In the safety announcement on planes, you are asked to put your own oxygen mask on before helping others with theirs. Social workers cannot help people effectively if they are overwhelmed themselves. I am really sad to see the results from the Community Care survey about the level of stress that social workers are experiencing. […]

Social work seems to be in two minds at the moment. Is it a strong profession, recognised and valued? Or is it a struggling profession, overrun by work and affected by cuts? I think it is a bit of both and that a tale about social work needs to tell both stories: a strengthening profession

I have just completed an 18-month project with Research in Practice for Adults (RiPfA) to produce resources to help assessors carry out good assessments. The main issue that I found was that all assessments have to be different – because people are different, yet we need to know that any assessment is good enough against

Last week I wrote an article for Community Care about the College of Social Work’s aim to make social work with older people more valuable and more valued. This is why… In the third week of my social work training I started a work placement in a hospice. Over the 50-day placement I learned about

There is a lot being written about leadership in social care at the moment. This is the best advice I have ever seen. It was written for me by my dad (a former management trainer) when I became a manager of other managers. “You will be expected to be on top of your job and

Recently in a workshop on supervision, I asked some new practitioners what their ideal supervisor would be like. ‘Kind’ was the first reply. I consider that a bit more kindness in social care could help us all feel better and make more progress. The word kind is linked to Old English gecynd, meaning nature, offspring, race. It

Research shows that professional concerns often drown out what people think is important in their own lives. The tool ‘Sorting important to and important for’ helps to make their voices clear. I recently did some training with practitioners and managers, who work in adult social care in a local authority. The training was on effective recording. One

When things go wrong in social care, we look for poor decisions. Good leaders and good professionals should get things right. When things go wrong, leaders get blamed and they resign; professionals get blamed and they get sick. Writing a handbook for practitioners on Making Good Decisions gave me the chance to really think about what a