Table Of ContentPost-Qualifying Child Care
Social Work
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Post-Qualifying Child Care
Social Work
Developing Refl ective Practice
Edited by
Gillian Ruch
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Editorial arrangement and Chapters 1, 3, 4, 9 and 12 © Gillian Ruch
2009
Foreword © Dr Gillian Bridge
Chapter 2 © Gill Tunney
Chapter 5 © Chris Warren-Adamson
Chapter 6 © Kish Bhatti-Sinclair
Chapter 7 © Tim Gully
Chapter 8 © Fiona McKinnon
Chapter 10 © Teri Rogers
Chapter 11 © Chris Warren-Adamson
First published 2009
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Contents
Foreword vii
Part One: Th e contemporary framework of post-qualifi cation child care practice
1 Introduction – developing holistic social work practitioners 3
Gillian Ruch
2 Th e PQ framework, PQ and CPD developments: consolidation unit 8
Gill Tunney
3 Refl ective practice and refl ective spaces 19
Gillian Ruch
4 Observational practices in working with children and families 31
Gillian Ruch
5 Every Child Matters and the context for inter-professional and inter-agency
practice 41
Chris Warren-Adamson
6 Practice education and ‘enabli ng others’ 49
Kish Bhatti-Sinclair
Part Two: Th e post-qualifi cation curriculum
7 Focus on the child 61
Tim Gully
8 Child observation and professional practice 79
Fiona McKinnon
9 ‘Holding the child in mind’: working in partnership with children, their families,
carers and professionals 96
Gillian Ruch
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vi Contents
10 Innovatory and regulatory practice in contemporary child care social work 113
Teri Rogers
11 Collaborative practice and its complexity 132
Chris Warren-Adamson
Part Th ree: Continuing professional development and future directions
12 Th e way ahead: refl ective practice and relationships 151
Gillian Ruch
Bibliography 154
Index 165
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Foreword
It is an honour to be invited to write a foreword to this book. Having spent almost 40 years of my
professional life developing social work education and training, with particular reference to child wel-
fare, I welcome the opportunity to comment on this collection of papers designed in response to the
new post-qualifi cation framework for social work with children and families (GSCC, 2005).
Th e aims, design and content of social work training have altered radically from the early days
of the Charity Organisation Society. Over a century ago, the fi rst social work course was set up at
the London School of Economics as a series of evening lectures to inform, ‘young ladies’ engaged in
voluntary work about the social sciences. By 2005, social work training had expanded, became clearer
about knowledge, skills and values components and had an established qualifi cation route within the
university system. In the UK, aspiring social workers should undertake as a minimum qualifi cation an
undergraduate degree, followed by a range of post-qualifi cation specialist courses, at the masters and
doctorate levels. Additionally, social workers have recognised roles and tasks within the legal frame-
work, in social policy and in the agencies for services delivery, both local authorities and voluntary
sector organisations. Th us, from its early days of voluntary, philanthropic activity, social work has
become recognised as a professional activity and a legally recognised career path. Th is is an impressive
achievement.
It is inevitable and appropriate that social work has adjusted over time to societal, economic and
political changes. Relevant education and training systems have been developed in response to these
changing practices. While in many ways these changes have been necessary and appropriate, many
academics and practitioners engaged in education and training have experienced them as happening
too frequently and being overly re active to criticism, particularly from the media. When organisa-
tions are under threat, they tend to adopt survival techniques, allowing changes to be made perhaps
too hastily with insuffi cient attention to potential losses.
Applying these observations to specialist training in child care social work, it is clear that training
has been buff eted from all sides by a range of processes. One of the most signifi cant of these has been
government responses to child deaths fuelled by the media. Major legislative and policy initiatives
have been the direct result of an inquiry into a child death or criticisms of social work practice in risk
assessment. Th e inquiry by Lord Laming into the death of Victoria Climbié (DoH, 2003) is the most
recent example contributing signifi cantly to the Every Child Matters agenda.
From the perspectives of social policy, political shifts away from universal approaches to social wel-
fare have had a profound impact on social work with families. Th atcherism, characterised by empha-
sising non-intervention, self-reliance and new managerialism, led to the introduction of standardised
frameworks for assessment. Although these have the advantage of making professional activity
more transparent and therefore more accountable, there are real dangers, that practice has become
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viii Foreword
mechanistic and that training requirements have gradually adjusted in response. Training has become
more structured, too heavily dependent on competence indicators and overly reliant on the ‘what
works’ agenda’ in research.
Lower priority seems to have been given to capacity for refl ection in education and training struc-
tures. Th is must remain a crucial element within training at all levels because of the unique nature of
the circumstances involving social work activity. Th roughout history, it has been essential for social
workers to refl ect before they respond to the most complex and often painful circumstances requir-
ing their intervention. It is the strength of this edited book that the refl ection process is drawn back
to the centre of the social work training arena alongside observational and collaborative practice,
aspects of the work underpinning all interventions. Capacities to observe, refl ect and to collaborate
should take root at the undergraduate level and be nurtured, so that they fl ower and infuse all post-
qualifi cation initiatives.
A further strength of this book is its being aware of the need to listen to service users and also to
the voices of students. Th eirs is the direct proof that these themes of refl ection and observation play a
critical part in professional learning. Th e vivid illustrations provided by students enrich the chapters
prepared by their very experienced teachers who have contributed to this volume.
Future students of post-qualifying social work training courses specialising in child care will fi nd
this volume a valuable companion to their studies. In the ‘evening phase’ of my career, it inspires
me with hope that the things I have always held essential to practice have not been lost. No training
courses can be static, but should be responsive to current and future professional demands, building
on existing strengths derived from decades of evolution. Th e editor and contributors deserve praise for
the quality and content of each of the chapters and for the eff ective marrying of unique student
experience with established research and literature.
Dr. Gillian Bridge
Former Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics
and External Examiner for the Wessex Post-Qualifi cation Child Care Award
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Part One
The contemporary framework of
post-qualifi cation child care practice
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