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Post-qualifying Social Work
Forthcoming titles:

Professional Development in Social Work

Complex issues in practice
Janet Seden, Sarah Matthews, Mick McCormick and Alun Morgan

Social Work with Children and Families

Developing advanced practice
Penelope Welbourne
Professional Development
in Social Work
Complex issues in practice

Edited by Janet Seden,

Sarah Matthews, Mick McCormick
and Alun Morgan
First published 2011
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business

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collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

© 2011 Janet Seden, Sarah Matthews, Mick McCormick and Alun Morgan.
Individual chapters; the contributors.
The right of the editors to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Professional development in social work: complex issues in practice/edited
by Janet Seden … [et al.].
p. ; cm.
1. Social service--Vocational guidance. 2. Social workers. I. Seden, Janet,
1947–
[DNLM: 1. Social Work. 2. Professional Practice. HV 10.5 P964 2011]
HV10.5.P72 2011
361.3’2--dc22
2010011372

ISBN 0-203-84298-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN: 978-0-415-55335-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-55336-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-84298-0 (ebk)
Contents

List of contributors viii

Foreword xi
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction xiii

PART I
Complex contexts 1

1 Effective multi-agency work in children’s services 3

WENDY ROSE

2 Policy swings and roundabouts: social work in shifting

social and economic contexts 10
IAN BUCHANAN

3 Criticality and reflexivity: best practice in uncertain

environments 17
BARRY COOPER

4 Reflections on values and ethics in social work practice 24

MICK MCCORMICK AND SANDY FRASER

5 A social worker ‘in work or outside work’: the benefits and

dilemmas of registration 30
FRAN WILES

6 Diverse service users and diverse workers: the impact of

globalization 37
ALUN MORGAN
vi Contents
7 Professional identity and international social work:
the view from afar 44
SANDY FRASER

PART II
Complex roles, responsibilities and relationships 51

8 The use of self and relationship: swimming against

the tide? 55
JANET SEDEN

9 Refugees and asylum seekers: the social work role 63

MONICA DOWLING AND PARISSA SEXTONE

10 Youth justice: children in trouble or children in need? 69

BARRY COOPER AND RICHARD HESTER

11 Children with disabilities: international perspectives

for developing practice 76
MONICA DOWLING

12 The changing role of social workers in developing

contexts for mental health professionals 83
SARAH MATTHEWS

13 With respect to old age 90

CAROLINE HOLLAND

14 The well-being of people with learning disabilities 97

SUE DUMBLETON

15 Policies and practice with ‘vulnerable’ adults 104

MICK MCCORMICK

16 Untangling the web of service user involvement in

social services work 110
MO MCPHAIL

17 Person-centred approaches to social work with older people:

aspirations and contradictions 118
SANDY SIEMINSKI
 Contents vii
18 People who use services: finding a voice through ICT 126
ALUN MORGAN

19 Child and family focused work in children’s services 132

JANE ALDGATE

PART III
Complex challenges in the workplace 139

20 Learning in practice: some reflections on the student’s

journey 143
ROGER DAVIS, JEAN GORDON AND GILL WALKER

21 Technology-enhanced learning for social work education

and practice 150
INGRID NIX

22 An innovative approach to the study and practice of social

work values 157
SANDY FRASER

23 Reflections on writing in social work education and practice 163

LUCY RAI

24 Caring for yourself, being managed and professional

development 171
JANET SEDEN AND MICK MCCORMICK

25 Careering through social work: metaphors of continuing

professional development 178
BARRY COOPER

26 Continuing professional development: enhancing

high-quality practice 185
JAMES BLEWETT

Endnote 192
References 194
Index 219
List of contributors

Dr Jane Aldgate OBE is Professor of social care at The Open University and
a researcher specializing in social work for children and families. She has
an extensive national and international profile and has profoundly influ-
enced policy and practice in children’s services.
James Blewett is an independent consultant and trainer. He has substan-
tial experience teaching in universities and delivering training for the
children’s workforce. He has also written and tutored for The Open
University. He is Director of Making Research Count.
Dr Ian Buchanan lectures at York University and has been a manager in
local authorities and a research associate at The Open University. He
writes and teaches in the areas of learning disability, service user involve-
ment and social policy.
Dr Barry Cooper is Lecturer in social work at The Open University. He is a
qualified social worker and has practised, taught and researched in social
work for thirty years. His writing and publications include critical and
constructivist approaches to practice, education and assessment.
Roger Davis is Staff Tutor with The Open University in Scotland. He is
involved in managing the professional social work programme and
is researching the preparedness for practice of newly qualified social
workers.
Dr Monica Dowling is Professor of social work at The Open University.
She has research interests in children with disabilities and international
adoption. She has also guest edited Innovation in the Public Sector – an
international online journal.
Sue Dumbleton is Senior Lecturer and Staff Tutor at The Open University
in Scotland. She has a long-standing interest in learning disability and has
worked with people who have a learning disability in housing support,
residential care and in further and adult education.
 List of contributors ix
Dr Sandy Fraser is Senior Lecturer at The Open University. He edited The
Critical Practitioner in Social Work and Health Care (2008). His research
interests are comparative social work and the application of values and ethics.
Jean Gordon is Associate Lecturer on The Open University social work pro-
gramme and is active in supporting work-based learning in Scotland. She
has published research in mental health, Scottish law, social work prac-
tice and work-based learning.
Dr Richard Hester is Senior Lecturer at The Open University. His research
interests include the teaching of youth justice practitioners and children’s
rights. His practice experience includes the posts of Assistant Director
of the Rainer Foundation and Coordinator of Community Safety in
Warwickshire.
Dr Caroline Holland is a research fellow in the Faculty of Health and Social
Care at The Open University. She is a social gerontologist researching
environments of ageing, including aspects of everyday discrimination and
how it affects older people.
Sarah Matthews is Staff Tutor with The Open University. Sarah co-edited
The Critical Practitioner in Social Work and Health Care (2008) and is
now researching the impact of changes in mental health legislation on
social work identity.
Mick McCormick is Lecturer in social work at The Open University. He has
extensive experience of adult services and writes in the areas of learning
disability and mental health. He is researching aspects of mental health
in current contexts.
Mo McPhail is Head of Social Work (Scotland) with The Open University.
She has developed a research and writing profile in the area of service user
and carer involvement. She edited User and Carer Involvement – Beyond
Good Intentions (2008), co-authored with a service user and carer.
Alun Morgan is Lecturer in social work at The Open University with sub-
stantial social work management and practice experience. His research
and publishing interests are the use of ICT for communication and par-
ticipation in children’s services and the development and application of
multimedia teaching methods in higher education.
Ingrid Nix is Lecturer in learning and teaching technologies in the Faculty of
Health and Social Care at The Open University. Her role includes devel-
oping and evaluating technology-enhanced learning for social workers.
Dr Lucy Rai is Senior Lecturer at The Open University with an interest in
the development of academic and professional writing in social work.
She also took an academic lead in the BBC series A Child of Our Time
and Someone to Watch Over You.
x List of contributors
Wendy Rose OBE is a senior research fellow at The Open University and a
former senior civil servant, with a national and international profile in
child welfare research and development. This includes improving out-
comes for children, policy development in child welfare and the practice
and management of children’s services.
Dr Janet Seden is a qualified social worker and Senior Lecturer at The Open
University. She authored Counselling Skills in Social Work Practice
(2005). She researches and publishes in the fields of child welfare, social
work theories and methods and managing care.
Parissa Sextone is a qualified social worker who has worked in post-adoption
and foster care. Current research interests include mental health, cogni-
tive behavioural therapy and a special interest in refugee communities.
Sandy Sieminski is Lecturer at The Open University. She is researching the
changing contexts for practice and current issues in social work educa-
tion. She has an interest in person-centred planning for older people.
Gill Walker is Staff Tutor for The Open University in the West Midlands
and an independent practice assessor. She has undertaken research into
workplace placements for social work students.
Fran Wiles is Lecturer at The Open University and her research interest is
defining some of the issues of changing identity for social workers in
changing policy environments.
Foreword

I am delighted to introduce this collection of readings which comes from

the research, scholarship and teaching of The Open University’s social
work programme. The authors represent those engaged in the programme.
There are members of the distance learning social work academic team,
based centrally in Milton Keynes and regionally across the UK, together
with academic colleagues in health and social care and associate lecturer
and research partners. The programme has been running successfully since
2004 and has become one of the largest educators of qualified profes-
sional social workers in the UK. At the time of writing, 660 candidates
have already graduated, with 1,256 currently studying. This collection
derives from some of The Open University’s unique teaching materials.
It also includes scholarship and research undertaken by staff. The aim of
this book is to move concepts and ideas from the arena of the qualifying
social workers into the world of continuing professional development with
which our graduates will be already engaging. Achieving the best possible
outcomes for those who use social work services depends on the quality
of social work practice on offer. That practice needs to be evidence-based,
with practitioners making sure they constantly update their knowledge and
skills. This book provides some excellent contemporary ideas and materials
to support practitioners in their endeavours.

Professor Jane Aldgate OBE

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following practitioners for reviewing and com-
menting on chapters: Louise Archer, Sarah Ball, Godfred Boahen, Fiona
Coombs, Charlotte McCormick, Ged Durkin, Michaela Friend, Guillermo
Garcia Maza, Jasmine Harvey, Julie-Anne Howard, Marianne Hughes, Sian
Jones, Jackie Lelkes, Amanda Moore, Ann-Marie Mullin, Gordon Murray,
Haydn Nelson, Amanda Rice, Wendy Saunders and Ayfer Secmezsoy-Dunn.
We would also like to record our thanks to Jo Ann Knight and Kyra
Proctor for administrative support at The Open University.
Introduction

Complexity is a hallmark of social work in the twenty-first century and the

authors of this book have attempted to capture and discuss some of the dilem-
mas and contradictions that arise and the issues this presents for social workers
in practice. This volume is an edited collection of accessible but academic chap-
ters, considering contexts for social work practice, contributions made by social
work to society through their roles, relationships and responsibilities and chal-
lenges relating to professional practice in the workplace. Each chapter is written
at an invitational level, where the reader is asked to consider a key aspect of
social work and its complexities. It aims to be a collection of readings to sup-
port the newly qualified practitioner and the developing professional across
a wide range of themes and issues. Each chapter gives an overview and poses
some practice-related questions. Further reading for follow-up in more depth is
indicated by an asterisk (*) in the main text.
The writers are all involved, or have been recently, in varying capacities
with The Open University’s social work degree, and so the book derives
from The Open University’s approach to teaching social work to open and
distance learners. We hope it will contribute to building the confidence and
effectiveness of those frontline professionals who read it by providing chap-
ters relevant to their own practice, but also by encompassing a wide range
of practice areas which contribute to their understanding of the concerns of
other practitioners with whom they work in partnership.
The book is not, therefore, designed to be read from cover to cover, but
aims to be a resource which busy practitioners may find scholarly, yet manage-
able and accessible. For each reader there will be a chapter relevant to their
practice setting, but the book also provides chapters which will enable them
to quickly come to grips with the issues confronting practitioners who work in
other settings with different service groups and identify the commonalities and
differences that exist. The aim is, therefore, to provide readings which outline
key themes and also to point to other relevant research literature.
We have organized the writing to include some critical considerations
which are important in modern social work practice. We are highly aware of
the changing contexts for practice in the UK and internationally and related
to that the complexities for individual practitioners. The Social Work Task
xiv Introduction
Force report comments that social workers deliver a contribution of great
value to society:

When people are made vulnerable – by poverty, bereavement, addiction,

isolation, mental distress, disability, neglect, abuse or other circumstances
– what happens next matters hugely. If outcomes are poor, if dependency
becomes ingrained or harm goes unchecked, individuals, families, com-
munities, and the economy can pay a heavy price. Good social workers
can and do make a huge difference in these difficult situations.
(DCSF 2009b: 1)

However, we are also aware that the contexts within which practitioners
practise are not ideal. Fast-paced change, resource issues and the hardships
that some members of society experience create their own pressures which
contribute to the difficulties and dilemmas of practice. It can be argued
that some social policy trends, government initiatives and budget reductions
make the job harder. This is especially the case when government needs a
quick response to public concerns and when media pressure distorts the
realities of what can reasonably be expected from practitioners. We also
believe that a vibrant social work profession is of great value to society and
these chapters demonstrate how that is the case.
Following on from our concerns about changing contexts, we are also aware
that practitioners have to take account of their own roles, responsibilities and
relationships and what challenges in the workplace mean for practitioner capa-
bilities. We have, therefore, asked authors, each in their own way, to include
these themes. These interlinked issues are relevant to all four countries of the
UK and more widely. Contexts change constantly and require flexible, profes-
sional and ethical responses. The contributions social workers make to society
and those of the people who use the services need to be evaluated for their
relevance and timeliness and are discussed mainly in Part II. The theme of capa-
bilities (knowledge, communication skills, confidence, competence and values)
is an important component for both qualifying students and for practitioners
involved in personal professional development and the development of others.
This is the focus of Part III, which looks at some of the challenges of the work-
place and the learning journeys that practitioners embark on.
Finally, as the audience for this book is anticipated to be practitioners who
are seeking to develop their professional practice, each chapter was reviewed
by a practitioner. Some of their responses are used to introduce each chapter
and to perhaps indicate what the learning therein might be. For example, a
practitioner commented on Chapter 19, saying that is has ‘great pointers for
developing and improving practice – also excellent pointers to research and
exemplars of good practice which can be followed up as a means of develop-
ing and improving practice’.

Janet Seden and Professor Monica Dowling

Part I

Complex contexts
Janet Seden

For Part I, we commissioned chapters which paint the bigger picture and con-
sider the contexts within which social workers operate and the complexities
of them. While social workers’ daily practice is with individuals, this is always
set in the complex context of the societal climate of the time. Thus, the way
practice is organized and the ethics and values that underpin it depend heavily
on the ideologies of governments, social and economic situations and public
opinion. It can be argued that practice at the beginning of the twenty-first cen-
tury has been particularly influenced by media criticism of its supposed failures,
the impact of globalization changing communities and groupings with whom
practitioners work and the managerialism which has taken hold of the agencies
where social workers are employed. It is also set in the context of political phi-
losophies which shape law and policy, postmodernism and modernity, concepts
which several authors consider in this first section.
This book opens with a chapter on effective multi-agency work in chil-
dren’s services. This may, at first, seem a strange choice, but the criticisms of
children’s services following child abuse scandals has been the biggest driver
for re-evaluating practice. The situation of ‘Baby P’ led directly to the Social
Work Task Force (DCSF 2009b) and its examination of practice. It is on the
assumed ‘failures’ of childcare professionals that the most media abuse has
been focused, and where – given the tragedy of child deaths – public concern
is most obvious. Given the almost ubiquitous finding of child death inquir-
ies that professionals fail to work together to protect children, this seemed a
good place to start.
Rose (Chapter 1) has contributed hugely to developments in children’s
services and here she identifies from research and literature that the aspira-
tion of working together to protect children has been alive for the past fifty
years. Despite the cynicism that this reflection might induce, she is able
to suggest some grounds for optimism, identify some success factors and
offer a fresh perspective on what is often seen as an intractable ‘problem’.
Inter-agency collaboration is also, of course, very important when work-
ing to improve the circumstances of adult service users and there may well
be some transferable practice ideas. Multi-agency work with adults is also
considered within the chapters in Part II.