The how and the why: Competences and holistic practice

Social work education and training in the UK was, in the 1990s, restructured on a competence-based model. Drawing on the literature and a survey of students from one Diploma in Social Work programme, this paper offers a critical appraisal of this approach to social work education, placing it in the context of opposing ideological frameworks. It reviews the strengths and limitations of the system and discusses some of the problems and dilemmas arising in training for work involving values conflicts and complex tasks. It argues that there is a need for a new synthesis drawn from the strengths of technical rationalism and holistic reflective practice.     

'Reading' in Professional Practice: How Social Work Practice Assessors Access Knowledge and Information

This paper presents the results of a survey of the reading habitsof 184 social work practice teachers/assessors in 2005. Newtechnology has transformed the availability of information,but in the UK, social workers, from whom Practice Assessorsare drawn, have been found to have relatively poor access toelectronic resources. The literature also highlights deficitsin social workers’ reading, but suggests that there isa strong oral tradition which may compensate for this. The surveyaimed to show the choices this group of staff makes betweendifferent media and different types of knowledge. It was foundthat oral sources were the most used resource, but that habitsof internet use were also very well developed. Respondents’reading, and particularly their use of the internet, appearedto be strongly influenced by organizational priorities and statutoryroles. Clinical and therapeutic texts and specialist knowledgewere also important to respondents. Books and journals werehighly valued but cost was in many cases a barrier to access.Findings from this survey suggest that Practice Assessors area relatively well resourced group and that the internet is ofgreat importance as a source of information for them.