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COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the way social work responds to a wide range of social issues facing PWLE (People with Learned Experience). This paper evaluates a small-scale research project conducted by academics teaching on a United Kingdom (UK) social work degree programme. It explores the experience of students undertaking social work placements and how their practice was impacted upon by the lockdown. The focus concerns the challenges students faced when they were unable to continue their real-time practice placements and instead were asked to undertake virtual learning experiences through the use of Action Learning Sets (ALS) and Blogs. The responses indicate that the students found the use of Action Learning Sets improved their experience during a difficult period. Important lessons can be learned which can contribute to enhancing the educational experience on social work programmes in the UK. These included the recognition of the student voice in delivery, the impact of caring responsibilities, and the need, in future interventions, to directly involve People With Lived Experience in the development and delivery of such initiatives.

One of the challenges facing social pedagogy is to identify how creativity can be incorporated not only into social pedagogic practice but also into a conceptual approach which integrates theories of creativity, inclusion and participation into a wider explanatory framework. This article seeks to build on the insights drawn from Danish and German social pedagogy in a way which articulates a new way of developing theory and practice. It draws on a range of articles in the special issue to critique the meaning of creativity, showing the complexity of a matter which can be utilised by neo-liberal and radical commentators. It rejects the former approach and suggests that our understanding of creativity needs to be informed with radical conceptions drawing on inclusion, participation, imaginative space and creative and political imagination. It seeks to integrate these insights into wider debates around intersectionality, critical race theory, gender and social activism. It concludes by looking at questions social pedagogy should consider as we seek to develop our theory and practice.

The objective of this article is to examine the impact of international female labor migration on left-behind parents by taking into consideration the daughters' marital status. Data were taken from in-depth interviews with 37 left-behind parents of migrant women in East Java Province. The study showed that left-behind parents had limited access to the remittances sent by married daughters, except when they carried out childcare responsibilities. Parents of unmarried daughters had some access to remittances, but this varied according to the economic conditions of the family. Left-behind parents were concerned about the safety of their daughters overseas, the marriage prospects of unmarried daughters, the stability of their daughters' marriages and the welfare of left-behind grandchildren. Because the migration of married and unmarried daughters has diverse impacts on left-behind parents, this should be considered in programs that aim to mitigate potential negative impacts of women's migration.

Service user/carer involvement in social work education is supported by the Health Care Professions Council and currently, by the Department of Health. It is generally seen as beneficial but the reasons why this may be the case are often under-theorised and seen as un-problematic. This article seeks to provide a theoretical justification for an approach which values involvement as central to educational practice. It begins by looking at models of participation and how they can help us understand processes of involvement. It suggests that to move beyond tokenistic approaches we need to develop an approach which is based on equality and partnership. Drawing on European approaches to social pedagogy, particularly those utilising ‘the Common Third’, and debates around creativity and social power the article articulates an approach based on the co-production of curricula and assessment artefacts. This, the paper suggests, tests the students ability to empathise and communicate with people using services and utilises the latters’ personal expertise to bring the curricula alive. The article outlines a theory of creativity, inclusion and power which the author believes validates the approach developed and which provides a model for evaluating the real level of recognition given to the service user/carer voice within the educational process, particularly in social work education. It is suggested that such an approach is consistent with the social work professions’ commitment to the promotion of social justice and social change.

Traditional acupuncturists' quest for external legitimacy in Britain involves the standardization of their knowledge bases through the development of training schools and syllabi, formal educational structures, and, since the 1990s, the teaching of undergraduate courses within (or validated by) Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), a process which entails biomedical alignment of the curriculum. However, as holistic discourses were commonly used as a rhetorical strategy by CAM practitioners to distance themselves from biomedicine and as a source of public appeal, this 'mainstreaming' process evoked practitioners' concerns that their holistic claims are being compromised. An additional challenge is being posed by a group of academics and scientists in Britain who launched an attack on CAM courses taught in HEIs, accusing them of being 'unscientific' and 'non-academic' in nature. This paper explores the negotiation of all these challenges during the formalization of traditional acupuncture education in Britain, with a particular focus on the role of HEIs. The in-depth qualitative investigation draws on several data sets: participant observation in a university validated acupuncture course; in-depth interviews; and documentary analysis. The findings show how, as part of the formalization process, acupuncturists in Britain (re)negotiate their holistic, anti-reductionist discourses and claims in relation to contemporary societal, political and cultural forces. Moreover, the teaching and validation of acupuncture courses by HEIs may contribute to broadening acupuncturists' 'holistic awareness' of societal and cultural influences on individuals' and communities' ill-health. This investigation emphasises the dynamic and context-specific (rather than fixed and essentialized) nature of acupuncture practice and knowledge.

A comprehensive body of comparitive material has been produced which looks at the similarities and differences betwen welfare regimes whether along continuums measuring degrees of commodification, service structure or social care models employed. However there has been a concentration on structural and institutional factors and a lack of recognition of the important consequences for the practice of welfare professionals within these welfare states of the values and ethics they bring to their work. This article seeks to explore the commonalities and differences between the value bases underpinning the work of welfare professionals in Denmark and Britain. Through an examination of the writings of Freire, Kierkegaard and Grundvitg in Denmark and the work of those espousing a framework for anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice in Britain. The article examines the similarities in values bases expressed around key issues such as human nature, power/oppression, liberation/empowerment and praxis. It concludes by suggesting that it is around the notions of equality and difference that the most obvious discontinuities occur. It concludes by calling for a recognition of the way in which an appreciation of our differences can lead to increased understanding and improved practice.

It is good to see publishers recognizing, at last, that among the skills that social workers need, in both statutory and voluntary sectors, are the ability to help people maximize their income, challenge decisions of tribunals and counter the widespread pathologization of people in poverty as being inherently incapable, dependent and passive. Beresford and others have sought to legitimize the experience of people in poverty and to show that, however disadvantaged, people have the capacity and desire to change their circumstances for the better (Beresford and Hoban, 2005). Davis and Wainwright (2005) point out how the current framework of social services often results in the serious impoverishment of service users and can be ‘a factor in sustaining the poverty experienced by those using them’ (p. 260). They argue that as a result, social work's potential to change the life chances of the poorest sections of society should be prioritized. , Bateman Neil, London, Routledge/Community Care, 2006, pp. 144, ISBN 0-415-35890-6, 20.99

Atelier 1 : les innovateurs et leur héritage; The European tradition of social pedagogy has, over the last 10 years, been gaining prominence in discourses around welfare in the UK. Initially this was the result of research into the efficacy of social pedagogy in residential services in Europe as compared with the relatively poor outcomes achieved for young people in similar services in the UK. More recently attention has focused on the way youth services could be reoriented if they were to adopt a social pedagogic approach. This paper considers these later developments and looks at how youth work in the UK could be re-energised by the insertion of a social pedagogic framework into the activities of youth workers. It argues for a perspective which moves beyond an individual focus on the young person to one which utilises an approach which recognises structural as well as individual perspectives. The paper suggests that to achieve this we need to draw on notions of the 'Common Third' and underlying commitments to inclusion and creativity

Increasingly the activities of social professionals are being framed within the exigencies of a mixed economy of welfare which promotes regulation and control rather than user empowerment. What has happened to the radical tradition within international social work? This article looks at current concerns and points to the lessons that can be learned from ‘radical social work’. It shows how the experience of service users is impacted upon by poverty and social exclusion and suggests ways in which a new radical agenda can be developed to promote social transformation

Cet article, ecrit par un professeur de travail social, representant lui-meme du courant « radical » de travail social et auteur d’un manuel d’intervention, presente un retour sur les pratiques de ce courant durant les annees 1970 et 1980. Parmi les experiences « phares », les projets de developpement communautaire sont analyses. L’auteur met en evidence certaines contradictions dans le discours et dans les pratiques. Il suggere qu’elles sont neanmoins porteuses de nombreuses lecons pour une actualite britannique, marquee, aujourd’hui par le retour au pouvoir d’un gouvernement bien decide a reduire le role de l’Etat dans la sphere de l’action sociale.

The University of Portsmouth in conjunction with its partner institutions — the Hogeschool van Utrecht and Oslo College has through its Socrates network established an MA in European Social Work which has now been running since February 1999. The Programme seeks to recruit students from within the European Union who are interested in developing their professional understanding of Social Work through interacting with students of other nationalities. The Programme has attracted students from Norway, Holland, Finland, Greece and India. It provides a unique opportunity for students to explore recent developments in European Social Work.

This introductory text: discusses the development of social pedagogy as an academic discipline; explores its influence on UK debates about welfare practice. It provides the theoretical structure for understanding: the potential of social pedagogy in UK welfare practice; how key ideas from within social pedagogy can be linked to ideas of inclusion, creativity and personalisation; the impact of power relations on the social pedagogic relationship; the importance of creativity in building inclusive practice. Focusing on practice situations within which social pedagogy can be seen to be effective, it: provides a background to the introduction of social pedagogy in the UK; investigates how European and UK services could benefit from a better mutual understanding of what each other does; discusses how social pedagogy can contribute to other areas of practice including youth work, adult social care and community development; suggests ways in which social pedagogy can be adopted to a wider field of practice than those in which it is currently considered in the UK.