RACE‐SPECIFIC VS. CULTURALLY COMPETENT SOCIAL WORKERS: THE DEBATES AND DILEMMAS AROUND PURSUING ESSENTIALIST OR MULTICULTURAL SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

Abstract

Many geographical areas of the United Kingdom have a distinct multicultural presence. Welfare services in the United Kingdom need to cater to the needs of this diversity and there is active experimentation with regard to various modes of ensuring effective service delivery to the minorities that represent this diversity. In the past, the burden of being culturally appropriate has been appropriated by the voluntary sector and the community‐based organisations. However, the statutory sector now has certain ‘named’ responsibilities toward ensuring that relevant welfare services are available for various groups of people who might be in need. While there are guidelines and directives to ensure that diversity is attended to, there is a great deal of ambiguity about how this will best be achieved. This paper is an attempt to add to the active deliberations in service provision in a multicultural society and will discuss the pros and cons of the alternatives of race‐specific and culturally competent service provisions. It will draw from experiential accounts from working in a race‐specific provision and from other studies of relevance.

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