TCRU/Coram Joint Annual Lecture: Welfare inequalities: an existential challenge for social work?

In this lecture, Prof Rick Hood will explore the significance of welfare inequalities in relation to social work and social care. Drawing on recent research, he will present evidence for three interconnected forms of inequality: a social gradient in health and welfare; barriers to accessing help and support; and disproportionate policing of disadvantaged groups. Welfare inequalities are discussed as a policy problem and an operational challenge for services, but also a reflection of social work's professional status, statutory function, and value base.

Rick Hood is a registered social worker and Professor of Social Work at Kingston University. His textbooks, Complexity in Social Work (2018) and Inequality and Social Work (2023), are both published by Sage. Rick has led and contributed to a range of mixed methods research projects in the field of children's social care, focusing particularly on applying systems ideas to the analysis of large administrative datasets. Rick is currently co-chair of the BASW thematic group for children and families, and he is on the editorial board for the British Journal of Social Work.

Attendance is free and open to all, but please book your place by joining the guest list.