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Written by key figures in the field of social care training and administration this much-needed volume provides good practice guidance for front line managers. The contributions are based upon recent research into management practice.
Reflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social worker. It’s both a key element of learning and development on social work courses and an important aspect of social work practice. This accessible and introductory text explores a range of approaches to reflective practice that aims to help students become more confident in answering key questions, including ′what is reflective practice?′, ‘how do I develop as a reflective practitioner?’, ‘how do I maintain reflective practice in key contexts?’. There are sections on writing reflective journals, communicating well with service users and carers and reflective practice while on placements.
This fully revised and updated second edition looks at the study of social work management and organisations, focusing on relationships with crucial partners such as central government agencies, local partners and other social care organisations. Through an examination of current research and practice, the author explores the relationships between ideology, professional and personal values and decision making in organisational culture. Included in the text are case studies, activities and further reading lists to aid learning.
This accessible and introductory text explores a range of reflective practice approaches and personal development to help students demonstrate reflective practice in their assignments. It features extensive material on working collaboratively and using reflective practice on placements as well as practical activities and material on effective working with service users and care.
Tracing key ideas in feminist social work from the 1970s through to the present day, and using data from interviews with female social workers, this book examines and explores the current state of feminist social work.
William Bryans provides straightforward ways to assist managers and front line staff to cope with various levels of management and supervisory responsibilities in work areas where they may have no great experience.
Published in 1998. The industrial model of the labour process developed by Braverman was applied to social work in the radical social work literature. The book engages in a more critical examination of the application of the labour process perspective to social work, with particular reference to front-line management in a local authority context. It begins with a review of the labour process literature which demonstrates the extent to which the independence of Braverman’s model on scientific management was undermined in the post-Braverman debate. The radical texts' orthodox Bravermanian approach to the social work labour process is considered. In those texts, the social work labour process is represented as having moved towards an industrial model which steadily encroached on the autonomy of front-line field social workers, through managers’ wresting of control over their work. The book advances an alternative model of the social work labour process which takes account of the distinctive features of social work, as a state-mediated, bureau-professional labour process. Findings from a small-scale case study of a social services department are presented. Data from the study are used to test the bureau-professional model of the social work labour process against the orthodox Bravermanian model. Developments in the social services department’s organizational structure are set out and the position of front-line managers is considered through an exploration of their identifications and commitments in relation to management and trade unionism. The data from their accounts support the bureau-professional model of the labour process and the position of front-line managers emerges as more ambiguous than the radical social work literature indicated. Front-line managers did not share global goals with senior management, nor were their interests merged straightforwardly with those of social workers.
Because they work closely with users of care services, frontline care staff are in a position to deliver person-centred care. This work identifies some of the barriers to working in a person-centred way and suggests how these might be overcome. It also offers suggestions for future policy.
Within health and social care settings, high levels of sustained performance from individuals, teams, organisations and multi-agency collaborations are required. This book offers a service-oriented leadership approach for Social Work managers and looks to enhance personal effectiveness and ultimately organisational performance through human behaviour, thought and communication. It is designed to support the development of aspiring and front line managers in social work and care through the introduction of key concepts such as understanding the Self, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, self-leadership and communication.
This reader includes material relevant to everyone involved in developing new relationships in health and social care and brings material with a management focus relating to care together with some classic management texts.
