scholarly journals Understanding social work-force satisfaction

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Pithouse ◽  
Alyson Rees ◽  
Charlotte Brookfield ◽  
Alf Djupvik
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
The Uk

Summary A Guardian Newspaper survey of social workers in the UK published in 2015 suggested that ‘The happiest social workers are in Wales’. In exploring why this may be so, the authors undertook an in-depth national online survey in 2017 of all social workers in Wales registered ( n = 5564) as employed at that point and from which some 997 responded. The survey sought a wide field of information about the occupational experience, and this article reports on selected aspects of knowledge, evidence-base, aims, competence and quality as perceived by respondents. Findings The workforce, durable, mostly white, aging and female, consider their services of good quality despite insufficiencies in staff capacities and material resources. While most acknowledged the influence on their practice of psycho-social, cognitive and systems paradigms, they also cited as major sources of knowledge, their clients, work experience, colleagues, case-procedures and in-house training. There seemed much less affirmation of evidence-based techniques and relatively little use of social work journals, books and professional magazines once qualified and in practice. Applications The emphasis by many upon the bureau or department as both ‘habitus’ and heuristic for much everyday practice raises important questions for how we understand and enhance practitioner knowledge and ensure equivalent social worker competence across the workforce.

scholarly journals Practice in a Pandemic: School Social Workers’ Adaptations and Experiences During the 2020 COVID-19 School Disruptions

2021 ◽  
pp. 104438942110098
Author(s):  
Michael S. Kelly ◽  
Rami Benbenishty ◽  
Gordon Capp ◽  
Kate Watson ◽  
Ron Astor
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
School Social Work ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Virtual School ◽  
School Social Workers ◽  
Traditional Practice

In March 2020, as American PreK-12 schools shut down and moved into online learning in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, there was little information about how school social workers (SSWs) were responding to the crisis. This study used a national online survey to understand how SSWs ( N = 1,275) adapted their school practice during the initial 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Findings from this study indicate that SSWs made swift and (relatively) smooth adaptations of their traditional practice role to the new context, though not without reporting considerable professional stress and personal challenges doing so. SSWs reported significant concerns about their ability to deliver effective virtual school social work services given their students’ low motivation and lack of engagement with online learning, as well as significant worries about how their students were faring during the first months of the pandemic. Implications for school social work practice, policy, and research are discussed.

The impact of the institutional environment and experience on social entrepreneurship: a multi-group analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezlika M. Ghazali ◽  
Dilip S. Mutum ◽  
Haleh Hakim Javadi
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study presents a framework for integrating distinct perspectives on social entrepreneurship by combining institutional theory with the social entrepreneurship intention model. The framework assesses the relationships between social support and the perceived feasibility and desirability of social entrepreneurship, the relationships between social support and the institutional environments of social workers, and the moderating role of prior experience of social work and volunteering.Design/methodology/approachThe model was tested using 266 validated responses from an online and paper-based survey distributed among social workers. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data, and multi-group analysis was conducted to examine the moderation effects.FindingsThe findings indicate that experience moderates the relationships between the regulatory and cognitive environments, cognitive environments and social support, and social support and perceived feasibility. Experience negatively moderates the relationship between the normative environment and social support.Practical implicationsActive government involvement in the form of incentives and financial support would encourage the creation of social ventures.Social implicationsEducational programmes are also necessary to help raise awareness and increase the familiarity and knowledge of potential social entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThe study analyses the effects of institutional environmental components, recognised as highly influential on the development of social entrepreneurship, as well as the impact of perceived social support on the antecedents of the perceived desirability and feasibility of social entrepreneurship. It also addresses how social work experience modifies these relationships. Contrary to previous studies, the findings suggest that increasing social work experience isolates entrepreneurs from their environment.

In search of better opportunities: transnational social workers in the UK navigating the maze of global and social mobility

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shereen Hussein
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Western World ◽  
International Mobility ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Level Of Training ◽  
International Identity ◽  
The Uk

Social workers are increasingly becoming global professionals, both in utilising their professional qualifications as a means to achieve international mobility, and in the expectation of gaining an internationally transferable set of skills. However, there is a continued dilemma in defining such professional international identity due to contradictory processes of ‘indigenisation’, or the extent to which social work practice fits local contexts; ‘universalism’, finding commonalities across divergent contexts; and ‘imperialism’ where western world-views are privileged over local and Indigenous cultural perspectives (Gray, 2005). Many regard social work to be especially context-sensitive in that a good understanding of language and cultural clues is an essential element in the ability of workers to perform their work effectively. In that sense, while global professional mobility facilitates transnational social work (Hanna and Lyons, 2014), social work is not yet a global ‘common project’ and clear differences remain at the level of training, qualifications and practice (Weiss-Gal and Welbourne, 2008; Hussein, 2011, 2014).

Reconfiguring professional autonomy? The case of social work in the UK

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Chandler ◽  
Elisabeth Berg ◽  
Marion Ellison ◽  
Jim Barry
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Professional Autonomy ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk

This chapter discusses the contemporary position of social work in the United Kingdom, and in particular the challenges to what is seen as a managerial-technicist version of social work. The chapter begins with focus on the situation from the 1990s to the present day in which this version of social work takes root and flourishes. The discussion then concentrates on three different routes away from a managerial-technicist social work: the first, reconfiguring professional practice in the direction of evaluation in practice, the second ‘reclaiming social work’ on the Hackney relationship-based model and the third ‘reclaiming social work’ in a more radical, highly politicised way. Special attention is devoted to a discussion about how much autonomy the social workers have in different models, but also what kind of autonomy and for what purpose.

scholarly journals Exploring corporate engagement with carbon management techniques

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Katherine Piper ◽  
James Longhurst
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Carbon Management ◽  
Carbon Neutrality ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods ◽  
Management Hierarchy ◽  
Management Techniques ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives ◽  
The Uk

This paper explores the different ways of managing carbon in organisational settings.  It uses a sequential mixed methods approach – literature review, discussions with sustainability thought leaders, and online survey and interviews with company sustainability leaders – to consider and critique the use of the carbon management hierarchy (CMH) by selected corporate bodies in the UK. The derived empirical evidence base enables a triangulated view of current performance and potential improvements. Currently, carbon management models are flawed, being vague in relation to the operational reductions required prior to offsetting and making no mention of Science Based Targets nor the role corporations could play in wider sustainability initiatives. An amended CMH is proposed incorporating wider sustainability initiatives, varying forms of offsets, the inclusion of accounting frameworks and an annual review mechanism to ensure progress towards carbon neutrality. If such a model were to be widely used, it would provide more rapid carbon emissions reductions and mitigation efforts, greater certainty in the authenticity of carbon offsets, wider sustainability impacts and a faster trajectory towards carbon neutrality.

Time and change: UK social work and comparative European welfare policies since 1990

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Linda Bell
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Background History ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Work Education

This chapter gives a brief contextual background history to ‘social work’. It emphasises the years after 1990. This period encompasses many policy and political changes and theoretical developments in the UK and internationally, which affect social work practice and education. This is the time period encapsulating the author's involvement with social workers and social work education. The chapter presents some comparative geographical locations partly to reflect aspects of this involvement with social work and contacts with social work and social workers in those places, as well as to reflect different kinds of welfare regimes and to indicate some different kinds of welfare professionals.

‘I Never Felt like an Illegal Immigrant Until Social Work Turned up at the Hospital’: No Recourse to Public Funds as Necropolitical Exception

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Critical Scrutiny ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This article argues that the notion of ‘illegality’ has become a dominant aspect in social work practice for those who are subject to immigration control and have no recourse to public funds (NRPFs). Drawing together conceptual tools from the theoretical work of Giorgio Agamben and Achille Mbembé, necropolitical exception in social work will be explored to analyse how this has impacted upon racialised bodies within the UK immigration system. The findings presented in this article are based upon Ph.D. research conducted between July 2017 and October 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland, and includes ethnographic qualitative data from case studies with the Asylum Seeker Housing Project. It focuses on interviews that explore the lived experiences of those categorised as ‘illegalised’ migrants to examine the implications of necropolitical exception for those with NRPF, third sector caseworkers and statutory social workers. In framing those with NRPF as ‘illegal’, this article demonstrates that social workers have become drawn into agents of necropolitical exception that demands critical scrutiny.

Gender, Parenting and Practices in Child Welfare Social Work? A Comparative Study from England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Nygren ◽  
Julie C Walsh ◽  
Ingunn T Ellingsen ◽  
Alastair Christie
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This article explores ways in which gender equality, family policy and child welfare social work intersect in four countries: England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Over time, conditions for gender equality in parenting have improved, partly due to family policy developments removing structural barriers. These changes, however, vary between countries; Sweden and Norway are considered more progressive as compared with the UK and Ireland. Here, we draw on focus group data collected from child welfare social workers in England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden to compare these different contextual changes and how these are reflected in related social work practice decisions. The focus group discussions were based on a vignette, and thematic analysis was applied. Overall, welfare social workers are aware of the need to support gender equality in parenting, there is a heavy focus on mothers in child welfare practice decisions, and fathers are largely absent. Uniquely, we show that this is influenced by both a strong child-centred perspective, and a gendered risk perspective, in which fathers are seen to pose more risk to the children than mothers.

Leading communities of practice in social work

Groupwork ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Ivan Gray ◽  
Jonathan Parker ◽  
Tikki Immins
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Organisation Development ◽  
Delivery Of Services ◽  
The Uk

<p><i>Social work in the UK has undergone a period of momentous change in the last decade with the introduction of a ‘modernising agenda’ that has increased managerial approaches to the organisation, development and delivery of services. Whilst posing a threat to some, these approaches are embedded and social workers must find ways of working within them to synthesise appropriate responses that promote the values and cultural heritage of social work within the new context. This paper considers the possibilities offered by communities of practice to develop learning organisations in which a managed and participatory approach to social care can be generated. A super-ordinate model of contending cultures is developed and practice that draws on and is predicated by groupwork principles is presented as a potential way forward</i>.</p>

Social Workers in Child Mental Health: Securing a Future

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 102-107
Author(s):  
Philip Messent
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Mental Health ◽  
Adolescent Mental Health ◽  
Child And Adolescent ◽  
The Uk

A study was conducted to investigate reductions in the numbers of social work posts located within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the UK. Results suggested that reductions in posts noted in earlier studies are continuing. Interviewees' ideas about factors contributing to the survival of such posts are summarised. The significance of the loss of posts is discussed, with an account of changing ideas about the role of social workers within CAMHS teams, and of an audit undertaken of one service lacking such a post. Conclusions are drawn concerning ways of ensuring the preservation of such posts.

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