Janet Seden

Making an Impact. Children and Domestic Violence – A Reader, 2nd edition

easily captured whilst the writing is also honed to offer an easy yet highly informative and thought provoking read. This book brings together current thinking in a way that helps the reader through the development of their thinking and practice. It offers clear guidance to planning effective learning and assessments but above all, the third section will perhaps have the most impact since it carefully takes the reader through the importance of thorough evaluation of IPE from the planning to the dissemination stage. It concludes by drawing the threads together with a series of useful bullet points that summarize each of the 3 sections; these come with a ‘‘health warning’’ encouraging engagement with the full text – agreed!

An Exploration of How Some Tutors Use Learning Materials to Enable Student Social Workers to Link Theory to Practice While Learning in the Workplace

This paper reports on the outcomes of a study day, which was held using an appreciative inquiry approach, to explore the way students on a social work applied practice course were linking the learning about theories and methods with their work in their practice learning opportunity. The course tutors who took part in the day shared the methods they had used successfully to enhance student learning in this area. The paper identifies these successful methods and also considers barriers to learning and overcoming them. The other main areas discussed are: working with resistance; reflection on the self; building confidence; case studies and scenarios; agency climates and individual student factors. The paper concludes with a discussion of the barriers and opportunities for theorising about practice in managerial climates.

Managing Care and Joined Up Thinking in the Curriculum

This paper discusses the curriculum development of a level three undergraduate course in managing care. It was produced and is presented by The Open University. The course is aimed at frontline managers in health and social care. The course team made consultation with service users, carers and managers a priority in developing the curriculum. The paper discusses this consultation process and the learning gained from it. A major contribution was to clarify debates about how far the course should have one core curriculum and how far it should offer specialist options for managers in different settings. Service users and carers had strong views on the need for better co‐ordination of services and recognition of individual needs rather than divisions into service‐led categories. Managers stressed the importance of reflecting the reality of frontline management. This helped the course team to develop a framework that stresses the commonality in the work and the importance of ‘practice‐led’ management. Service users and managers were involved as critical readers of course texts to ensure that the consultation process continued through the course development. A second strand is the need for the course to be accessible to those not yet in management positions, and extracts from an interactive CD‐ROM which presents case study material demonstrate the innovative joined up and accessible approach taken to student learning needs.

Enhancing outcomes through children's literature

This article considers how child outcomes can be improved through parent/child reading. The article suggests that while this process is well understood in education, it may be overlooked by other child welfare professionals. The article argues that practitioners can utilize this process when assessing and intervening with children in need and looking after children. It draws from a literature review and empirical study and summarizes some key findings.

Using supervision to aid learning development

How does supervision help practitioners to develop? How can supervision link individual and organization learning together? Janet Seden and Sue Bailey explore the connections.