Steve Rogowski is well known amongst social workers in the United Kingdom because he writes a regular column in the weekly ‘trade magazine’, Community Care. Despite his obvious enjoyment of the academic side of social work (he has a doctorate and string of journal publications), he has remained a practitioner and his column is always a refreshing read as he draws on his theoretical knowledge and practice experience to discuss issues of the day. In this book, he offers an account of the current state of the social work profession in England. Employing a Marxist perspective, he argues that the profession has declined from its high point in the early 1970s, and is now a limited version of what it promised to be (p. 21). The key factor that he identifies is the overall context of neoliberalism; and then, growing out of that, further factors which have distorted social work include managerialism, marketisation, bureaucratisation and de-professionalisation.

The last few years have seen a resurgence of ‘radical’ critiques of social work and the challenges facing the people who use its services (examples are Ferguson and Woodward, Reference Ferguson and Woodward2009; Harris and White, Reference Harris and White2009; Lavalette, Reference Lavalette2011). The common themes are great unhappiness, amounting to anger, at the way that the profession has become de-skilled and tightly controlled by government and quango regulation; and how in turn this has made it ever-more controlling of service users and their families. Rogowski's book stands firmly in this tradition. It is encouraging that such radical and critical perspectives are becoming more prominent at this time, when (yet another) government-initiated review and re-organisation of social work is underway (the ‘Social Work Reform Board’), and cutbacks threaten welfare services across the board. It is more important than ever to keep fighting for the role and soul of social work.

Rogowski's book has chapters on the history of social work up its 1970s zenith, Thatcherism (covering the 1980s and 1990s), New Labour's modernisation, professionalisation and managerialism. It rattles along at a great pace. Chapter 2, for example, on the beginnings of social work to the 1970s, goes from the protestant reformation to the Rolling Stones in 25 pages, taking in (amongst others) Locke, Malthus, Bentham, Darwin, the Charity Organisation Society, Marx, Fabianism, Beveridge and Seebohm.

In such a wide-ranging book, it is inevitable that ambiguities and complexities are left under-explored. As an example, Rogowski bemoans the de-professionalisation of social work, arguing that ‘work that was once the preserve of highly trained professionals is increasingly being carried out by less qualified staff’ (p. 90). But a fuller picture has to acknowledge (at least) two things; first, that social work has been the author of some of its own misfortunes, because practitioners have not always performed as though they were highly skilled and well trained. Most do, but many service users will be able to give stories of those that do not. (Generally, the views of service users about what they want from social workers and other welfare professionals are not strongly represented in this book.) Second, simply re-claiming the professional status of social work will not solve all the problems. Even if all social workers were highly qualified and consistently met the highest standards, their professional roles and statutory duties will inevitably bring conflicts with service users from time to time, and provoke public and political ambivalence.

The book is longer on critique than on solutions, despite the author's attempt to end it with a more positive final chapter. It is a well-worn criticism of radical social work, that it is better at saying what is wrong with the current system than actually doing anything different. This is not an entirely fair attack, and in places Rogowski does talk about his own experiences and how he has tried to practise in radical ways. I found these examples helpful, and would have liked more of them.

As it was, I found the book a bit gloomy. I don't share the view that social work is a fallen profession. Equally, I am not convinced that there has ever been a golden age, and even in the 1970s there were critical voices (notably Bailey and Brake, Reference Bailey and Brake1975). Looking back to my training and practice in the 1980s, I would say that there have been huge advances since then in terms of our understandings of the problems that service users face and the most effective ways of helping them; of the importance of upholding their rights and working in partnership with them, even in conflictual situations; of working as part of complex organisations, with other professionals and other agencies. That is not to claim everything's rosy, but it is not all bad either. Social work has always been difficult, the organisational context has always been demanding, progress is always uncertain and ambiguous − but the achievements and ambiguity are undersold in this book.

Despite the enormity of the challenges and the negative press that social work so often gets, my experience is that it still attracts able and committed people to train and work as social workers, and can still deliver skilled help to service users and their families in very great and complex need. For sure, sometimes this is delivered despite the organisational systems, not because of them; but that is the challenge that radical social work lays down, to work with the system when it serves one's objectives, and to bend it or buck it when it does not.

All said though, this book is a highly readable overview of the key issues and I have put it on my reading list for social work students. I know that those who have read it have found it thought-provoking and useful.