Policy practice in social work: An introduction

The notion that social workers should seek to influence the policies that affect the societies in which they work has existed for nearly as long as the profession itself. Indeed, the history of the social work profession is replete with examples of social workers seeking to influence policies in the societies in which they lived. In the United Kingdom (UK), through her participation in various national committees social worker Eileen Younghusband was party to the formulation of policy in a wide range of fields during the 1950s and 1960s (Lyons, 2003).The muchacknowledged social activism of Jane Addams during the early decades of the 20th century in the US and her efforts to mandate children’s education and to protest at the conditions of immigrants and women exemplified the commitment of social workers to social change (Reisch and Andrews, 2001). Similarly, the involvement of US social workers such as Harry Hopkins, Frances Perkins, ‘Molly’ Dewson and Aubrey Williams in the formulation of New Deal policies during the 1930s epitomised this commitment to policy involvement (Trattner, 1984).