The notion that social workers should seek to influence the policies that affect the societies in which they work has existed for nearly as long as the profession itself. Indeed, the history of the social work profession is replete with examples of social workers seeking to influence policies in the societies in which they lived. In the United Kingdom (UK), through her participation in various national committees social worker Eileen Younghusband was party to the formulation of policy in a wide range of fields during the 1950s and 1960s (Lyons, 2003). The much-acknowledged social activism of Jane Addams during the early decades of the 20th century in the US and her efforts to mandate children's education and to protest at the conditions of immigrants and women exemplified the commitment of social workers to social change (Reisch and Andrews, 2001). Similarly, the involvement of US social workers such as Harry Hopkins, Frances Perkins, ‘Molly’ Dewson and Aubrey Williams in the formulation of New Deal policies during the 1930s epitomised this commitment to policy involvement (Trattner, 1984).

Elsewhere also, social workers have been at the forefront of efforts to further social change and progressive legislation. In Australia, the social advocacy activities of social workers such as Marie Coleman, who was affiliated with the Victoria Branch of the Australian Association of Social Workers, influenced health and social policy, particularly during the late 1960s and early 1970s (Mendes, 2003). Swedish social workers Gerda Meyerson and Agda Montelius founded the Central Union of Social Work (CSA) in 1903 and played a major role in inducing the government to change the Swedish poor relief system. In Israel, social workers were key actors in the introduction of a national income maintenance programme in the early 1980s, adopted as a result of criticism among social workers of the previous locally administered programme. The minister of labour and welfare at the time, Israel Katz, as well as the academic who formulated the programme, Abraham Doron, and the National Insurance Institute official chosen to establish it were all social workers (Weiss-Gal and Gal, 2011).

This tradition of social worker involvement in social policy formulation reflects values and assumptions that lie at the very foundation of social work.