Competence in Social Work Practice

Gerry Heery is a training consultant with over twenty years' frontline experience as a social worker. He has many years of experience in working with young people who use violent and aggressive behaviour. Kieran O'Hagan is an established writer and former Reader in the School of Social Work at The Queen's University, Belfast. He worked for over twenty years in the social services in Britain. He has also lectured and worked in Australia, India and the USA. He has published many books and articles on a wide range of subjects in welfare and in training, including child abuse, crisis intervention, social work competence and the abuse of women in family and child care.

This book tackles the complex issue of competency-led social work training and focuses particularly on the six key roles of social work practice and the national occupational standards. It provides a helpful analysis of the changes to social work that have been brought about as a result of social policies and legislation, regulatory frameworks, new registration requirements, public inquiries and training to bring it in line with European education. Perhaps most importantly, it also considers the role of the service user in delivery and training.This book is easy to read and uses several detailed case studies to challenge traditional views of competency-led training. These cover a number of key social work areas such as mediation, child abuse, mental health, adults with learning disabilities, working with families and risk analysis.The case studies illuminate several complex issues that get to the heart of what competency-led training actually involves. Meanwhile, the analyses make the point that it should not just be a tick-box approach. In fact, what the case studies emphasise most of all is that the application of core values and ethics, within a skills and knowledge-based framework, is central to social work training.The second edition of this book is timely and it sits well alongside current debates about training and the future of social work. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it for anyone working in the profession.

• List of tables. List of figures. List of boxes. Acknowledgements. Preface. 1. Competence: An Enduring Concept? Kieran O'Hagan. 2. Competence in Mediation Practice. Margaret Fawcett. 3. Competence in Residential Child Care. John Gibson, Cornell University, NY and Raymond Taylor, Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. 4. Competence in Social Work Ethics. Derek Clifford, Liverpool John Moore's University, and Beverley Burke, Liverpool John Moore's University. 5. Competence in Child Abuse Referral-taking: Coping with Discriminatory or Malicious Referrals Kieran O'Hagan. 6. Competence in Protecting Adults with Learning Disabilities. Paul Cambridge, University of Kent. 7. Competence in Criminal Justice. Gerry Heery, Queen's University, Belfast. 8. Competence in Risk Analysis. Greg Kelly, Queen's University, Belfast. 9. Competence in Health Care. John McLaughlin, Queen's University, Belfast. 10. Competence in Working with Families. Dorota Iwaniec, Queen's University, Belfast. 11. Competence in Mental Health Social Work. Jim Campbell, Queen's University, Belfast. 12. Competence under Child-care Legislation, Policy and Theory. Joe Duffy, Queen's University, Belfast and Stan Houston, Queen's University, Belfast. List of contributors. References. Subject index. Author index.