Building Effective Social Work Teams

How has social work changed over the years? What are some of the best social work teams doing differently to meet the complex practical and emotional needs of service users? What practical tools and approaches can social work managers implement with their teams? Dr. Judy Foster examines good social work practice and the supporting factors that are essential to underpin social work teams – coherent policies; well-qualified and motivated staff; good management support structures; delegated autonomy and discretion for social workers; and mental space to allow reflective and creative problem solving.

She illustrates the dilemmas and rewards of social work relationships through personal stories from her own career as a social worker, manager and teacher - and interviews with social workers and managers. These examples show the relationship between ‘doing’ something for someone and ‘being’ emotionally present to empower a service user to manage better. The book is intended to help social work managers improve the support environment for their teams – and hence their effectiveness – and to inform students and others in related professions interested in learning more about social work. It will also have a wide appeal to an international social work readership.

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.