Records of Lynette Hughes, social worker, concerning court case against the London Borough of Southwark

The collection contains: affidavits and exhibits; court judgement; newspaper cuttings; retrospective paper about the case.

In 1987 Lynette Hughes was instructed by a senior manager in the Southwark Social Services Department to leave her post as principal social worker in the children's department of the Maudsley and Bethlem Royal Hospitals and, with four colleagues, go to work in an area office in Peckham. With the support of the British Association of Social Workers and the National and Local Government Officers' Association, she and three others gained a High Court interlocutory injunction restraining the London Borough of Southwark from attempting to enforce the instruction.

The case was regarded as having wider significance by other social workers who were also facing threats from their managers of being withdrawn from specialist multi-disciplinary teams.

Reference: Kay Beaumont and Lynette Hughes, 'Social work under threat - Hughes v London Borough of Southwark - standing up to managerialism in 1987' (1238/6 in this collection); information from Lynette Hughes, March 2018.

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

Link to full catalogue: https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/HUG