The Deprofessionalisation Thesis, Accountability and Professional Character

It is said that the deprofessionalisation of social work and other welfare occupations reduces workers' professional discretion and autonomy, and thus their capacity to act in the best interests of their client. Without necessarily regarding the deprofessionalisation thesis as conclusive, this paper will ask how the state's control of the role and task of social workers impacts on their role-implicated obligations as professionals. If workers are reduced (as claimed) to the status of mere functionaries in systems they neither approve of nor control, does this exonerate them from bad outcomes or service failures? How should we view the dramatic increase in formal regulation now seen in the UK - as professionalisation or deprofessionalisation? The paper will argue that whatever the drift of policy, workers remain in some measure personally accountable. Service failures imply faults of practical reason that are partly attributable to the moral and intellectual character of professionals as individuals. It is therefore up to professionals, and their organisations, to attend to the improvement of professional character.

Robin Huws Jones (United Kingdom), President 1976- 1980

Robin Huws Jones, President of the International Association of Schools of Social Work from 1976 to 1980, lived a life of challenge and change. Born in Wales in 1909, he often remarked that learning to speak Welsh at age two was such a challenge that he didn’t bother to learn English until he was six. The death of his mother when he was three led to the first of many changes in a life that was not easy in the formative years. Robin remained in the care of his father while his sister became the ward of two aunts. With his father, a draper’sassistant, he left Wales to live in a crowded boarding house in Liverpool.