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Rotherham has proved it again: social work just doesn't work

This profession resistant to empirical evaluation may harm as much as it helps

30 August 2014

9:00 AM

30 August 2014

9:00 AM

In 1980, June Lait and I published Can Social Work Survive?, the first critique of British social work aimed at the general public. She was a lecturer in social policy and a former social worker; I was a psychiatrist who had regular and friendly contact with social workers. But we both felt that social work had become vague and grandiose, and we compiled quite a lot of evidence to make our case.

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