EXAMINING APPROACHES TO SOCIAL WORK TRAINING IN USA AND CANADA

WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST FELLOWSHIP

DR MARY BAGINSKY

Social Care Workforce Research Unit

Facuof Social Science and Public Policy

What some of you may prefer to be doing…..

Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship 2013

Social Work: training for the profession or task?

“At best they are seen as well-meaning do-gooders and at worst inept meddlers”.

“Social work is a contested concept and subject to competing definitions. Its language is confusing and contributes to the lack of clarity about what it is that social workers do”.

2000 - 2013

• Goodbye CCETSW, hello GSCC

• Goodbye GSCC, hello HCPC

• Goodbye diploma, hello degree

• Children’s services move to DCSF (and then DfE)

• Hello CWDC, goodbye CWDC

• Goodbye Topss, hello Skills for Care

• Social Work Task Force

• Chief Social Worker roles

• The College of Social Work

• NQSW programme and then ASYE

• Step Up to Social Work, Frontline and Think Ahead

• Introduction of ACFSW etc…

Where I went

USA: Washington, New York, San Francisco, Seattle

Canada: Toronto and Montreal

Denmark

Netherlands

Sweden

Germany

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE)

Accreditation

Licencing

Professional Doctorate

The Science of Social Work

www.cswe.org/CentersInitiatives/CurriculumResources/TeachingEvidence-°©‐

BasedPractice.aspx

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

• The largest membership organisation of professional social workers in theworld, with 140,000 members

• BSWs and MSWs

• Placements

• How to prepare social workers to deal with clients’ complex lives?

• How to deal with media criticism?

• Campaigns

New York

• Fostering Change for Children – Children’s Corp

• University of Columbia and University of Albany

• Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College

And I could not resist this…..

West Coast Experiences

• University of California at Berkeley

• University of Washington

• Casey Family Programs

• Parent- Child Assistance Program

And so to Canada (1)

Toronto

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

University of Toronto

Ontario Association of Social Work

And so to Canada (2)

Montreal

• Hospital settings

• The Batshaw Youth and Family Centres

• McGill University

Social work’s complex, sometimes contradictory rolesand tasks, mean that change is always work in progress, never a task achieved. (Dickens, 2010)

Have we got the right model?

And then home with too many thoughts – here are just two

Where to find the report:

Social Work: training for the profession or task?

http://www.wcmt.org.uk/users/marybaginsky2013

DR MARY BAGINSKY

MARY.BAGINSKY@KCL.AC.UK