Local Area Coordination: An Exploration of Practice Developments in Western Australia and Northern Ireland

Abstract

In Northern Ireland, one local Health and Personal Social Services (HPSS) Trust has appointed staff to act in the role of Local Area Coordinators to work with people who have disabilities. The model which was first developed in Western Australia in 1988 combines the role of case manager and community social worker and it is currently an established arm of their services for people with a disability. In 2001 the model was introduced in Scotland and the learning from this is discussed. This article explores the extent to which this model has been transposed to a HPSS Trust in Northern Ireland. The radical changes in social policy beginning in the 1980s affected both the UK and Australia in terms of the adoption of neo-liberal principles of welfare and the subsequent retrenchment from government-led welfare in both countries. In the UK this hastened the loss of community social work. Alongside changes to social policy the influence of ideological shifts in the place and the role of people with disabilities in Western democracies are examined. The context of statutory social work in Northern Ireland is discussed as a barrier to the full implementation of the model in HPSS Trusts.