A young black woman from the Midlands is made homeless. She is allocated a council home but finds herself living on an estate where racism is rife and she suffers daily abuse.
"She was a strong person but the persecution meant she was constantly living in fear," says Nushra Mansuri, the social worker who took up the case.
The young woman had begged the council to re-house her but no action was taken.
"It was double discrimination in a way," says Mansuri, who worked for a voluntary organisation at the time, and is now joint England manager at the British Association of Social Workers.
She used the local authority's own policies on discrimination to challenge the housing allocation and got the woman moved.
Challenging policy
That was some years ago but it is a case that stuck in Mansuri's mind. It was one of many where she relied on the key tenets of anti-discriminatory practice (ADP).
In another case, a young woman with a disabled baby was told by a Sure Start centre that they could not help her child because of the baby's disability. Once again, guided by ADP, Mansuri intervened to get the woman the support she needed.
"These are things we need to challenge," she says. "We've had lots of legislation on discrimination but that hasn't necessarily led to a proactive approach in key services."
Dr Neil Thompson, a former social worker and academic whose books are used in social work education, says ADP began to make an impact in the 1980s.
"Before its emergence, social workers had a very individualistic focus," he says. "They tended to miss the fact that we're unique individuals in a social context.
"A significant proportion of the people we work with are likely to be discriminated against and for social workers to take an individualistic approach is quite naive."
Discrimination can take different forms. It can be personal or part of a wider system, deliberate or unwitting.
It is rare for social workers to discriminate deliberately but they may find themselves in a minefield of conflicting issues, such as having to balance respect for a gypsy traveller community's way of life with a young girl's right to education and gender equality.
In such cases "critically reflective practice" is necessary, says Thompson.
"You can't just operate on routine thinking," he says. "We have to be aware of the different values that operate in society and quite often they will conflict. We have to weigh it up - there isn't a blanket answer."
Sue Berelowitz, deputy children's commissioner for England, says that cases like that of Victoria Climbie have raised questions about whether ADP has been misinterpreted by social workers. Eight-year-old Victoria died in February 2000 after numerous opportunities to protect her were missed by social services and others.
While a strong supporter of ADP, Berelowitz believes there can be a large amount of confusion about how to apply it. There have been cases similar to Climbie's where children's professionals have allowed black children to be abused under a mistaken belief that they need to let different communities use different levels of physical chastisement.
Tragic misjudgment
It is not just questions of race and community that have led to ADP being applied incorrectly. She tells the story of a 14-year-old boy who was involved in a sexual relationship with a man in his late 20s. The boy's mother asked social workers for help but they decided not to intervene. In the end the police took action, arresting the older man at which point the boy committed suicide.
The subsequent serious case review concluded that social workers allowed the relationship to continue because they felt the 14-year-old was exploring his sexuality. It is a case where social workers got ADP tragically wrong, says Berelowitz.
In trying not to discriminate against the boy's sexuality, they ignored what should have been their prime concern - that the boy was too young to be in a sexual relationship of any kind, and that this one was breaking the law.
"I'm convinced that if it had been a girl and a man of those ages, a different approach would have been followed and the mother's complaint would have been taken seriously," she says.
"When you do your assessment, other considerations should be given full attention but the start and finish points must be the child's welfare."
So how do social workers ensure they get the balance right?
In Southampton, the local authority has shaken up its approach since the "anti-racism, punitive approach" of the 1980s, says Mike Shipman, the city council's learning and development manager.
Shipman, who helps shape the content of the council's Working with Diversity courses provided for staff, says that the concept of anti-discrimination made people frightened about using the wrong labels.
"The diversity model we use now assumes that people mean to do well most of the time," he says. "So if someone says mentally handicapped rather than learning disabilities, we're not jumping on them."
Instead of worrying about what you can't do or say, the Southampton approach to diversity is about treating people as individuals and not making assumptions about them because of their sex, race, disability or sexual orientation, he says.
Shipman's colleague Marie Castrez-Wantz, a supervising social worker who recruits foster carers, says openness is the key. Without airing subjects such as sexual orientation, you can never confront semi-submerged prejudices or ensure you are treating people fairly.
"We like to recruit foster carers who reflect the community in terms of sexual orientation, culture and religious beliefs," she says. "It's really hard work but to achieve your goal you have to be proactive."
No place for stereotypes
One of her foster couples is Richard Iles and his partner Michael. Iles says that unlike his experience with a previous council, he has always felt comfortable working with Southampton.
"From day one we were made to feel part of the team," he says. "The fostering and adoption processes are thorough and in some ways intrusive but that's because they have to be."
He praises the diversity training they received and argues that social workers need to banish stereotypes. "As a social worker, you need to be very open-minded when it comes to being diverse," he says.
ADP is crucially important for parents with learning difficulties, says Beth Tarleton, a research fellow at the Norah Fry Research Centre at the University of Bristol, one of the leading centres in the UK for research into services for people with learning disabilities.
"They feel that they're discriminated against by the system and they're worried that if they involve social services their children could be taken away. Often they are," she says.
In June, England's children's commissioner published a report on families' views of safeguarding and social work. Parents with learning disabilities said they were often seen as "problems" by children's services social workers and felt workers assumed they would automatically find it hard to look after children.
While some parents may struggle, most of the time all they require is extra support, says Tarleton. "In these cases social workers need to make reasonable adjustments so that parents with learning difficulties can access the support they need," she adds.
David Holmes, chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, says that despite the apparent complexity of individual cases, the golden rule of ADP is really rather simple.
"It's about treating everyone as you'd want to be treated yourselves," he says. "And acknowledging that people are different, and welcoming that."
TOP TIPS
- Don't be afraid to challenge "cultural norms" if children are at risk
- Employ people with knowledge of specific minority communities
- Make sure people from minority communities understand your reasons for taking action
- When working with people with learning difficulties make sure you speak in short, clear sentences, free from jargon. If necessary use pictures to illustrate your point
- Never think you are too busy to think about discrimination. ADP is a crucial part of your daily work
- You need to take account of the fact that most of the people you work with are likely to be the victims of one or more types of discrimination
- Treat people as you would wish to be treated yourself
- Talk to your colleagues regularly about ADP and continually challenge your own preconceptions and prejudices
- Try to use the right label but remember that what is more important is taking the right action
- If in doubt, the welfare of the child always trumps respecting adult sensibilities
REACHING OUT
Foyzul Hoque is the UK's only Muslim children's safeguarding co-ordinator. His employer is the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, where he has worked for 20 years.
Five years ago, the role was established when it became clear there was a serious problem with Islamic teachers using excessive force when punishing children. "We were getting seven to 10 allegations a week, which is a huge number," Hoque says.
"The council created the post specifically to contain the situation and minimise the risk to children."
Teachers were using traditional punishments like hitting children with sticks or rulers. While this is seen as normal in many Muslim countries, Hoque had to explain that it was against the law in Britain.
He talked to all the mosques and madrasas in the borough and set up a training course. Many teachers were unaware that they were breaking the law and were grateful for the training.
Hoque went on to address specific issues such as the circumcision of young boys by untrained people. He says he has more influence with mosque leaders because he comes from the same community and believes engaging with people in this way is the basis of good anti-discriminatory practice. It is often about educating people rather than bringing a prosecution, he concludes.
RESOURCES
- Anti-Discriminatory Practice (4th edition) 2006 by Neil Thompson, published by Palgrave Macmillan
- Equality of oppressions and anti-discriminatory models in social work: reflections from the USA and UK by Mekada Graham and Jerome H Schiele, European Journal of Social Work, Volume 13, Issue 2, June 2010
- Online discussion forum at www.socialworkfocus.com.
