Search results for ‘Subject term:"staff development"’ Sort:
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Thirst for knowledge
- Author:
- McGREGOR Kirsty
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 21.7.11, 2011, pp.32-33.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
One of the nine core values in the Social Work Reform Boards professional capabilities framework expects social workers to have up-to-date knowledge in their area of practice, and put this learning into practice. This article looks at some ways social workers can keep their knowledge up-to-date and ways of planning learning goals.
Who really drives the development of post-qualifying social work education and what are the implications of this?
- Author:
- GALPIN Diane
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Education (The International Journal), 28(1), February 2009, pp.65-80.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This article seeks to stimulate debate around the relationship between Post-Qualifying Social Work education and social work practice. Higher education in England has been given the task by the General Social Care Council to develop Post-Qualifying Social Work (PQSW) education that delivers both academic and vocational learning as national occupational standards, workforce planning and concerns around globalisation drive professional development. Indeed, a positive selling point for the PQSW framework is its apparent ability to bring together practitioners' career choices with professional development, employers' workforce planning strategies and the government's modernisation agenda for public service provision. However, could a system of education designed to meet such a variety of agendas undermine social work practice and reduce higher education to primarily providing programmes designed to meet regulatory requirements rather than professional social work that promotes an anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive approach to practice? The article concludes that whilst evidence suggests PQSW education does make a positive difference to practitioners and their organisations, debate is still required to ensure it supports agreed social work values and a commitment to anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice.
Knowing, doing and being in context: a praxis-oriented approach to child and youth care
- Author:
- WHITE Jennifer
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Youth Care Forum, 36(5/6), December 2007, pp.225-244.
- Publisher:
- Springer
Engaging with youth and families in collaborative and respectful ways; taking practical actions to create the conditions for young people to experience meaning, worth and connection; supporting them to imagine hopeful futures for themselves; and bringing oneself fully to the therapeutic relationship are all hallmark characteristics of child and youth care (CYC) practice. Those who do this work and those who prepare practitioners for the field recognize the need for conceptual frameworks that can adequately represent the complexities of everyday CYC practice. By taking up the notion of praxis as knowing, doing and being in context, the author aims to extend current conceptualizations of everyday child and youth care practice.
Community-building principles: implications for professional development
- Author:
- AUSTIN Sandra
- Journal article citation:
- Child Welfare Journal, 84(2), March 2005, pp.105-122.
- Publisher:
- Child Welfare League of America
This article reviews a Think Tank meeting among child welfare practitioners at the 2003 Building Communities for 21st-Century Child Welfare Symposium. The Child Welfare League of America's focus on community building is recognition of the vital importance of promoting and fostering collaboration with community members to enhance the well-being of children, families and communities. The Think Tank participants responded to four questions concerning the knowledge, policies, and strategies that are needed for the development of strategies for community building and child welfare. This article highlights several of the findings of the preconference, which addressed the challenges and opportunities inherent in community-building practices and discusses the key principles that emerged from the Think Tank. The article emphasises the implications for professional education and cites selected examples of innovative community building initiatives with families.
Learning for change: developing staff and practice in social work teams
- Authors:
- SMALE Gerald G., TUSON Graham
- Publisher:
- National Institute for Social Work. Practice and Development Exchange
- Publication year:
- 1988
- Pagination:
- 56p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Building a safe and confident future: one year on
- Author:
- GREAT BRITAIN. Department for Education. Social Work Reform Board
- Publisher:
- Great Britain. Department for Education. Social Work Reform Board
- Publication year:
- 2010
- Pagination:
- 25p.
- Place of publication:
- London
A progress report which provides an overview of Social Work Reform Board activity over the past year in developing and implementing the recommendations of the Social Work Task Force. The report explains the case for social work reform that was built by the Social Work Task Force and the national social work reform programme set up to take forward its recommendations. It then considers the current context for social work reform, the significant changes that have happened across the system over the past year, the views of social workers themselves. The final section of the report briefly covers the first five proposed reforms from the Social Work Reform Board and what can be done to take them forward. The proposed reforms are covered in more detail in a companion document 'Building a safe and confident future: one year on: detailed proposals from the Social Work Reform Board'. Feedback on the proposals is being sought until 31 March 2011.
Practice learning and the development of professional practice
- Authors:
- NIXON Stephen, MURR Anthea
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Education (The International Journal), 25(8), December 2006, pp.798-811.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
The development of professional practice is based on practice learning, yet there is no consensus about its definition. In this article, the authors consider the nature of ‘practice learning’ for professional practice at initial entry through to post qualifying stages of development. A number of streams of thought are influencing the understanding of practice learning and the authors aim to consider some of these and how they inform those involved in supporting and guiding practice learners at different stages of their professional development. The authors argue against oversimplified dualities of classroom-based academic learning concerned with theory and workplace-based practice learning concerned with practice. Additionally they make explicit the career-long nature of practice learning which is as embedded in continuing professional development as it is in the requirements for qualifying programmes. The authors then consider the impact of organisational learning theory on the management of practice learning. The consideration of the characteristics of organisations which learn leads to a brief examination of approaches to teaching and learning which promote knowledge creation in a way which is meaningful to practitioners. It is argued that the development of understandings of organisational learning and knowledge creation should become part of the knowledge base for those supporting and guiding practice learners, in addition to the traditional knowledge base of adult learning theory. The authors also consider briefly what they mean by professional practice for which practice learning is preparing people.
Infusing aging skills into the social work practice community: a new look at strategies for continuing professional education
- Authors:
- GERON Scott Miyake, ANDREWS Christina, KUHN Kathy
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 86(3), July 2005, pp.430-440.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
As social work advances into the 21st century, dramatic increases in the aging of the U.S. population, shifting policy imperatives, and the emergence of new technologies have transformed the professional landscape in which social workers operate. This article reviews the challenges facing the profession in transferring practice skills to social workers and describes the strategies of the Institute for Geriatric Social Work (IGSW) in the USA that address them.
Leaving it all behind
- Author:
- DOUGLAS Anthony
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 25.2.99, 1999, pp.22-23.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Looks at why people leave social work and what can be done to make it a career that is attractive to new entrants without alienating experienced social workers.