49 4 Finding moral voice: Ethics and values in peace and war 70 5 Women take the field 100 6 Competing visions, different pathways 125 7 Social work and social democracy 144 8 Social work in a market society 167 9 Social justice and social work in the 21st century 190 Index 213 Figures 1.1 Demonstration at Kennington Common 13 1.2 “Mendicity Unmasked” 18 2.1 Structure of poor law administration 31 2.2 A Scottish pauper’s plea for help 42 3.1 Mock COS application 53 3.2 COS record on the Bryants 57 4.1 Poster for meeting with Josphine Butler 75 4.2 Licensed Premises – a pub map of Bethnal Green and Spitalfields 81 4.3 Tredgold’s heredity chart 86 4.4 Cover of Progress 90 4.5 Office filing cabinet 93 4.6 RO recruiting poster 94 4.7 Wet press – an early method of document copy 95 4.8 Sample Poor Law case history 96 5.1 Susan Isabel Dacre 104 5.2 Executive Committee minutes, School of Social Work Training 111 8.1 Short form for recording, c. 1980 170 8.2 One element of radical social work was trade union activism 174 Acknowledgements Working on this book has been aided and abetted by a great many people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. I am especially fortunate in the year of Covid to reach out for advice and consultation and to receive in return the shared interest and enthusiasm of so many. Britain has some wonderful archives – and they are ariably headed by informed, helpful people. Caitlin Fleming at the University of Liverpool Archives, Charlie Turpie of the London Metropolitan Archives and Martin Sanders at the Modern Records Centre all fall into this category. I owe a special debt to Karen McDonaugh-Nicholls of Cheshire Libraries who organizes the branch library at the Bishop Heber High School, only a stone’s throw from where I live. What a service! – books and reports found their way to me from all over the United Kingdom. All readers should be so lucky. I especially thank the following for informative, insightful – and entertain- ing – interviews: Jane Tunstill, June Thoburn, Mark Ivory, Peter Westland, Derek Ross, Bob MacLaren, Simon Ward, Margo Webb and John Webb. They have the wisdom of the long view and were willing to pass that on to me. David Hayns is an extraordinary local Cheshire historian who has done so much to further the work of the Cheshire Local History Group. It will be plain in the book the debt I owe him in discussing 19th century Cheshire poor law history. I am grateful to Canongate Publishing, Ambaile Highland Records, the British Academy and Manchester Art Museum for permission to reproduce some of their work. I thank the Womens Library at the London School of Economics for per- mission to reproduce their poster of the Josephine Butler meeting as I do the Special Collection & Archives at the University of Liverpool for permission to reproduce social work training committee minutes. Terry Philpot – to whom this book is dedicated – has been an ever-ready source of ideas, viewpoints, contacts and suggested reading. Our friend. Chris Hanvey, has offered great encouragement along the way; his own book – Shaping Children’s Services – is an important marker for me. I thank Hannah Gibbard at Staffordshire University for assistance in personnel matters. And finally, I thank Miriam Sharp Pierson for the work she did on the graphics used in this book.