Understanding Social Work: Preparing for Practice

Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Figures
The Author
Preface to the Sixth Edition
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Making Sense of Social Work
	Introduction
	Differences
	Commonalities
	What is social work?
	Forging a new perspective
	The existential basis of social work
	Conclusion
	Guide to further learning
Chapter 2: The Legal and Policy Context
	Introduction
	The Constitution
	The process of law
	The status of legislation
	Social policy
	Agency policy
	Professional practice
	Conclusion
	Guide to further learning
Chapter 3: The Knowledge Base
	Introduction
	What do social workers need to know?
	Dialectical reason
	Using knowledge
	Thoughts and feelings
	‘I prefer to stick to practice’
	Conclusion
	Guide to further learning
Chapter 4: The Skills Base
	Introduction
	Competent to practise
	Expectations of practice
	What is a skill?
	What skills do social workers need?
	How do we develop skills?
	Conclusion
	Guide to further learning
Chapter 5: The Value Base
	Introduction
	What are values?
	Traditional values
	Emancipatory values
	Conclusion
	Guide to further learning
Chapter 6: Achieving Good Practice
	Introduction
	Avoiding dangerous practice
	Working in partnership
	Being systematic
	Emancipatory practice
	Reflective practice
	Using supervision
	Conclusion
	Guide to further learning
Chapter 7: Facing the Challenge
	Introduction
	Forget that college nonsense
	Bloody social workers!
	Political correctness
	Stress and burnout
	Workload management
	A dying breed?
	Conclusion
	Guide to further learning
Conclusion
References
Index