Care and control in social work with a focus on child welfare situations – two sides of the same coin?

Abstract

Social wellbeing transcends individual wellbeing and hence implies interactions and relationships. As academics in this field, we accept the privilege of providing the space and opportunity to those who decide to embark on a journey to develop into professionals who are of service to those whose individual and social wellbeing is usually challenged. In the process, we invite them to consider various intricacies and nuances which are integral to practising in the social field. One intricacy relates to the notions of care and control. As our social welfare systems became more developed, the concept of risk took on a more central position in the everyday work of professionals working in the social field. This paper will focus on how professionals navigate through a minefield, as they balance care and control in their everyday work with service users. It will explore how these professionals, especially frontline professionals such as social workers, are expected not to be too risk averse, whilst simultaneously giving their all to carrying out professional assessments and developing care plans that ensure that their service users are not harmed or harm others. This paper shall consider how possible it is, in practice, to position care and control as sides of the same wellbeing coin, and, whether professionals can reasonably be expected to satisfy the demands of both these notions.