Social Work as a Social Institution

Abstract

Ron Walton worked as a child-care officer in Oldham for five years before joining the Extra Mural Department at Manchester University as a child-care tutor in 1965. His teaching interests were social policy, child-care services and residential care. Whilst in Manchester, he completed masters and doctoral studies dealing with the history of social work and residential care for chil dren. He joined Cardiff University in 1973 and, in the mid-1980s, led the Department of Social Administration and was Director of the School of Social Work, which provided a full range of postgraduate, masters and doctoral social work programmes. Since 1989, he has worked inde pendently, contributing to child-care training, post-qualifying studies, investigation of social services complaints and consultative work for agencies. He has also taught in Cyprus and Japan. He was an active member of the Association of Child Care Officers and BASW, serving on the CCETSW Council in the 1980s and as Chair of the CCETSW Committee in Wales 1986-89. For the last eight years, he has been a member of the Vale of Glamorgan Community Health Council, with a keen interest in the co-ordination of health and personal social services.