Evidence-based practice is a movement deriving from medicine to measure the effectiveness or the outcome of practical interventions. This concept has been transferred to social work at a time when the profession is under pressure from - managerialism. Evidence-based social work therefore is suspect, even through there is no doubt that knowledge should be the base of professional social work action. - What works and other narrow concepts of evidence-based practice seem better suited to managerial demands for - accountability and to political decision-making in respect of financial problems of welfare states than to professional decision-making. On the other hand accountability and political/financial constraints are a reality social work has to cope with anyway. The leading question asked by this book is whether the change in the environment of social work practice can be used as a stimulus for constructive development and whether evidence-based social work can be conceived as an approach pointing to new forms of professionalism using evidence for the improvement of professional social work practice and its accountability."