Social workers and people who use social work services are today being encouraged to shape The College of Social Work by taking part in a UK-wide consultation. You can join the online consultation on the College website. Events are also being organised in several regions in England. A total of 22 consultation sessions will be held; twelve events for social work practitioners and managers and ten for users of social work services and carers.

The College of Social Work will start functioning in the coming months; at present the College Development Group is ensuring that those vital contributions are being captured and given to the Interim Board of the College once it is established. The Development Group is overseeing the consultation, which starts today and runs until October.

The College Development Group Chair, Allan Bowman, stated that

“We’ve been looking forward to today because it’s when The College’s work can really begin. We need the input of social workers, people who use social work services and their carers. Their views will shape the way the College is run. We encourage everyone with views to come forward, either at the large number of events organised so that people can discuss their views, or they can go online and help shape their College.”

Some of the issues that can be discussed in the consultation include:

• Membership
• Purpose,  functions and activities
• Working with employers, regulators, and unions
• Continuing professional development

Through these consultation activities it is hoped that a shared understanding of the purpose and key objectives of the College will be developed, built on the direct contribution of social workers and the people who use social work services. The consultation process will also ensure that the design and plans for the College will meet needs of the profession now and in the future.

Welcoming the College Moira Gibb, Chair of the Social Work Reform Board said:

“A College of Social Work is an opportunity for social work to gain the authoritative and influential professional voice it deserves. It is important that from the outset the College speaks for the breadth of the profession and represents the views of all social workers. This consultation is a major opportunity for the whole sector to set the direction and control the future of the College. I urge all social workers, and those engaged with social work, to take this chance to help shape the future of our profession.”

The College is clear that it wants to have the input of everyone involved from across the UK and that it will cover all aspects of social work.

The College of Social Work website

Tags: advanced social work practice, college of social work, Leadership and Management, professional practice, research, scie, Social Work, social work is complex and challenging

Since anger is not considered a pathological (DSM) condition, it should not be subjected to psychiatric interventions. Rather, the types of practical skill enhancement interventions that are common to the Social Work profession are more effective.

The four domains of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-control, social awareness and relationship management. These are the topics which form the basis of the skills that are taught in anger management classes as well as coaching programs.

Programs using these Emotional Intelligence based curricula are being used in prisons, jails, schools, businesses as well as municipal governments. The latest trends are in the areas of civility training for attorneys who are mandated by state bar associations as well as “disruptive physicians” who are mandated by their hospital administrators. Finally, executive coaching/anger management programs are rapidly becoming the intervention of choice for skill enhancement in leadership.

An excellent summary of U.S. based anger management programs can be viewed in a BBC documentary entitled Losing It 2. The link to this documentary can be found at headroom . This two hour documentary was produced for the BBC by actor and comedian, Griff Rhys Jones.

About the author

George Anderson is a Harvard University trained Psychotherapist with a specialization in executive coaching/anger management. He is a graduate of Smith College School for Social Work and former Faculty of UCLA School of Social Work.

Anderson & Anderson is the largest provider of Certified Anger Management Facilitator training in the world. http://www.andersonservices.com

Tags: anger management, emotional intelligence, human relationships, mental health, motivation to change, Social Work, social work is complex and challenging

• the development of national standards for post-qualifying training in safeguarding for adults and children;

• simplification of the funding arrangements to Higher Educational Institutions, and the linking of funding to quality standards;

• the development of a workforce model to ensure the right number of social workers are being trained in the right regions; and

• further research into the declining number of  men entering social work, and the poor progression rates amongst some black and minority ethnic students

• a new forensic social work award

Rosie Varley, Chair of the GSCC, said: “Tragedies such as the death of Baby P and other recent cases remind us how immensely challenging the role of a social worker is. We need to attract the best people into the profession, with a diverse workforce that reflects the society we live in.

As well as attracting the best people, our social workers need to have the very best training right throughout their careers. That is why we are reviewing whether we have the right powers to robustly inspect social work degree courses. We also believe there needs to be the creation of national standards for on the job safeguarding training and stronger requirements for employers to commit to good quality on-going training for social workers.”

There is a useful article which includes an interview with Mike Wardle Chief Executive GSCC  in Community Care

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2009/02/11/110686/gscc-to-link-post-qualifying-training-with-re-registration.html

Tags: compulsory training, gscc, more support for social workers, post qualifying awards, social work is complex and challenging