Negative Review

Received an email from Geoffrey at my publishers this morning telling me that one of my books had received a “very negative” review from an established publication in Scotland. He has put a copy of the review in the post to me.

I am not in the least bit surprised – in fact if I had not had negative reviews from establishment figures then I would be disappointed. The status quo needs upsetting! In fact I feel strangely excited, waiting for the review to arrive to see if the reviewers’ arguments are what I guess they might be!

Social Work is in a deep dark place right now. Social Work as it is practised today can be extremely disempowering for service users and for workers. In my work with clients and in my writing I am trying to do my bit to re-establish a feeling of excitement, to explore what it really means to empower people. That sometimes means going against the grain – trying to do things differently.

As professionals we need to be responsible for our practice, and yet our responsibility and choice is often taken away and we become the mouthpiece of corporate, suit wearing, career focused, establishment oriented, ex-social workers (or worse).

We are taught that people are the experts on their situation, yet the risk-averse social work culture that we work in all too often forces us to act like experts. Choice is power and we take choices and power away from the most disempowered people in our society and substitute our own choices. In the face of the majesty, passion and variety of human beings, our empathy and humility is so often replaced with arrogance and we stomp over people’s lives like jackbooted officers of the authority.

Just saying this has upset people. Well good!

John Stuart Mill said that every movement must experience three stages: Ridicule, Discussion and Adoption. In the book (The Barefoot Helper) I wrote that I expected responses that fit into each of Mills’ categories.

Feedback from front line practitioners has been brief but overwhelmingly positive and the book is on university reading lists. That’ll do.

Visit my website: www.another-way.co.uk