Isabel Martin

Helen Donnellan and Gordon Jack, The survival guide for newly qualified social workers (second edition)DonnellanHelen and JackGordon, The survival guide for newly qualified social workers (second edition). London: Jessica Kingsley, 2015, 248 pp., £18.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781849055338

‘by unexplainable superpowers, by spiritual forces, or by one’s predetermined fate and that it cannot be cured by Western or medical treatment’ (Min & Moon, 2006, p. 264). When working with older Chinese-English adults, social workers need to help them to understand the causes of mental health as well as discuss the research results with them ‘to determine how likely effective options fit with clients’ values and goals’ (Drisko, 2014, p. 125). Thus, in today’s globalised world, the author might have included a discussion on how to integrate cultural factors with evidence-based practice. Nevertheless, overall, this book provides useful guidance for social work students and practitioners, both in the UK and internationally, who would like to learn about the strategies and procedures for evidence-based practice. In the future, the editor might discuss in more detail about how to conduct evidencebased practice according to clients’ values and culture.

Penny Henderson, Jim Holloway, and Anthea Millar, Practical supervision: How to become a supervisor for the helping professions

points out in her paper, the personalisation agenda is bringing new challenges to both social workers and managers in relation to the need for effective collaboration strategies. Throughout the book, there is evidence that, despite widespread recognition of these challenges, management education/leadership development is still in short supply. McAllan and MacRae describe a leadership development programme in a local authority social work service, while, in the final paper of the book, Leinster outlines research in Ireland which highlights the paucity of appropriate training for managers in that country’s social services. The book’s publication is timeous because the issues explored are increasingly being recognised. In Scotland, for example, a major programme of leadership development was belatedly launched by the Scottish Government in 2014, responding to the last outstanding recommendation of the ‘21st Century Review of Social Work’, which was concluded in 2006. Similar developments are underway elsewhere, and for this reason, if no other, this book is probably of interest to policy-makers in this area and, of course, to social work educators, especially those involved in management education/leadership development. They may wish to have these papers handily gathered together in a single volume, even though they may have read some or all of them when they were first published. Beyond this rather specialised audience, its appeal may be limited. It is, very much a collection of papers, rather than a coherent work in its own right, as evidenced by the lack of an index. Nevertheless, I can recommend it to all who are interested in the future direction of management and leadership in the social services.

Social work practice: A critical thinker’s guide Eileen Gambrill:

development is a fast-changing field and regular updating is needed. Although authors of chapters are drawn from many diverse countries and cultures, mostly English speaking scholars from developed countries have contributed to thoughts on international social work. Future work needs to capture the ideas of scholars from developing countries on international social work (Pawar, 2010). It is a difficult and demanding mission to work on quality handbooks. The editors of the volume have accomplished a commendable task in bringing together views of 80 authors having expertise in a range of practice areas within international social work. Social work educators, students and practitioners will find the book interesting and useful. It is not only a good source of reference work but also some of its chapters may be used as a text material to teach social work students. The handbook complements well another handbook on international social work (see Lyons, Hokenstadt, Pawar, Huegler, & Hall, 2012) and many textbooks (for example, Cox & Pawar, 2013; Healy, 2008; Link & Healy, 2005; Lyons, Manion, & Carlsen, 2006; Pawar & Cox, 2010). This handbook on international social work is authoritatively written by social work educators and practitioners, and edited by well established scholars in the field. On the whole, I am very pleased to see this handbook and recommend to readers interested in international social work and social development.