The end of social work: A plain writing contribution

The end of the social work debate attracts interesting commentary on the challenges and opportunities for the development of our profession. This contribution briefly reviews the debate to date and argues that it is dominated by abstract theorizing when we could concern ourselves with more concrete things that matter to the people we work with. This is a critical commentary paper, drawing on practice experience, previous commentaries, and research to argue that a profession without an evidence base, dominated by fear and faff, and having almost lost sight of relationship-based practice, is indeed at risk. It delves into social work’s inherent dislike of rigorous practice evaluations and suggests that this has hurt us. Conceding that only some of us are in a position to stand against the proceduralists’ destruction of our profession, guidance on how to stand is offered.