Where are we going? ….to an election
Simon Kneebone
Week 6 – Historical foundations of practice, underpinning values, philosophies and the Community Services Industry: emergence of the practitioner and the helping profession.
This week’s topic focussed on the development of values and philosophies that underpin welfare provision through the history of welfare in the UK and Australia since 1901. I was taken aback by all the information and history and learnt such a great deal about Australian history, welfare and the values and philosophies thereof too. I also found that some of my own views and opinions that have been quite biased have shifted to a more broadened and less objective and generalised outlook. Australian Politics; I never would have thought that I would really find myself so completely absorbed in the readings and understanding of politics, who knew it could actually be a topic of interest for one such as myself – who never really paid much mind to it in the past. That has certainly changed for me today and in the future!
A highly educated profession today, social work was born from the voluntary work conducted by friendly visitors and almoners during the settlement movement of Australian history; the term ‘Human Services’ is used worldwide to comprehensively describe social welfare and community agencies and programs. There is still an ongoing debate as to whether social work and human services should be considered a ‘professional-profession’. One side argues that in order for social work and human service practice to be considered a profession, more research needs to go into the practice and evaluaiton of outcomes, as such practice is not sufficiently based on evidence. The other side declares that due to social work and human services being founded on the ideals of social justice, practitioners ‘should not adopt a professional elitist opinion that effectively disempowers those it purports to support’. On this debate I take a completely outside stance and believe that the focus should not be on whether or not the profession should be term a professional one or not but rather on the aim of ‘human services’ and what it stands for; the philosophies and values that underpin the work within community services is what is most important and ensuring these are aligned to best benefit the Australian community, reduce poverty, provide everyone equally with a ‘fair go’ and continue to promote our diverse culture and respect for multiculturism which continues to help grow our economy and create homes for migrants from all over the world.
The above-mentioned are the values and philosophies that I share which is why I allign most closely with all models of welfare; everyone deserves fair and equal resources and services but each individual’s circumstances require a different model to address their needs based on their situation. Perhaps I will find myself leaning more to one or the other as I learn more about each model and broaden my understanding of each as I continue my studies.
Susanna's Blog 