Another Step towards the Promised Liberation of Adult Social Work under England's 2014 Care Act? The Implications of Revised Statutory Guidance and the Politics of Liberation

Since the 2014 Care Act was passed, key observers have continued to present it as offering adult social work significant opportunities: first, to make a central contribution in delivering the Act's core principles; and, second, to realise adult social work's liberation from narrow 'care management' practice. The primary source in implementing the Act was its 2014 Statutory Guidance, studied in a previous paper for its potentially key contribution to the promised liberation (Whittington, 2016). In March 2016, that Guidance was withdrawn and replaced by a second, revised edition, marking a potentially significant step. Building on the earlier study, this paper analyses the 2016 Guidance and its endorsements of social work roles and practice, with three aims: to assess how far endorsements converge with published social work aspirations; to consider changes since the first edition; and to examine the further implications for social work liberation. The analysis finds types of endorsement of front line social work largely unaltered between 2014 and 2016 Guidance. However, the 2016 version introduces significant content about Principal Social Workers. These findings are considered together with parallel social work influences and wider contexts that identify the multiple political dimensions of the social work liberation project.