The Care Act – New Approaches

to Social Work

Enfield – 21 November 2014

Annie Hudson

Chief Executive

The College of Social Work

The ground to cover:

• Transformative or transactional change?

• Emerging expectations: scarey, unrealistic or

exciting?

• Building professional capability + capital

(Footnote: whither integration – possibilities not

panacea)

Some Whys and Whats of the Care Act

‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’(Drucker)

• From ‘doing to’ to ‘doing with’ (users + carers)

• Wellbeing, earlier, better help (rebirth of

community development?

• Good information,advice,assessment=backbone

• Escape from ‘straitjacket’ of care management?

Context framing expectations + challenges

• Demographic imperatives

• ‘Poor times’ + ‘graphs of doom’ +

• Expectations + aspirations

• NHS – ‘Big Boys’: Big Money + Big Influence

• ‘Magical thinking’ - integration debates

Changing expectations

Capability + capital

Leadership + Voice

1 – Changing expectations

• Adult SW: from the ‘margins’ + remembered

• Added value from SW

• Wellbeing and prevention

• Assessment, information and advice

• Safeguarding + MCA, DOLs

• Enabling ‘voice’ + transitions

• Professional leadership + mentoring

• Changing professional ‘identities: responsibility+pride

• Complexity, ambiguity and risk (TCSW resources)

2- Building capability and capital

• Social worker as:

• Professional

• Practitioner

• Social Scientist (Croisdale-Appleby 2014)

• ‘Best in class’ relationship ‘experts’

• Attachment and loss

• Authority

• Analysis + reflection

• ‘Enlightened’ practitioners :evidence + research ‘literate’

2- Building capability and capital

• ‘Holding our ground’: articulating knowledge, skills + values

(PCF/KSS)

• Community capacity building: expertise + evidence

• TCSW resources:

• Business case for adult SW

• SW in mental health

• GPs and SWs : partners for better care

• SW with older people

• CPD – portable, flexible, progression ….

3– Leadership + voice

• Lessons from medicine!

• Extracting value from SW’s new ‘architecture’

• Leadership in multi disciplinary teams: authoritative +

inquisitive + relational (TCSW resources)

• Integration: SW supporting culture change

• Media profile: strong stories of adult social work

What TCSW does …

First for practice

First for policy

First voice for social work

Conclusion

• Once in a generation: shape and change what

you can

• Evidencing learning from people using services

• Maximising value of your professional College

www.tcsw.org.uk