LETTERS Social workers in the way
Sir: Andrew Brown says I taught social work ('Weeding out incompetence', 5 October). In fact, I taught social policy. I don't suggest it's less futile, just different. Having exposed many of the hollow pretensions and fatal imprecisions inherent in the concept of social work, he goes on to suggest it should have a four-year training. If one cannot say what it is, how can one train for it? It has always been my conten- tion that social workers get in the way of those who have definable functions, not- ably doctors and policemen, and sup- plementary benefit officers. They also con- tribute to a prevalent euphoria, involving a belief that the state can actually make people happy (assuming we could define happiness). Worst of all, they inhibit ordin- ary people from looking after themselves and their families. To make a profession out of such a nonsense is a super-nonsense. June Lait
7 High View Gardens,
Derwen Fawr, Swansea.
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