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© British Association of Social Workers

Social Workers and Supervision Orders: A Case of Occupational Uncertainty

DAVID WEBB and ROBERT J. HARRIS

David Webb and Robert Harris are Lecturers at the School of Social Work, Leicester University.

Summary

A distinctive feature of the supervision order is that it can be administered either by the Probation Service or by the Local Authority Social Services Department.

An examination of the case files on a large sample of boys (N=971) aged 14–16 placed on supervision orders for criminal offences reveals a number of differences between the way in which workers in the two agencies approach the task of supervision. The findings suggest that social workers are in some respects less professionally secure and certain as to their purpose in performing their supervisory task than are probation officers. This is accounted for by locating their practice in a number of intersecting contexts, including an occupational ambivalence over the exercise of authority and a lack of clarity in relation to the role of welfare in the context of juridical requirements


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