Nature and Development of Social Work
What it is
Unit I asks what social work is, where it came from and how it is practised. It covers definitions, methods and principles, growth from Poor Law relief and charity organisation in Britain and America to India's first school in 1936, the reformers behind Indian practice, and the values, ethics codes, theories and settings later units build on. Items lean on founders, dates and attributions.
Core concepts
Definition, nature and goals. Friedlander defines social work as a professional service, based on scientific knowledge and skill in human relations, that helps individuals, alone or in groups, to reach social and personal satisfaction and independence. The IFSW–IASSW Global Definition (Melbourne, 2014) calls it a practice-based profession and academic discipline promoting social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people, with social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities central. Boehm's three functions are restoration of impaired capacity, provision of resources and prevention of social dysfunction; Indian texts list curative, correctional, preventive and developmental functions.
Methods, principles and process. The three primary methods are social casework, social group work and community organisation; the three secondary are social welfare administration, social work research and social action. Biestek's The Casework Relationship (1957) gives seven principles: individualisation, purposeful expression of feelings, controlled emotional involvement, acceptance, non-judgemental attitude, client self-determination and confidentiality. Mary Richmond's Social Diagnosis (1917) grounded the study–diagnosis–treatment sequence; the generalist process runs engagement, assessment, planning, intervention, evaluation, termination and follow-up.
Development in the UK. The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 made the parish responsible for relief and sorted the poor into the able-bodied, the impotent and dependent children. The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 imposed the workhouse test and "less eligibility": relief must leave the pauper worse off than the poorest independent labourer. The Charity Organisation Society (London, 1869) brought case investigation and friendly visiting, the root of casework. Toynbee Hall (1884, Samuel Barnett) began the settlement movement, the root of group and community work. The Beveridge Report (1942) named five giants (Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, Idleness); the Seebohm Report (1968) unified local-authority social services.
Development in the USA. The first American COS opened at Buffalo in 1877; Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House, Chicago, in 1889. The New York COS ran the first training course, a summer school, in 1898. In 1915 Abraham Flexner judged that social work was not yet a profession; Greenwood (1957) found it already had all five attributes of one: systematic theory, professional authority, community sanction, an ethical code and a professional culture. CSWE dates from 1952 and NASW from 1955.
Development in India. The first school was the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work, Bombay, founded in 1936 with the American missionary Clifford Manshardt as director; it became the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 1944. The Central Social Welfare Board (1953, first chaired by Durgabai Deshmukh) funded voluntary agencies, and the UGC Model Curriculum (2001) shaped education. Critics urge indigenising the borrowed American, casework-heavy, remedial model. India has no statutory council licensing social workers (as of 2026-10).
Social reformers and the profession. Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Brahmo Sabha, 1828) fought sati, banned by Bentinck's regulation of 1829. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar won the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act 1856. The Phules opened a girls' school in Pune in 1848, and Jyotirao founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873. Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj (1875), Vivekananda the Ramakrishna Mission (1897), M.G. Ranade the National Social Conference (1887), Gokhale the Servants of India Society (1905), Narayana Guru the SNDP Yogam (1903) and Periyar the Self-Respect Movement (1925). Gandhi's constructive programme, Ambedkar's Mahad Satyagraha (1927) and Bhave's Bhoodan (1951) supplied the profession's voluntarist and rights base.
Values, competencies and codes of ethics. The NASW Code of Ethics (USA) rests on six core values: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity and competence. The IFSW–IASSW Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles (2018) sets out nine principles, from human dignity, human rights and social justice to self-determination, participation, confidentiality, ethical use of technology and professional integrity. India's Declaration of Ethics for Professional Social Workers came from a TISS-led consultation and is voluntary, not statutory. Core competencies: ethical conduct, engaging diversity, advancing rights and justice, research-informed and policy practice, and engagement through evaluation.
Theories for practice. Systems theory underlies Pincus and Minahan's (1973) four systems: change agent, client, target and action. Germain and Gitterman's ecological Life Model (1980) stresses person-in-environment fit, life stressors and coping. Models include the diagnostic and functional (Rankian) schools, Perlman's problem-solving model (1957), Reid and Epstein's task-centred model (1972), crisis intervention (Lindemann, Caplan), cognitive-behavioural work, Saleebey's strengths perspective, Solomon's empowerment (1976), radical social work (Bailey and Brake, 1975), anti-oppressive practice (Dominelli) and solution-focused therapy (de Shazer and Berg).
Changing context of practice. The field has moved from charity to welfare to development to rights: toward developmental social work (Midgley), human-rights practice, evidence-based practice, green social work and digital practice. Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013 makes qualifying companies spend 2% of average net profit of the preceding three years on CSR (as of 2026-10). Challenges: weak recognition, NGO-isation, burnout.
Practice settings. Family: family courts (Family Courts Act 1984). Child and youth: the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, replacing the 2000 Act, seats two social workers (at least one a woman) with a magistrate on each Juvenile Justice Board and creates Child Welfare Committees. Industry: the Factories Act 1948 welfare officer now falls under the OSH Code 2020, in force with the other labour codes since 21 Nov 2025 (as of 2026-10). Older persons: Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007. Disability: the RPwD Act 2016, replacing the 1995 Act, lists 21 disabilities. Women: Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. Health: the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 replaced the 1987 Act. Disaster: the Disaster Management Act 2005 created NDMA, SDMAs and DDMAs. Environment: eco-social work beside movements such as Chipko (1973).
Worked example
Pincus–Minahan systems in one case. A hospital social worker meets Mr R, 70, recovering from a stroke; his son says he cannot take him home. She engages each (acceptance), assesses mobility and household strain (individualisation), lets Mr R choose home with day-care (self-determination), and explains his right to claim maintenance under the 2007 Act (advocacy).
| System | In this case | Test applied |
|---|---|---|
| Change agent system | The worker and the hospital employing her | Worker plus agency |
| Client system | Mr R | Sanctions the work and expects to benefit |
| Target system | The son and household | Must change for the goal to be met |
| Action system | Doctor, physiotherapist, day-care centre | Those the worker works with to reach the goal |
The client (Mr R) and the target (the son) need not coincide.
Common traps
- Calling social action or research a primary method: the primary methods are casework, group work and community organisation.
- Saying "TISS was founded in 1936": the 1936 body was the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work, renamed TISS in 1944.
- Mixing COS and settlements: COS (London 1869, Buffalo 1877) led to casework; settlements (Toynbee Hall 1884, Hull House 1889) to group and community work.
- Swapping Flexner and Greenwood: Flexner (1915) said "not yet a profession"; Greenwood (1957) said it already was one.
- Citing superseded laws as current: JJ Act 2000 became 2015, PwD Act 1995 became RPwD 2016, Mental Health Act 1987 became the Mental Healthcare Act 2017.
Speed technique
- "COS gives the case, the settlement gives society."
- Learn 1601, 1834, 1869, 1877, 1884, 1889, 1898, 1915, 1917, 1936, 1944 as one ladder.
- For Pincus–Minahan items ask: who benefits (client) and who must change (target)?
Check yourself
- Which institution opened in Bombay in 1936 as India's first school of social work?
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The Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work — it became TISS in 1944. - A client rejects advice and chooses her own lawful course. Which Biestek principle does respecting that honour?
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Client self-determination — the client's right to decide, within law and capacity. - What did Abraham Flexner conclude in 1915?
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Social work was not yet a profession — he found it lacked its own specific, educationally communicable technique. - In Pincus and Minahan's model, which system must change for the goal to be reached?
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The target system — it may differ from the client system. - Under which Act do two social workers sit on a Juvenile Justice Board?
Show answer
The JJ (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 — it replaced the 2000 Act.
Try it: Nature and Development of Social Work questions
Real questions from the NET Social Work bank on exactly this skill. Pick an answer to see the full solution — the intuition, the worked steps, the faster methods and the traps.
The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 made which unit responsible for relieving the poor in its area?
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Answer: option A
The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 made each parish responsible for relieving its own poor, financed by a local poor rate and administered by overseers of the poor.
It also sorted the poor into the able-bodied, the impotent and dependent children, a classification that shaped relief for over two centuries.
So responsibility for poor relief lay with the parish, option A.
Hull House, the settlement house in Chicago that became the best-known American settlement, was founded by:
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Answer: option C
Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889, modelled on Toynbee Hall in London.
Settlement workers lived in the poor neighbourhood itself and worked with its groups and residents, which made settlements a root of group work and community organisation.
So Hull House was founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr, option C.
Which of the following is a primary method of social work?
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Answer: option B
Social work has three primary methods, which work directly with people: social casework, social group work and community organisation.
Social action, social work research and social welfare administration are the three secondary methods, which support and extend direct practice.
So the primary method listed is social casework, option B.
Match the practice models in List – I with their originators in List – II and choose the correct answer from the options. List – I (Practice model) | List – II (Originator) --- | --- (a) Problem-solving model | (i) Dennis Saleebey (b) Task-centred model | (ii) William Reid and Laura Epstein (c) Ecological Life Model | (iii) Helen Harris Perlman (d) Strengths perspective | (iv) Carel Germain and Alex Gitterman
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Answer: option D
Helen Harris Perlman set out the problem-solving model in 1957 (a – iii), and William Reid and Laura Epstein developed the short-term task-centred model in 1972 (b – ii).
Carel Germain and Alex Gitterman built the ecological Life Model around person-in-environment fit, life stressors and coping (c – iv), and Dennis Saleebey is the leading name of the strengths perspective (d – i).
So matching List I, from "Problem-solving model", gives a – iii, b – ii, c – iv, d – i, option D.
Match the institutions in List – I with the founding figure or first head associated with each in List – II and choose the correct answer from the options. List – I (Institution) | List – II (Founding figure or first head) --- | --- (a) Toynbee Hall, London | (i) Clifford Manshardt (b) Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work | (ii) Samuel Barnett (c) Central Social Welfare Board | (iii) Gopal Krishna Gokhale (d) Servants of India Society | (iv) Durgabai Deshmukh
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Answer: option B
Samuel Barnett founded Toynbee Hall in 1884 and was its first warden (a – ii); the American missionary Clifford Manshardt was the first director of the Tata school in 1936 (b – i).
Durgabai Deshmukh was the first chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board, set up in 1953 (c – iv), and Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society in 1905 (d – iii).
So matching List I, from "Toynbee Hall, London", gives a – ii, b – i, c – iv, d – iii, option B.
Answer above — every one shows its working.