Learning about practice from practice: a peer-based methodology

Author:
STANLEY Tony
Journal article citation:
Child Care in Practice, 20(2), 2014, pp.220-231.
Publisher:
Taylor and Francis

A recommendation from the Social Work Task Force was that all employers of social workers should conduct a regular “health check” of the social work profession to learn from practice as part of a continuous cycle of improvement. This article documents how the London Borough of Tower Hamlets has gone about this. The author describes the methodological and practical pathway Tower Hamlets followed so that others can see what they did and why they did it. The social work office set out a plan of methodological action in order that they achieved the learning from practice to inform our health check, and it is the planning work that is engaged with in this article. They have found that by involving and engaging our staff in the health check work, they have gained more than they had set out to find. An organisational commitment to act on what social workers have told us about practice is offering the senior management team new ideas about the best ways of delivering professional and reflective support mechanisms for staff. Learning from practice is now one of the core functions for the new Principal Social Worker. (Edited publisher abstract)

Subject terms:
social workers, social work, performance evaluation, professional role, local authorities, peer groups;
Content type:
practice example
Location(s):
England
Link:
Journal home page
ISSN online:
1476-489X
ISSN print:
1357-5279

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