The Victorian Ethical Foundations of Social Work in England--Continuity and Contradiction

Abstract

Summary In this article we argue that during the Victorian era certain ethical foundations of best practice were identified and were central to the work of particular individuals. We also argue that there was a strongly discriminatory moralistic basis to social policy and mainstream charitable intervention that militated against these ethical founda tions. We suggest that this contradiction is replicated in New Labour's 'Third Way' and that we need to heed the tradition of social inclusion espoused by some of the Vic torian practitioners discussed if we genuinely mean to put into practice the ideas of social worth and community espoused by New Labour rather than return to the Vic torian distinction between the 'respectable' or 'deserving' poor and the 'pauper'. The history of English charity, philanthropy and social work has largely disappeared from the curriculum of professional education and training and from the research assessment descriptor of the subject area in the UK, but the ethical foundations for practice that were established in the Victorian era have proved most durable. More surprisingly, the government of the UK has taken up many of the Victorians' founda tional ideas in its search for a new political programme—the Third Way—to address