Blog entries from Neil Thompson

Still trying to do the impossible?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:25:01 +0100

Communitycare.co.uk recently reported a survey which showed that four out of ten social workers regard their caseload as 'unmanageable'. This is, of course, an unacceptable situation, as unmanageable caseloads add up to stress, poor-quality practice, a higher level of mistakes, increased sickness absence, a failure to learn and very poor morale. Some people would see this as a management challenge: what are managers going to do to address these problems? This is a legitimate question, but I wRead More...

What future for managerialism?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:57:47 +0100

Russell House have recently published a book on children's services that is very critical of managerialism and its insidious effect on quality of practice and morale of staff (see the Book News section on the home page of this site). This adds to the critique of managerialism in my Practising Social Work: Meeting the Professional Challenge book (http://astore.amazon.co.uk/neilthomp-21/). Managerialism has clearly had a devastating effect not just on social work, but also on public services more Read More...

Losing our identity?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:44:10 +0100

In recent years I have noticed that many social work colleagues seem to be narrowing their horizons. Their focus seems to be increasingly on their own area of practice without seeeing it as part of the broader picture of social work as a diverse profession. From my experience of running training courses with social work staff from various specialisms I get the impression that there is far less interest in our prfession as a whole. So many people want to look at, and talk about, their particular Read More...

Leadership in social work

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Thu, 27 May 2010 21:01:56 +0100

I was running a training course on leadership recently and it reminded me how important leadership is for social work. For me leadership isn't just about management. I would like to think that managers see leaderhsip skills as part of their repertoire, but I think that practitioners have a leaderhip role too - indivdiually and collectively. Leadership involves having a clear idea of where we want to get to and how we are going to get there, and I would like to think that practitioners Read More...

Is residential child care social work?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:48:37 +0100

I began my career in residential child care a long time ago. I had the official title of 'residential child care officer' (RCCO), but was also often referred to as a 'residential social worker'. These days in the UK we have protection of title, so only people who are registered with the appropriate care council can legally refer to themselves as such. This has been a very positive move as previously anyone who did anything vaguely charitable could call themselves a social Read More...

Setting out our stall

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:06:29 +0100

In my Practising Social Work book I talk about the importance of 'setting out our stall'. By this I mean that we are likely to have difficulties over role definition if we do not make it clear to the people we are working with (clients and other professionals) what we can and cannot do, what we should and should not do. Unfortunately there is a tendency for many people to assume that the social worker is responsible for anything that does not fit neatly into the duties of othRead More...

I prefer to stick to practice ...

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:19:55 +0100

One of the things that has fascinated me for decades now is the relationship between theory and practice. It has been sad over the years to encounter so many people who seem content to drive a wedge between the two of them - whether (a small but significant minority of) academics who are happy to explore theory without any consideration for its relevance to practice or the breed of practitioner who largely dismisses theory and prefers to just 'get on with the job' (totally oblivious to the fact Read More...

Sacking social workers

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:47:43 +0100

The announcement that Birmingham City Council have sacked six social workers will no doubt cause considerable consternation among the social work practitioner populace. I would agree that people who do not achieve an acceptable level of practice and do not show any interest in doing so have no place in professional social work. However, the anxieties that are in abundance in modern-day social work (in the UK at least) will presumably be even greater now for many people if they come to fear thRead More...

Managing conflict

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:12:52 +0100

I have had an interest in conflict since the early days of my career in social work when it struck me just how much conflict there was around. Conflict between social workers and clients; between clients and other family members; between workers and managers; and conflict across the multidisciplinary network. Despite this significant presence of conflict in social work and social care, in my experience only a small proportion of practitioners have had the benefit of trainning in the subject. It Read More...

Free social work resources

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:29:18 +0100

The US-based free online magazine, the New Social Worker is available at:

http://www.socialworker.com/home/index.php

The Journal of Social Work Ethics and Values is available free of charge from

http://www.socialworker.com/jswve/

Social and Public Policy Review is available at http://www.socialworker.com/jswve/

And, of course, there is a growing number of articles and reviews available here on Social Work Focus.

Do you know of any other free resourceRead More...

Trying to do the impossible

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:13:14 +0100

I have had several conversations in the past couple of months about workload pressures. It seems that a significant proportion of people feel overloaded. Of course a high workload is not necessarily a problem. It can be stimulating, motivating and rewarding. You can go home feeling tired but happy and satisfied. However, when it gets to the point that the workload is too high, then the result is different. You are more likley to go home feeling tired, worn out, perhaps anxious about how you aRead More...

Valuing social work

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:54:46 +0100

I have made the point before (for example, in my Understandnig Social Work book) that social work involves, to a certain extent, doing society's dirty work - dealing with things that so many people would like to sweep under the carpet: abuse, poverty, discrimination and oppression, trauma and so on. This then puts us in quite a weak position when it comes to being appreciated and valued for the contribution we make. And yet, ironically, research about satisfaction levels from users of soRead More...

A demanding occupation

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:06:16 +0100

I have recently been chcking the proofs of my forthcoming book, Theorizing Social Work Practice (to be published by Palgrave Macmillan next February), which completes the trilogy that began with Understanding Social Work: Preparing for Practice and also includes Practising Social Work: Meeting the Professional Challenge. I have often thought that it is important how books end, so I paid particular attention, in checking the proofs, to the final sentence of the book:

Whatever itRead More...

A new dawn?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:08:37 +0100

The publication of the Task Force on social work in England offers some potentially very positive steps forward, a challenge to the managerialism and unrealistic expectations (in terms of workload) that have characterised British social work in recent years. However, there are still many questions that remain: Will the Government provide adequate financial support to translate the potential into reality? Will next year's general election change the political landscape in relation to social woRead More...

Risky times

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:32:58 +0100

In recent years British social work has been characterised by an increasingly heavy emphasis on risk and, unfortunately, often a very rigid, defensive approach to the subject. Of course, the danger is that such an uncritical, unbalanced approach increases the chances of things going awry rather than actually reducing them. Meanwhile in the financial world it has arguably been the case that too loose and incautious an approach to risk by bankers and other key players was a key factor in the Read More...

Social work and spirituality

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:33:39 +0100

I have recently been involved in discussions about the importance of spirituality in social work. It has not surprised me that these days so many people are becoming quite enthusiastic about the potential for spirituality to help take social work forward once they realise how important spirituality is in people's lives (including the problems they face and the potential solutions available). I don't believe in panaceas, so I certainly don't see spirituality as one. However, I do see it as aRead More...

What is an online community?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:52:45 +0100

In recent weeks three different people I know have emailed me to say they like the site and will visit it from time to time. On each occasion I have responded to say that I am pleased they like the site but I have encouraged them to do more than just visit from time to time. I have emphasised that the site is intended to be an online community rather than just a resource to visit occasionally. So, what is an online communRead More...

The future of social work?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:38:41 +0100

People often ask me what I see as the future of social work. My response is generally that this largely depends on us as members of the profession. Of course, there will be macro-level developments in law and government policy that will be influential, but these depend in large part on how they are put into practice by professionals. And, of course, it is not only how the profession reacts towards external developments - there is also the proactive work we can do individually and collectivelyRead More...

Welcome

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:00:32 +0100

Welcome to the 'Neil Thompson on Social Work' blog. Here I shall be airing my views about various aspects of social work and inviting members to comment in response. I hope we will be able to have some interesting and fruitful discussions.