Joan Orme

Social work practice

Preface Theory for Practice PART I - SOCIAL WORK PROCESSES Social Work Processes: Assessment Social Work Processes: Advocacy and Partnership Social Work Processes: Communication Social Work Processes: Review and Reflection PART II - METHODS OF INTERVENTION Counselling Crisis Interventions Problem-solving Practice Cognitive-Behavioural Work PART III - CONTEXTS OF INTERVENTION Working with Children and Families Working with Adults Working with Groups Working with Communities Conclusion

Helping others or a rewarding career? Investigating student motivations to train as social workers in England

• Summary: Understanding why people want to be social workers is important both for developing social work education and for the profession as a whole. This article presents evidence about the motivations of students enrolled on social work degree programmes in England and draws on data from 3000 responses of three successive intakes of students responding to six online surveys and 26 focus group interviews involving 168 students from nine different social work programmes in six case study sites. The article locates these data in the context of earlier studies of social workers’ motivations, the changing policy context and the changes introduced by the new degree. • Findings: Similar to previous studies, the current analysis shows that altruistic motivations dominated, but students were also influenced by career issues and the day-to-day aspects of social work. The data highlight continuities with the former qualification in social work in the UK (the DipSW) and provide evidence that the introduction of the social work degree has not dramatically changed the underlying motivations of social work students. • Applications: Understanding student motivations is important in terms of recruitment to social work qualifying programmes and subsequent retention within the profession. Social work educators and employers need to pay attention to the consequences of mismatches between motivations and expectations about what professional practice involves.

Why does social work need doctors

This article seeks to explore the contribution that doctoral education can make to social work, as a profession and an academic discipline. In doing so it explains current arrangements for approving doctoral education by the research council and describes different routes to acquiring a doctorate. This overview highlights that doctoral education provides both opportunities and challenges both to those undertaking it, and to university departments offering it.

Feminist social work

It might be assumed that, because social work is a female profession with its work being predominantly by women with women, it is at the very least woman-centred, if not totally accepting of feminist approaches. To assess how far social work has incorporated feminist analyses, it is necessary to explore feminist theories and to identify how these have contributed to developments in social work practice.

What Can We Learn about Social Work Assessment from the Textbooks

Summary: Although often criticized for inadequacies, textbooks are both highly influential and a readily available source of information about contemporary thinking in social work theory and practice. As part of a series of studies about facilitating learning and teaching about assessment in social work, the authors have been conducting a review of how this professional task is presented in textbooks which are currently known to be used in programmes of social work education in the UK. Relevant chapters of each of the selected textbooks were subjected to an in-depth analysis in order to determine how assessment was understood, assessment processes, relevance to the UK practice context and evidence bases. Findings: What are considered the key issues in, and skills required for, social work assessment are contested, with considerable variety between textbooks as to the extent of detail and topics covered in relation to assessment. Some issues which are prominent in the policy context, such as the need to ensure the involvement of service user and carer perspectives, and multidisciplinary assessment, were hardly mentioned. Changes in emphasis over time and differences in emphasis between textbooks published in the UK and North America were found. Applications: Given the many differences in emphasis and depth of content between textbooks ostensibly outlining the same aspects of practice, it is essential that educators have a clear rationale for recommending particular textbooks.

Social work : 'the appliance of social science' : a cautionary tale

With the expectation that research be relevant to users and that teaching ensures that graduateness involves teaching people to be fit for a purpose, social sciences in British universities are being encouraged to interact with employers, politicians and policy makers. This paper was presented at an ALSISS/ESRC1 conference on Interactive Social Sciences and argues that social work educators have a great deal to teach their colleague academics about interactivity, but that that very interactivity has led to their place in the academy being placed under threat.

Interactive social sciences: Patronage or partnership?

The discipline of social work has existed in universities for most of this century, and arrangements for professional education require academics to interact with policy makers and practitioners in a variety of ways, but that very interaction has created uncertain conditions for social work in the academy. Drawing on a piece of interdisciplinary/interactive research, this paper argues that the opportunities for social scientists to be interactive has never been greater, and that interactivity should involve service users and citizens. However, such a claim can lead to accusations of research as patronising and oppressive because of lack of attention to the distribution of power. It concludes that developments in methodology offer potential for effective interactivity. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Learning and teaching assessment: reviewing the evidence

The authors have recently completed a research review on learning and teaching of assessment in social work which was commissioned by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and the Social Policy and Social Work Learning and Teaching Support Network (SWAPltsn) to support the development of the new social work award in England. This involved reviewing relevant literature from social work and cognate disciplines back to 1990 with the aim of identifying best practice in learning and teaching of assessment skills. Although assessment has been recognised as a core skill in social work and should underpin social work interventions, there is no singular theory or understanding as to what the purpose of assessment is and what the process should entail. Social work involvement in the assessment process may include establishing need or eligibility for services, to seek evidence of past events or to determine likelihood of future danger, may underpin recommendations to other agencies, or may determine the suitability of other service providers. In some settings assessment is considered to begin from the first point of contact and may be a relatively short process, whereas elsewhere it may be a process involving several client contacts over an extended period of time. The assessment process may range from the collection of data on standardised proforma to a flexible approach depending on circumstances. These variations permeate the literature on the learning and teaching of assessment in social work and cognate disciplines. Several different approaches to classroom based learning were proposed in the literature including case‐based teaching, interviews with actors who have been trained to play ‘standardised clients’, and observation of children and families, as well as didactic lecturing and various uses of video equipment and computers. Furthermore learning by doing has long been one of the hallmarks of social work education, and there are a number of models proposed in which students learn about the assessment process through conducting assessments. The evidence to support these different approaches to learning and teaching is variable. Based on the evidence reviewed, recommendations as to what is good practice in learning and teaching about assessment will be presented.

Theory for Practice

In social work there has always been a tension between practice and theory. At times students and practitioners have protested that it was necessary to forget theory once in practice placements, that it reduced spontaneity in caring for people. Theory implied distance and objectivity which contrasted with feelings and the living reality of social work encounters. As such it was seen to be a stumbling-block to developing individual style, and the most that could be hoped for was that students would admit that they might subconsciously be using theory which they had absorbed during training. In recent years students have become less antagonistic to theoretical ideas, naming and trying to integrate what can at first glance appear to be a smorgasbord of apparently contradictory explanations of behaviour. There is an irony that this acceptance occurs at a time when changes introduced are based on assumptions that social work is a set of functions, and that practitioners need to be trained merely to perform these functions. Education in theories which might underpin decision-making, or which might inform what action to take, is seen as unnecessary. This approach, known as the competence-based approach, was heralded by the introduction of requirements for social work education and training in the Diploma in Social Work Studies, but is reflected in policy implementation which is now controlling much social work activity.

Applications to Social Work Programmes in England: Students as Consumers?

One of the most resounding impacts of the introduction of the new social work degree in England in 2003 has been an increase in the number of applications to social work courses. However, the processes used by applicants to reach decisions about where to study social work are little understood. This article reports data from six preparatory focus groups and four interviews (n = 38), 17 focus group interviews with first year students (n = 112) from nine social work programmes run in six universities, and 2,606 responses to three online surveys administered to first year students, which were collected as part of the national Evaluation of the New Social Work Degree in England funded by the Department of Health. They show that students use a range of sources to find out about social work education, with rising reliance on electronic media as an information resource. Although the majority cites convenience of location as the chief reason for selecting a particular university, academic reputation appears to be growing in importance. Observations from these data are discussed in the context of consumer behaviour in higher education and in social work education at a time when universities are developing marketing strategies to compete for students.