Australian Social Work Practices and Standards
Added on 2020-01-23
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The development of socialwork in Australia
Historical knowledge plays a key role in the development of social work identity. It holdsa central position in the social policy and social work in Australia. It can be evaluated that thereare varied complex set of relationship which helps in marking history of country over centuries(Goodwin and Huppatz, 2010). The present assignment provides an understanding ofdevelopment of social work in Australia focusing on the historical foundations in UnitedKingdom and United States of America. In this study, historical events that took place in UnitedKingdom (UK) & United states (US) and their role in shaping and defining social work inAustralia is explained. Further, government focuses upon preparing social policy and thusdepend upon extreme factors i.e. globalization and exert pressure upon competing ininternational market. The social work and policy emerges from the particular society orcommunity in which it exists. Social work is carried out within society in regard to attempt and deal major problemsinsociety i.e poverty and inequality. Also, such work is linked with the ida of charity and thus itorganises various events so that better practices could be carried out in order to improve socialwork profession (Becker, Bryman & Ferguson, 2012). Australia is influenced from the historicalevents occurred within UK and USA. Therfore, it is essential for Australian government toidentify the important events that has been conducted within UK and USA and thus it influencesthe social work carried out by Australia. Therefore, through evaluating the different historicalevents in relation to poverty and inequality helps in overcoming certain beliefs and values so thatequal treatment could be given to every individual. The social work in UK is carried out in orderto reflect that it helps in sharing common features in relation to models, practice and trainingapproaches and helps Government of UK help in carrying out social work in relation toeducation of children (Teate, Leap and Homer, 2011). Thus, it can be assessed that Australiagovernment helps in shaping their culture in such a form that they carry out effective social werkin regard to accomplish desired goals as per UK and USA. The history of social work in Australia focuses on UK and US and emphasizes on socialreforms and movements in 19th and 20th century. The two major forerunners of social work ofUK and US – the Settlement Movement and the Charity Organisation Society (COS) were bothunsuccessful in Australia. The history of philanthropy in Australia is quite long and emphasiseson social control of poor class, personal responsibility and child saving (Epstein and Buhovac,2014). During the period between 1800 to 1850, there was huge involvement of colonial women1
and men in more than 18 philanthropic and social reforms causes in Australia. This includedestablishment and management of women only organisations such as the Sydney Dorcas Societyin 1830, the Female Friendly Society and the Female School of Industry in 1826 (Epstein andBuhovac, 2014).The origin of social work can be traced back to 19th century when the economy ofAustralia was at peak due to proficiency in trade, agriculture, fishing, finance, industry andforestry (Kalliath, Hughes and Newcombe, 2012). This brought immense satisfaction and pridein the citizens and poverty was considered to be self inflicted and unfortunate necessity and wasnot noticed by the law. COS focuses on individual casework and it is evident from VictorianLondon that there were massive, poverty, begging and crime. The COS opined that poor lawagenda was not adequate and moreover, it deteriorated the situations of poor (Kalliath, Hughesand Newcombe, 2012). It can be evaluated that people living in the country were demoralisedand harassed that affects their deserving as well as non deserving people. Thus, because of thispeople begun to exploit and became dependent upon the poor charity instead of reinventing themin regard to become independent. Thus, it impacts upon society and thus bring changes thatinfluences society in regard to weaken the environment. The people were demoralised andengaged in emancipator strategies as there was no distinction between deserving and non-deserving, as a result people became complacent and begun to exploit and became dependent onpoor charity rather than reinventing themselves to become independent. This greatly impactedthe society and led to weakening in family structures (Becker, Bryman and Ferguson, 2012).For projecting the changes in the society and introduction of principles of less eligibility,the Poor Law Ammendment Act, 1834 and the Workhouse came into force (Baron-Cohen,Lombardo and Tager-Flusberg, 2013). The previous Poor Law was inadequate and unable tomeet the present demands and needs of the society as it was based on local parishes relief. Themain cause was the shifting to industrialisation and urbanisation from agriculture. The principleof less eligibility was enforced through workhouse test that worked in consultation with PoorLaw Authorities to decide whether an individual seeking support was genuine and prefer to facethe harshness of workhouse. The role of social work can be highlighted in this context in helpingthe deserving needy against the undeserving person within the workplace. The social workplayed a role of gate keeping and acted as deterent for unregulated charities that were emergingas duplicates and created confusion within the charities. These small charities were undermining2
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