Moving Through the lnternet: Teaching Mechanics and Evaluation

The Talk Table group (divided about equally between academic and public librarians) spent a lively time discussing how we might "teach" searching on the Internet. It was noted that especially in the academic setting, no one seems to take the responsibility for teaching students how to use the Internet. Most of the sessions taught in both academic and public library settings have been drop-in classes; however, one member suggested that it was like "teaching Italian in five nlinutes." Patrons dropping in for such classes have a range in expertise from needing a basic tutorial on how to use a mouse, to needing more expert help on advanced searching techniques. With the variety of search engines available, emphasis is put on learning to use the "help" screens for each engine. Some public libraries are beginning to use volunteers from the community to help teach, thus relieving pressure on the librarians. A few libraries offer printed help sources for what is covered in class. The use of "bogus" Websites was recommended for helping patrons evaluate information found on the Net. The following bibliography was given to Talk Table participants

Social workers' workload survey: messages from the frontline: findings from the 2009 survey and interviews with senior managers

"The research findings which have been reported emerged from work commissioned to inform the Social Work Task Force but they also make a contribution to issues discussed in this section and to other social work debates. It is important to recognise that this was the most comprehensive diary exercise conducted with social workers in this country. The findings generated from the analysis of the diaries have provided the first systematic examination of how social workers use their time. Yet for the reasons examined in the report there are provisos regarding the representativeness of data which leads to the recommendation that the exercise should be repeated with an instrument which is redesigned to reflect lessons from this survey and with a larger negotiated sample, along the lines of the Teachers’ Workload Survey." - Page 138

Change and Continuity:A Quantitative Investigation of Trends and Characteristics of International Social Workers in England

The UK has long experienced a shortage of social workers and has recruited internationally to meet demand. There have been few specific data quantifying the scale of social work mobility to the UK through which such experiences can be set in context. The analysis reported in this article uses data from October 2008, relating to registered social workers working in England. As part of a wider study of migrant social care workers in England, the article reports analysis of data records of over 7,000 non-UK social workers registered to work in England and compares their characteristics to UK-qualified social workers. These analyses are supplemented by analysis of more recent application and registration data from the General Social Care Council pertaining to social workers qualified within and outside the European Union during 2008 and 2009. The findings highlight several important observations in terms of non-UK-qualified social workers' profile as well as some possible trends in migration and variations in rates of qualification verification. Over half of all international social workers in England were trained in four countries: Australia, South Africa, India and the USA. Findings are contextualised with qualitative data obtained from the wider study and policy debates.</p

'My expectations remain the same. The student has to be competent to practise' : practice assessor perspectives on the new social work degree qualification in England

Research has emphasized the importance of practice learning to social work qualifying education but has tended to feature social work educator and student perspectives more strongly than the views of those responsible for assessing students' practice in the field. This article draws on 195 responses to a postal questionnaire sent at two points in time to practice assessors working with students from nine social work qualifying programmes run in six higher education institutions collected as part of the evaluation of the new social work degree qualification in England. While practice assessors described changes in their role and in the opportunities available to students, they also emphasized continuities, particularly in the skills that they expected students to possess. The key difficulty they identified was the heavy workload resulting from combining their role as practice assessors with their other responsibilities at work. Increases in the number of social work students and changes to the organization of services are likely to create further pressures on practice assessors. Given that these issues are faced by a number of different professions, the article concludes that there is potential for future studies to look at the experiences of practice educators across different professional qualifying programmes

Young carers’ experiences of services and support: what is helpful and how can support be improved?

Globally, many children and young people provide support to family members who have poor physical or mental health, are disabled, or misuse drugs and alcohol. These young carers are at higher risk of poorer education, employment, health, and social participation outcomes compared to their peers without caring responsibilities. In the UK, awareness of the challenges faced by young carers, and a framework of their legal rights, are relatively well-developed. However, it is unclear how support can most effectively be provided. Taking a qualitative approach we explored experiences and views of young carers (aged 9–25), conducting focus groups or interviews with 133 young carers and 17 parent care recipients. We explored what aspects of services and support are seen as helpful, valued, and acceptable to young people, and what could be improved. A reflexive, thematic analysis was conducted. Valued support came from: young carers groups (including peer support), school-based and mental health support, and support for the care recipient. Helpful aspects of support included someone who listens and understands, and can be trusted not to break confidentiality; involving the young person in information, decision-making and planning (sometimes including regarding the care recipient); and finding and linking to other services. There was a difficult balance for practitioners between being perceived as proactive, persistent or intrusive when offering support to a young carer, but it was important to allow opportunities for young carers, and those they care for, to change their minds about when and whether to access support. Many interactions were perceived as unhelpful or threatening to the family, and there was often not enough of the type of support that was valued. Sharing of positive experiences can be beneficial for both people seeking support and those delivering it; key messages on what is helpful from the perspective of young carers can help support and shape practice approaches

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Models of Organising Adult Safeguarding

Professionals express divergent views about whether adults at risk are best served by safeguarding work being incorporated into social workers’ casework or being undertaken by specialist workers within local area or centralised teams. This paper draws on findings from the final two phases of a three-phase study which aimed to identify a typology of different models of organising adult safeguarding and compare the advantages and disadvantages of these. We used mixed-methods to investigate four different models of organising adult safeguarding which we termed: A) Dispersed-Generic, B) Dispersed-Specialist, C) Partly-Centralised-Specialist and D) Fully-Centralised-Specialist. In each model, we analysed staff interviews (n = 38), staff survey responses (n = 206), feedback interviews (with care home managers, solicitors and Independent Mental Capacity Advocates) (n = 28), Abuse of Vulnerable Adults (AVA) Returns, Adult Social Care User Survey Returns (ASCS) and service costs. This paper focuses on qualitative data from staff and feedback interviews and the staff survey. Our findings focus on safeguarding as a specialism, safeguarding practice (including multi-agency working, prioritisation, tensions, handover, staff confidence and deskilling) and managing safeguarding. Local authority (LA) participants described and commented on the advantages and disadvantages of their organisational model. Feedback interviews offered different perspectives on safeguarding services and implications of different models

Against the norms: Designing violence prevention through engaging men

Engaging with men is an essential effort towards preventing violence in our communities. At the same time, violent behaviours are deeply embedded into our societies and construct what it means to be ‘masculine’ in a way that naturalises it. Getting men into a space to challenge their behaviours can therefore be a challenge. In this article, we discuss the findings from a recent study with designers designing to tackle intimate partner violence. We focus on four participants' experiences of developing design interventions to engage men in violence prevention. The findings highlight strategies that engage with men in a dialectical space of critical reflection and implementing alternative behaviours. It brings key considerations for designers to think about when counteracting the normalisation of violence (or other behaviours) and community acceptance

Longitudinal Care Study (LoCS) Interim report to the Department of Health

The purpose of this project is to increase understanding of the factors that facilitate or constrain recruitment and retention in the social care workforce in England focussing on adult services in four sites. Since going 'live' in 2006 the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC) has been gaining momentum. The NMDS-SC is providing the sector with much needed information on the profile of the adult social care workforce in England (see Eborall et al 2010). While the NMDS-SC has a number of limitations, both in terms of width and depth of coverage, for example, with the over representation of the independent sector and because the returns are provided by employers rather than employees, we are now far better able to investigate several workforce characteristics that previously were only suspected as being such. At the time of designing the current study, the NMDS-SC was still at an early stage, therefore, one of the initial aims was to establish the demographic profile of the adult social care workforce. Currently, some of these gaps in knowledge have started to close through the greater availability and more sophisticated analysis of NMDS-SC data. In 2009, the Social Care Workforce Research Unit (SCWRU) launched the Social Care Workforce Periodical (SCWP), a regular online publication presenting in-depth analyses of different aspects of the adult social care workforce using the latest data from the NMDS-SC. So far (December 2010), seven issues have been produced examining vacancy and turnover rates, the personal profile of the workforce, the role of young workers in the sector, the characteristics of the adult day care workforce, the role of third age workers in the sector, job shifting and the dementia care workforce. The analyses presented in SCWP are conducted by researchers at SCWRU and have been peer reviewed unless otherwise stated

The Experiences of International Social Care Workers in the UK

The demand for social care workers looks set continue to increase, owing to a number of factors, including demographic changes and survival of people with long-term social care needs. At the same time, the supply of good quality care workers will remain limited. It is important to realise the value of international workers to the sector, whether they are recruited directly from their home countries or following arrival in the UK. By highlighting the challenges and attempting to address them through strategies for the whole workforce, as well as international workers; and through the development of clear career pathways and thinking about making the most of the many personal qualities such workers bring; the sector may be better able to retain good staff and provide a higher standard of support to its users