Résumé :
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This paper sets out the environment of inequality in which social work and the poor have recently operated. It explores pragmatic and idealist arguments concerning whether or not the poor need social work. Finally, policy solutions developed in consultation with social service users and carers are suggested in relation to poverty and social exclusion. Social exclusion can be linked to relative poverty as exclusion from economic and social norms. However, there is a wider brief in our government's publications and those of Europe, of examining how people are excluded from actions and policies of agencies who are there to support them. (...) The debates around social work, social exclusion and inequality that follow establish : that some of the poor do need social work ; that the poverty of social service users is related to policies that have restructured welfare in Britain ; that the reasons for individuals approaching or being referred to social services are complex but are likely to include financial deprivation as a key contributory factor ; that if the poor do need social work, advocacy is essential rather than social work being seen as concerned only with social control - talking children into care, mentally ill people into hospitals, and advising the DSS on the suitability of claimants for benefits. Finally, the discussion turns to new policy agendas on social exclusion instigated by the Labour government. (...).
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