Competence in Social Work Practice

Social work training has become competence-based and competence-led as a result of CCETSW's Paper 30 in 1989 (and its subsequent amendments). Many students and practice teachers, however, have experienced difficulty in identifying evidence of competence for inclusion in practice portfolios. The contributors to this practical volume demonstrate how competence is best illustrated through detailed presentation of practice.

Making a major advance in social work training, this book illustrates social work competences by describing genuine cases, real people and real contexts, while all identifying features have been changed to preserve confidentiality. It will greatly assist in the implementation of new requirements for the Diploma in Social Work. Each chapter identifies the core competences most pertinent to the case in question and core themes and principles which emerge in demonstrating competence.

Kieran O'Hagan is Reader in Social Work at The Queen's University, Belfast. He has nearly twenty years of frontline experience of social work practice in England and has lectured in Australia and completed social work placements in California and India. The contributors are all members either of the Department of Social Work at Queen's University or of the statutory and voluntary agencies working in partnership with the University. Recently the subject of scrutiny by the Higher Education Funding Council, the Department of Social Work was acknowledged as a centre of excellence in the provision of social work training.