Community care in practice: social work in primary health care

This paper examines the establishment of social work within primary health care settings in Great Britain, following the passage of the National Health Service and Community Care Act in 1990. Although the improvement of relationships between social workers and primary health care teams has been promoted for a number of years, the advent of formal policies for community care has made this a priority for both social services and health. This paper presents interim findings from the evaluation of three pilot projects in Nottinghamshire, Great Britain. These findings are analysed from three linked perspectives. The first is the extent to which structures and organisations have worked effectively together to promote the location of social workers within health care settings. The second is the impact of professional and cultural factors on the work of the social worker in these settings. The third is the effect of interpersonal relationships on the success of the project. The paper will conclude that there is significant learning from each of these perspectives which can be applied to the future location of social workers to primary health care.