Building Effective Social Work Teams

Judy Foster is an experienced social worker and manager. She is a visiting lecturer in social work at the Tavistock Clinic, teaching postgraduate students. She trained as a child care officer before becoming a generic social worker, and managing the first referral and assessment team for a large inner city social services department. Subsequently she was head of training and staff development for the department, providing development opportunities for senior managers, social workers and care staff - introducing innovative projects in management, adult care, mental health, and children and families. She was a national project officer at the Central Council of Education and Training in Social Work developing training standards in mentoring skills and care for children and young people; and at Skills for Care developing national training standards in mental health. She founded the Social Perspectives Network in modern mental health – and was chair of St Michael’s Fellowship, which provides residential parenting assessments to family courts and supportive work with young parents in the inner city. Her doctorate in social work was awarded in 2009. She is married with two children and three grandchildren.

'This lively and engaging book gives us vivid insights into the rewards and challenges of managing social work teams. Although most social workers operate in teams, there is little material of evidenced practice available to managers to make their teams more effective - a gap that Judy Foster's book helpfully fills.' - Terry Bamford, Chair, Social Work History Network, U.K 'This is an unusual and original book, blending deep analytical reflection on a long career in social work, training and management with a systematic empirical study of how front line teams survive, flourish, or fail in the context of modern pressures. Lucid, lively and scholarly, this is essential reading for practitioners, leaders and policy makers with a genuine concern for the state of our services and the mental well-being of our workforce.' - Andrew Cooper, Professor of Social Work, Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, U.K 'I warmly commend this book to social work practitioners, managers and students, and to other professionals working in allied fields, as it offers a compassionate, reasoned and realistic understanding of the challenges faced on a daily basis by individuals experiencing distress and vulnerability, and those seeking to support and empower them.' - Gillian Ruch, Professor of Social Work, University of Sussex, U.K

• List of figuresList of tablesForeword Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Social work – The modern era Why do we need social workers? Chapter 2: Support for different service users Empowerment, maintenance, containment Understanding service users Chapter 3: Relating to service users and deciding interventions Chapter 4: Beneath the surface of three teamsThe district social work teamThe hospital social work teamThe mental health social work teamChapter 5: Methodology used to study the three teams Chapter 6: The need for a coherent policy framework Chapter 7: Professional skills and developmentChapter 8: Management structures Chapter 9: Maximizing autonomy Chapter 10: Mental space to think reflectively Chapter 11: Conclusions Chapter 12: What now? Appendix 1: Strength of the five factors for the teams Appendix 2: Record of meetings of the teams Meetings of the district teamMeetings of the hospital teamMeetings of the mental health teamReferencesIndex