This course is an introduction to a particularly broad and complex topic: the relationship between ideas about social work and what social workers actually do. The sorts of questions that we will be considering in this course are:

• What is it that social workers actually do?
• What is social work supposed to be trying to achieve - and how should we go about it?
• What ideas or theories do in fact - or should - underlie social work practice?
• On what basis should - or do - social workers make decisions about how to respond to different situations?
• What techniques are available to social workers?
• How does social work relate to other professional groups who may work with the same service users?
• How do social work values relate to theory and practice?