Tilda Goldberg:
Lessons for Today from a Social Work
Pioneer
Chris Hemsley
Social Worker
and
Donald Forrester
Professor of Social Work Research
The Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and Social Care
University of Bedfordshire
Tilda Goldberg OBE
‘Progress, far from consisting in change,
depends on retentiveness’
(Santayana, 1906 p.284)
Tilda & Eva
The Early Years
• Staatliche Augusta Schule
Arriving in the UK
• Berlin University – psychology and economics
– did not complete
• 1933 – England – Dennington Park Road
• Parents and sister Eva arrive some time later;
Eva dies
London School of Economics
• 1933-35 LSE – Certificate in Social Science
and Administration awarded 1.10.1935
• 1936 LSE – Certificate in Mental Health.
Qualifies as a Psychiatric Social Worker
Early Career
• 1936-43
Hertfordshire Child Guidance Clinic
• 1943-49
Regional Aftercare Officer in Newcastle: assessing
needs of people discharged from military psychiatric hospitals
• 1st research project – national description of all patients helped by
regional officers
• 1948-49
Assistant Programme Secretary, International Congress
on Mental Health, London Aug 1948
• Mental Health Conference in US
The Medical Research Council
1949-65 Researcher at MRC Social Medicine
Research Unit under Jerry Morris
Early Works
Goldberg’s early works share 5 common
themes:
1. Research traditions of social medicine to
contribute to social welfare
2. Effective assessment, embedded within the
social context.
3. Clearly-stated aims
4. Multiagency working
5. Time-limited interventions
Theme 1
• A researcher who understands and uses the
research traditions of social medicine to
contribute to social welfare
Theme 2
• Commitment to effective assessment,
embedded within the social context
Theme 3
• The need for clearly-stated aims
Theme 4
• The value of multiagency working
Theme 5
• Identifies the value of time-limited
interventions
The Social Medicine Research Unit
Younghusband
The National Institute of Social Work
The Seebohm Report 1968
NISWT Research Programme
1. Small scale experimental studies: the Helping the Aged
RCT (Goldberg et al, 1970); Social Work in General Practice
(Goldberg and Neill, 1972); task-centred casework studies
(1973 to 1977) and studies into schizophrenia (1969-1974)
2. Medium scale attitude studies: the Consumer and Social
Worker Studies in Southampton 1972-3 and 1974-6
3. National studies of service patterns, including the
workload studies (1968-71) and specifically the Northern
Ireland Study (1972)
4. Action research: the development of the CRS (1972-1976)
Small Scale Experimental Studies
Helping the Aged (1970)
Small Scale Experimental Studies
Social Work in General Practice (1972)
Small Scale Experimental Studies
1973 - 1977
Reid, W.J. and Shyne, A.W. (1969) Brief and Extended
Casework. New York and London: Columbia University Press
Medium Scale Attitude Studies
Southampton Consumer & Worker studies, 1972
& 1975
National Studies of Service Patterns
• Northern Ireland Study (Walker et al, 1972)
Action Research
• Case Review System:
– a practice tool
– educational function
– management tool
– information system
– research tool
Kent Community Care Project
Post NSWA
• Policy Studies Institute 1977 - 1982
• Ends and Means in Social Work Goldberg, E.M. and
Warburton, R.W. (1979)
• Problems, Tasks and Outcomes (1985) Goldberg, E.M.,
Gibbons, J. and Sinclair, I.A.C.
• The effectiveness of social care for the elderly: an
overview of recent and current evaluative research
Goldberg, E.M. and Connelly, N. (1982)
The Role of Research
•
•
•
•
•
Public accountability
The equitable distribution of resources
Impact on service users
Cost effectiveness
‘A safeguard against fashion, and enthusiastic
and uncritical belief in the ‘new’’ (Goldberg
and Connelly, 1982 p.245)
Tanza Road
Ringshall
‘How to translate even freely accessible
knowledge into policy and practice still remains
one of the hardest nuts to crack’
(Goldberg and Connelly, 1982 p.258)
Influence
Others’
Research
Goldberg’s
Research
Policy
Practice
Barriers
4 barriers to the uptake of research Walt (1994):
1. Politics
2. Scientific uncertainty
3. Timing
4. Communication
Enablers
Nutley et al (2007):
• Good quality
• Prestigious source
• Aligns with specified needs
• Supported or funded by policy-makers
Legacy
•
•
•
•
57 works
First UK Social Care RCT
Qualitative and quantitative research
The Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and
Social Care Research
“Each age writes the history of
the past anew with reference to
the conditions uppermost in its
own time."
Frederick Jackson Turner
• e.g. REF and Tilda’s financial legacy…