Social Work

I have been a social worker since 1992 and chose social work as a profession to challenge inequality and discrimination. I have worked mainly in childcare social work, and from 1995, specifically in fostering and adoption. I have worked in statutory, voluntary and independent social work and have worked in all four countries of the UK. I developed a specialism working with male carers, as well as caring for children on the autism spectrum. Having held a wide range of practice, training, reviewing and management roles, I am also a passionate educator. I am qualified to teach adults and children, have been an NVQ assessor and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I completed a PhD on foster fathers through Durham University, and joined Northumbria University's teaching team in 2013. I teach across all social work programmes, focusing particularly on social work assessments and interventions. I supervise PhD students, and I currently am principal investigator on an evaluation of simulation-based learning in social work programmes. I qualified as a social worker in 2001, and went on to practice in a variety of mental health settings. I became an Approved Social Worker (ASW) and later an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP). I developed a specialism in working with people diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder and self-harming and suicidal behaviours. I qualified as a Best Interests Assessor (BIA), and went on to become a local authority Mental Capacity Act lead. From 2013 until its closure, I was a College of Social Work's accredited Expert Safeguarding Adults Practitioner. I left practice in 2013, to teach and research at Northumbria University. I teach across all qualifying and post qualifying social work programmes, focussing particularly on social work with adults, mental capacity, adult safeguarding and mental health. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and I am currently completing a PhD, which explores how adult safeguarding is performed with people experiencing dementia.

Introduction Part 1: Assessments: Making Sense and Planning to Act Chapter 1:Definitions and principles of Assessment Chapter 2: Social work's evolving context: a brief history Chapter 3: Risk and professional judgements Chapter 4: Assessing children, young people and families Chapter 5: Assessing adults' needs Chapter 6: Planning, reviews, flexibility and supervision Part 2: Interventions: Now Let's Go and Help People Chapter 7: Intervening as a social worker Chapter 8: Relationships, systems and complexity Chapter 9: Intervening during crisis Chapter 10: Task-Centred Interventions Chapter 11: Strengths and solution-focused interventions Chapter 12: Working with Groups and Group Work Summary and Final Thoughts