LAUSR

This second issue of volume 34 of Practice, sees us entering the third year of Covid 19. It has in many ways begun to permanently shape societal behaviour and by consequence social work practice. It seems appropriate therefore that this issue picks up on the themes of Covid and other contexts for social work practice. As previously stated, we have an editorial policy approach of publishing Covid related articles as soon as they successfully complete the peer review and production processes. This issue continues that intent, with two more such articles. However some of the changes in working practices which have accelerated under Covid, i.e. the use of online consultation and working from home, had already begun through shifts to flexible or agile working. Further the increasing nature of multidisciplinary working has also affected the context and place of delivery of social work. Both the Covid articles and our other three contributions explore these additional context considerations of the online, multidisciplinary and non-social work office delivery. Our first article comes from China. In which, Min Ren, Binbin Wang and Michael Rasell articulate that flexibility is a concept can boost the social work profession and build professional identity in contexts where social work is being established. Their arguments are drawn from reflective analysis of social work responses to Covid 19 in two Chinese cities. Through a review of literature on social work responses to major disasters and pandemics, and then more immediate reflection on the direct experiences in Wuhan and Dongguan, Ren et al. identify: changing needs and users of services, adjustment in resources, and new forms of collaboration as shaping social work reactions. While the authors specifically identify this adaptable flexibility as a response to Covid-19, these three principles can readily help us understand much of the other factors that change the context and shape new practices for social work. Finally Ren et al. suggest that through: knowledge production, changing structures and promotion of professional identity that responding flexible to the changing context can enhance social work’s status.