Social Work Registration: What’s the Contention?

In the face of consistent lobbying for the national registration of social workers by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), the Council of Health Minsters maintains the view that registration is not required, placing it at odds with comparable countries around the world. One factor that shapes this current decision is the view that social work does not pose a significant risk to the health of individuals to warrant the need for this level of regulation. In light of this ongoing debate, the following article provides an overview of the discussion to date, summarising the risks, harms, and the associated costs. Additional evidence of harm and cost are then posited, followed by suggestions for further steps that can be taken to support the Council of Health Ministers making an informed decision on whether or not to include the social work profession in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS).

IMPLICATIONS

• Registration of social work is an under-researched topic. Research will provide much needed evidence to help understand the impact and efficacy of registration in protecting the public.

• Research will inform the Australian Association of Social Workers strategy in pursuing mandatory registration and also support the federal government in its decision making.

• Research in this area may have broader implications for other professions and government policy both nationally and internationally.

     

What are Social Work Students’ Perceptions of the Community Practice Method?

Summary. A unique aspect of the social work profession is the combination of intervention on the personal, community, and societal levels and their interaction. The purpose of this research is to determine students’ perceptions of community practice. Qualitative research was conducted among Israeli social work students before gaining any practical experience in community practice. Findings. The results demonstrated a change in students’ perceptions of the importance of community practice to the profession, and the factors that contributed to this change. Applications. Recommendations that may contribute to changing students’ perceptions of community practice are offered to educators.     

Prepared for Practice? Graduating Social Work Students' Reflections on Their Education,Competence and Skills

The paper encompasses the views of 13 Swedish graduating social work students on their education, competence, skills and expectations for their future roles as social workers. It presents the findings of the first phase of a longitudinal study where students in Sweden and Australia are followed from university and during the first 18 months in the profession. A qualitative methodology was employed and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students just prior to graduating. The most salient theme was the strong wish for more time in contact with the field. All of the students would have preferred at least one additional period of field placement. A strong wish for clarity, particularly in relation to understanding what it means to practise social work, emerged. Although most of the graduates talked about their self-development and described themselves as having become more critical and more self-confident, they perceived themselves as more or less unprepared for most social work positions and expected to receive considerable support and guidance in their workplaces. The proportion of theoretical and research courses in comparison to the teaching of practice skills and field placements within Swedish social work education is discussed.     

Has Social Work Heeded the Call? Sex Offender Content in Social Work

The relationship between theory, research and practice in the contemporary UK social work curriculum is examined in the context of the New Labour Government's insistence on making explicit the connections between knowledge, research, standards and ‘best practice’ in its regulatory discourse. The argument suggests that far from being obvious, settled or predictable in the way in which this discourse suggests, the relationship between research, theory and practice is highly contentious and certainly unresolved. The article then goes on to look at concepts of theory and research. ‘Theory’ is seen as having evolved with little reference to evidence and ‘research’ is seen as having established a new intellectual hegemony without having engaged with or contributed significantly to the development of practice theory. The article concludes that the trend towards a professional and intellectual fragmentation of the social work discipline needs to be reversed if students are to develop their own ‘research mindedness’.     

Social Work and Social Justice: What Are We Fighting For?

Abstract

A cardinal value of social work practice is social justice. Social justice ranks as the second of five values that underpin the Code of Ethics of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW. However, although social work's commitment to promoting social justice is laudable and, indeed, may even be a distinguishing feature of the profession, precisely what kind of social justice does social work espouse? The answer to this question remains unclear. Views about the nature and scope of social justice stem from broader conceptions of justice that not only differ from, but may also conflict with, each other. Therefore, it is important not only for social work to be clear about the type of social justice that it currently advocates, but also to ensure that it is one that the profession seeks to defend and maximise. It is argued that the choice must be as egalitarian as possible. Indeed, it must be radically so. Otherwise, what is social work fighting for?     

Dressing the Part? The Significance of Dress in Social Work

This paper explores practice educators' views about the significance of dress for social work in the context of UK social work education. The findings, drawn from three focus group discussions, suggest that practice educators regard dress as an important way in which social workers demonstrate values in action. Dress is also seen to play a part in the development and maintenance of a professional social work identity, and is relevant to the physical and bodily experiences of ‘doing’ social work. Social workers should be aware of the significance of dress and self-presentation, and where student social workers fail to demonstrate such awareness, practice educators may have questions about their understanding of the complexity of practice. The paper notes that while participants expressed similar views about the meaning and impact of dress, these are based on the observation and experience of practice, and there is little research evidence specifically concerning dress in social work. The study contributes to an understanding of why practice educators consider that dress may be relevant in the assessment of a student's practice readiness, and suggests areas for further research about this everyday yet significant aspect of a social worker's working life.     

Research Note—Is Social Work Education a Form of Social Work Practice?

ABSTRACT

The inclusion of social work education as a form of practice has been missing from the debates on the need for a unified definition of social work practice. This Research Note reports the findings from interviews with 20 social work educators who were asked whether social work education is a form of social work practice and were encouraged to elaborate on their response. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis and revealed five themes. The findings contribute to the debate on the need for clarification among social work authorities in shaping the definition of social work practice and the need to provide a clear stance on the extent to which social work education is a form of social work practice.     

What Is Different about the Profile of the Social Entrepreneur?

In recent years, the term social entrepreneur has become increasingly common in academic and business circles. Social entrepreneurs engage in a variety of activities, but always with the intention of solving social problems. Social entrepreneurs are not merely people who perform acts of charity; they have an evident desire to improve social well‐being and develop projects with long‐term vision. The creation of sustainable social value is a key characteristic that differentiates them from well‐meaning individuals who simply engage in charitable works. There are, however, significant gaps in our understanding of social entrepreneurs and few empirical studies on the subject. This present study attempts to identify the characteristics of more socially oriented entrepreneurs, using sociodemographic variables and the theory of universal values toward work. Analysis of a sample of approximately 400 people shows that more than half of entrepreneurial orientation can be explained through the possession of the values of self‐enhancement (with an inverse relationship in this case), self‐transcendence, and conservation. The theory of universal values has proved extraordinarily useful for studying the characteristics of social entrepreneurs.     

An Examination of College Students' Perceptions of Transformative and Culturally Competent Educators: Are Social Work Students Unique?

The purpose of this study was to examine college students' perceptions of transformative and culturally competent educators. Using data collected from a cross-section of 194 undergraduate (associate and bachelor level students) and graduate students in social work and other majors from four colleges or universities in the Midwest region of the USA, the findings indicate that transformative and culturally competent educators are important to college students. Using the Students' Perceptions of Transformative Educators Scale (SPTES), the data revealed that the overall mean for the SPTES was high, with a score of 198.24. The range was 131–233. The standard deviation [SD] was 21.55. This mean suggests that students place a high level of importance on attributes of transformative educators. When examining the culturally competent subscale of the SPTES, the data also revealed that students want educators who personify culturally competent attributes. The data illustrated a mean for cultural competence of 63.27. The range was 36–70. The standard deviation was 7.89. This mean suggests that students also place a high level of importance on this attribute in educators. ANOVA results indicate that respondents do not significantly differ along the lines of age or race on the SPTES. Student rank (associate, bachelor and graduate), however, did reveal significant differences on the cultural competence [F(2, 174) = 3.280, p < 0.040] and socialization [F(2, 187) = 4.172, p < 0.017] subscales of the SPTES. Social work students also demonstrated statistically significant differences in their slightly higher scores related to the perceptions of the overall SPTES (mean = 202.17, SD: 22.88, p < 0.01); the cultural competence subscale (mean = 65.03, SD: 6.64, p < 0.00) of the SPTES; and the socialization subscale (mean = 26.21, SD: 3.06, p < 0.02) of the SPTES.     

Challenges,Changes, and Impact of the Council on Social Work Education Women’s Council: An Update

This article highlights the contributions of the Council on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education (Women’s Council) as well as the role and status of women in social work education. For this historical analysis update, the authors drew on several primary and secondary data sources. The first major theme was organizational development (e.g., organizational commitment, strategic planning, and sustainability). The second major theme was contributions to social work education (e.g., furthering the knowledge base, influencing accreditation standards, and monitoring equity). These major themes and subthemes remained constant from the previous publication on the history of the WC (Alvarez et al., 2008), underscoring the resilience, commitment and persistence of the WC to keep a sharp focus on infusing feminist perspectives into social work education.     

Controversy in the Curriculum: What Do We Know About the Content of the Social Work Qualifying Curriculum in England?

This article reports the results of a scoping review into the content of the social work qualifying curriculum in England exploring whether recommendations made by the Social Work Task Force and the Social Work Reform Board for an ‘overhaul of the content and the delivery of the qualifying curriculum’ were grounded in published research. The review found that rigorous research-based published evidence about the qualifying social work curriculum was lacking. In particular, most material dated from the early years of the social work degree and did not appear to have been replicated more recently to see if the original findings held true. Other subjects, such as how students are taught about older people's human development, had been considered by researchers but were not addressed by the Task Force and the Reform Board. The implications of this are that, while the content of the social work qualifying curriculum needs to adapt to reflect changing professional contexts, there is a need for greater consensus and clarity about what should be taught and how. The development of an evidence-based curriculum in terms of course content and delivery remains a priority for social work education in England.     

What is society? Social thought and the arts of government

Following conservative politicians, neoliberal philosophers and radical critics, different strands of social science, including those using Foucault's governmentality approach, joined the questioning of the salience of 'society' and ideas of 'the social' over the last decades. When the social reappeared, it was often in the moral domains of community and civil society. This argument re-evaluates the contribution of Foucauldian histories, or 'genealogies', of the social to these fundamental questions. Drawing upon them, it attends to their arguments concerning the place of social thought on the modern episteme in relation to economics, the emergence of the idea of 'society' with the modern arts of government of the state, and the formation of the 'social question'. The argument here allows that preconditions of formation of 'society' lie in the legal and political techniques of the territorial sovereign state. However, the literature under investigation indicates the implicit normativity of an idea of 'society' as a 'problematic unity' and the enduring necessity of a social domain in a law-governed state with a relatively independent economic sphere. This discussion thus seeks to contribute to the wider revaluation and redeployment of these terms in today's context.     

Are We Educating Creative Professionals? The Results of Some Experiments on the Education of Social Work Students in Italy

Creativity is a competence crucial for the practice of social work. In particular, it is associated with a greater ability to solve complex problems and to learn, and it is considered to be an integral element of the professional identity of social workers. Nevertheless, in the past 20 years, neoliberal policies and bureaucratization have promoted models of education focused more on technical skills than on imaginative and ideational capacities. This article presents the results of two experiments conducted to determine the effects on creativity and imagination of the technical education of social workers. The results show that creativity is not a variable independent of the type of education delivered to students and that educational programmes which emphasise only the technical dimension of social work can have a direct influence on the creative abilities of students. It is therefore necessary to strike the right balance between education aimed at the acquisition of technical skills and education that promotes creativity.     

Social Work Training or Social Work Education? An Approach to Curriculum Design

Population ageing, economic circumstances and human behaviour are placing social welfare systems under great strain. In England, extensive reform of the social work profession is taking place. Training curricula are being redesigned in the context of new standards of competence for social workers—the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF). Students must be equipped on qualifying to address an extensive range of human problems, presenting major challenges to educators. Critical theory suggests an approach to tackle one such challenge—selecting the essential content required for areas of particular practice. Teaching on social work with older people is used to illustrate this. Habermas' theory of cognitive interests highlights the different professional roles served by the social work knowledge base—instrumental, interpretive and emancipatory. Howe's application of sociological theory distinguished four social work roles corresponding to these. It is suggested that curriculum design decisions must enable practitioners to operate in each. When preparing students to work with older people, educators therefore need to include interpretive and emancipatory perspectives, and not construct social work purely as an instrumental response to problems older people present. This approach provides one useful rationale for curriculum design decisions, which is applicable to other areas of practice, and to contexts outside England.     

Is Social Work Research Distinctive?

What makes social work research distinctive? And how is our answer linked to how we do social work research? Drawing on UK research council statements about social work research as a starting point, I argue that it makes some degree of sense to ask what is distinctive about social work research. But the more significant question is what might make social work research distinctively good? I suggest six benchmarks. These address the case for methodological excellence; inquiry marked by rigour, range, variety, depth and progression; active conversation with the social science community; consistency with broader social work purposes; attention to aspects of the research enterprise that are close to social work; and taking seriously aspects of the research mission that seem on the face of it far from social work. However, social work and social work research will be the poorer if we over‐emphasize the distinctives at the expense of commonalities in fostering and assessing best practice and best purpose.     

Professional Distance and Social Work: Stretching the Elastic?

Abstract

Professional distance and the parallel concept of models of practice reliant on professional objectivity have been major platforms in professional education. In social work, these ideas are often seen as contentious, unreasonable and, in some cases, unrealistic. Radical, feminist and rural social work approaches, for example, suggest that the expert role is not only inappropriate, but can be counter-productive and disrespectful of the people with whom we work. Postmodern approaches call for a deconstruction of professionalism in favour of context-specific partnerships between worker and client. How can workers ensure good, professional practice within a more flexible approach to professional distance and expertise? What are the issues and how may they be resolved? Are the boundaries of the professional relationship elastic and, if so, what are the consequences for practice and the individual worker? The present article explores the notion of flexible, elastic boundaries using literature and research from radical, postmodern, feminist and rural social work approaches.     

Evaluating the Impact of Post‐Qualifying Social Work Education

Post‐qualifying awards in social work are well established within the continuing professional development agenda for qualified social workers in the UK. The evaluation of education and training should be an integral part of this agenda because it is important to ensure that programmes continue to meet standards of delivery, are successful in meeting their aims and objectives and are making an impact on practice. However, there is a limited amount of published work on the evaluation of post‐qualifying social work education, with studies often focusing on programme delivery rather than on their impact on practice.

This paper explores evaluative work within the current post‐qualifying social work framework and discusses the results of an evaluation of the Vulnerable Adults and Community Care Practice programme, a specialist post‐qualifying social work education programme run by a UK university, as an example of an evaluation of the impact on practice. The results indicate positive evidence of impact on practice and demonstrate examples of how the programme has had a direct effect on individuals, teams, organisations and on people who use services.