Tackling Institutional Racism: Anti-Racist Policies and Social Work Education and Training

A description and analysis of the development of anti-racist social work education and training, focusing on the innovative anti-racist developments of CCETSW's professional training programme. It explores the context in which these initiatives developed during the 1980s which pointed to the dreadful record which social work had with respect to "race", and its failure to provide a service which was suitably responsive to the needs of black Britons. The book moves on to a broader debate which analyzes the social, political and economic conditions which led to the development of anti-racist social work policies and requirements, and the conditions which led to the subsequent retreat of professional social work bodies from such policies and requirements during the 1990s. As such, it offers a broader structural analysis of the changing nature of the relationship between "race" and social work education and training. In the process issues such as "political correctness" and "identity politics" are critically explored, and the implications of these political processes on the anti-racist policy agenda are assessed. The analysis reflects on both the possibilities and the limitations of establishing anti-racist policies.