Social Work is in the social justice business. But what do we mean by social justice? How do overcome the dangers of paternalism and institutionalisation? What do we mean by citizenship? What is the link between needs and rights?

1. A personal and
philosophical
meander through the
worlds of social work
and social care
Talk for social work
students at
Hertfordshire University
by Dr Simon Duffy on
2nd April 2014

2. • What’s wrong with the Professional Gift
Model?
• What does personalisation really
mean?
• What’s the difference between
personal or individual budgets?
• Why invent self-directed support?
• What is citizenship and Independent
Living?
• Why we need rights as well as needs?
• What are the keys to citizenship?
• What is social work?
Exploring the
meaning of key
words and
concepts.

3. 1. The Justice Problem

4. Ursula Le Guin
Honour can exist anywhere, love can exist
anywhere, but justice can exist only among
people who found their relationships upon it.

5. John Rawls
All social values - liberty and opportunity,
income and wealth, and the bases of self-
respect - are to be distributed equally unless
an unequal distribution of any, or all, of these
values is to everyone's advantage.

6. Equality of income is
important, but it is even
more important that we
treat each other as
equals - whatever our
differences.

7. 2. The Institution

8. At the age of 23 I visited
an institution. The
experience was life
changing. I wondered:
• What a dreadful
place!
• What amazing people!
• How come I’ve never
met anyone with a
disability before now?

9. The long history of
institutionalisation,
abuse and the
Holocaust reveals that
we are capable of great
evil, especially when:
• We are frightened
• We find a scapegoat
• We dehumanise our
intended victim.

12. 3. The Phoney Community

13. Sometimes we just replaced the institution
with another institution, but without the park.

14. Services come as a ‘professional gift’ which
the person cannot shape or control.

15. Maimonides
There are eight levels in charity, each level
surpassing the other. The highest level beyond
which there is none is a person who supports a
Jew who has fallen into poverty [by] giving him
a present or a loan, entering into partnership
with him, or finding him work so that his hand
shall be fortified so that he will not have to ask
others [for alms]. Concerning this [Leviticus
25:35] states “You shall support him, the
stranger, the resident, and he shall live among
you.” Implied is that you should support him
before he falls and becomes needy.

16. The power and control
given to those who help
can become toxic. The
challenge for our society
is to find out how to
support each other without
degrading each other.

17. 4. Innovations & Ideas

18. Personalisation
!
Does that word
actually add
anything?
!
I can’t see that
it has a helpful
meaning.

19. Real and valuable
innovations emerge as
people, inspired by
values and visions, craft
thoughtful solutions for
real problems.

21. Self-directed support and
individual (or personal)
budgets was an effort to
shift the whole system
towards the citizenship
model by converting
services into entitlements.

23. In reality the shift
towards ‘personalisation’
has been undermined
by its ambiguity and by
the lack of real power or
effective legal rights for
disabled people.

24. 5. Equality, Diversity &
Citizenship

25. We are different and we are
equal. And our differences
are good - in fact they are
essential for a decent
society. So why do we find
it so hard to reconcile
difference and equality?

26. “How could men be
equal in the eyes of
God and yet unequal
in the eyes of the
Psychologist?”
!
Michael Young in
The Rise of the
Meritocracy

27. Robert Nozick, Anarchy State and Utopia
The most promising ways for a society to avoid
widespread differences in self-esteem would be
to have no common weighting of dimensions;
instead it would have a diversity of different lists
of dimensions and weightings. This would
enhance each person’s chance of finding
dimensions that some others also think
important, along which he does reasonably
well, and so to make a non-idiosyncratic
favourable estimate of himself.

29. We do not have to acquire humility.
There is humility in us.
Only we humiliate ourselves
before false gods.
!
Simone Weil

30. Citizenship is not about
having some common
property like a certain kind
of brain or a passport.
Citizenship is the way in
which we come together to
make sure that we all belong
and know we belong.

31. Aristotle explains
that a community
is not made out of
equals, but on the
contrary of people
who are different
and unequal. The
community comes
into being through
equalising,
'isathenai.' [Nich.
Ethics 1133 a 14]
!
Hannah Arendt

33. We create equality
between us by creating a
universal framework of
rights, duties and
freedoms. But citizenship
demands more than just
‘equal rights’.

34. We must create practical
solutions to support and
enhance citizenship for all:
1. Planning
2. Decision-making
3. Money
4. Housing
5. Help
6. Community
7. Relationships

35. The keys to
citizenship are
the practical
social
conditions of
self-respect
and dignity.

36. 6. Needs, Wealth & Rights

37. Needs are important. But many needs cannot
be met unless people are able to meet their
needs for themselves.

38. And if we do focus on meeting other people’s
needs for them we can undermine capacity.

39. Pippa Murray has
developed a model of
‘real wealth’ or
capabilities:
1. Resources
2. People
3. Community
4. Gifts
5. Spirit

40. You could no
more make a city
out of paupers
than out of slaves.
!
Aristotle

41. 7. Next steps

42. We are beginning a
new phase of thinking
and action, one which
demands:
1. A focus on real and
effective legal rights
2. Less jargon and more
commonsense
3. Organised political
power to challenge
and direct.

43. Although we keep ‘taking the institution with
us’ we can still make progress. The final
stage means tackling the institutions of the
mind - our prejudices.

44. Not only must we close
down the community
institutions we must
also start to reduce the
problems built into our
welfare system.

46. We need to
redesign the
welfare
system so that
it supports
and sustains
citizenship,
family and
community for
everyone.

47. Social workers are key
agents of positive
change. But they will
need to develop their
role in the coming
phase of development.

48. Social work’s
business is
citizenship and
justice.
!
Its field is large
and exciting.

49. Simone Weil
Christ does not call his benefactors loving or charitable. He
calls them just. The Gospel makes no distinction between
the love of our neighbour and justice. In the eyes of the
Greeks also a respect for Zeus the suppliant was the first
duty of justice. We have invented the distinction between
justice and charity. It is easy to understand why. Our notion
of justice dispenses him who possesses from the obligation
of giving. If he gives, all the same, he thinks he has a right to
be pleased with himself. He thinks he has done good work.
As for him who receives, it depends on the way he interprets
this notion whether he is dispensed from all gratitude, or
whether it obliges him to offer servile thanks.
!
Only the absolute identification of justice and love makes the
co-existence possible of compassion and gratitude on the
one hand, and on the other, of respect for the dignity of
affliction in the afflicted - a respect felt by the sufferer himself
and the others.

50. For more information:
!
Web: www.centreforwelfarereform.org
!
Twitter: @CforWR and @simonjduffy
!
Blog: www.simonduffy.info
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