The role of a social worker
Often it takes an ‘outsider’ to see it clearly but this post from Stuart Sorensen says it far better than I could .
I would only add that professional courage is developed from confident practitioners. Confident practitioners – namely those who are able to advocate for the service users they work with, are able challenge their management and procedures and not just ‘tow the party line’.
This is something that is developed through good supervision and support from more experienced social workers and a healthy dose of challenging some of the more commonly held paradigms in the sector, even if it doesn’t make a friend of the ‘management’ who prefer things to be clearly defined and cost effective.
Social Work cannot always be clearly defined and cost effective for as long as it claims to be a value-based profession. A social worker who is a ‘yes-man’ is the most dangerous and ineffective type.
I hope that is something that the Social Work Reform Board/College or whoever will be responsible for social work training and professional standards in the future pay heed to.
Posted on July 28, 2010, in personal, politics, social care, social issues, social work, work and tagged confident practice, professional courage, social care, social work, uk, value-based social work. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
hello can you help me to set up a workload on how to perform on becoming a social worker i,m 26yrs old young lady longing to become a qualified social worker, but i know it takes a lot of training, please could you give me some hints on what it take to become a social worker, thank you for your patience
hey charlene, what exactly do you mean by setting up a workload to become a QSW? if its information on qualifying you need then the GSCC website holds information on all degree courses that run which will get you registration as a social worker once completed, the degree takes 3 years and has a large practical aspect which means the majority of your degree will be spent with various local authorities or private organisations whom provide social services. You would ususally require A- levels or equivalent to get onto the degree but quite a few people who havent studied for some time decide to take the year long Access to Social Work course which gets you access to the degree and sharpens up your study skills a little.
If this isn’t the type of information you were requesting the accpet my apology
hope you decide to go for it and get into the profession!
Mark
Would also suggest the GSCC website. Should you decide and be successful you should also then look forward to the support available as a NQSW (Newly Qualified Social Worker) whereby your case load is managed, additional supervision and time is made for the essential training element for the job. Good luck! We have had a number of NQSW’s attend our training events and have heard good things about the NQSW scheme.
Thanks Mark and inspire for your suggestions – I failed miserably to get back to Charlene but you’ve more than made up