Introducing critical best practice in social work

The aim of this book is to present examples of best practice in social work from a range of critical perspectives. There is a remarkable paucity of writing in social work which focuses in a systematic way on accounts of best practice and an almost complete absence of such work in the literature on ‘critical practice’. The best practice approach presented here is ‘critical’ in two senses. First, it is an urgently needed response to the deep negativity surrounding the profession. This often leads to the ‘best’ in social work remaining hidden from view. Second, it is an approach that proposes the adoption of a ‘critical’ sociological stance through which the best social work practices need to be understood and analysed