Moral Risks?: A Reply to Hollis and Howe

Abstract

'Moral Risks in the Social Work Role' represents a succinct summary of the authors' original paper (Hollis and Howe, 1987). Insofar as they present new arguments I take this opportunity to respond, and to cor rect some misapprehensions of my own argument, in an attempt to move the discussion forward. First, pace Hollis and Howe, I do not argue that responsibility in social work is a purely collective issue (p. 547); individual social workers will make bad decisions or errors, and insofar as these are not the result of the organizational structure of social work, then the responsibility for those errors lies with the individual concerned. My argument is, however, first, that responsibility accrues irrespective of the outcome, and second, that there are certain circumstances in which it does not make sense to talk of individual moral (or any other) responsibility but where what is needed is a moral language which recognizes the struc tures within which decisions are taken and actions undertaken. The