Daphne Statham - Managing Front Line Practice in Social Care

Research Highlights in Social Work

This topical series examines areas of particular interest to those in social and community work and related fields. Each book draws together different aspects of the subject, highlighting relevant research and drawing out implications for policy and practice. The project is under the editorial direction of Professor Joyce Lishman, Head of the School of Applied Social Studies at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

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Co-Production and Personalisation in Social Care

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Edited by Susan Hunter and Pete Ritchie

ISBN 978 1 84310 558 9

eISBN 978 1 84642 721 3

Research Highlights in Social Work 49

Developments in Social Work with Offenders

Edited by Gill McIvor and Peter Raynor

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eISBN 978 1 84642 682 7

Research Highlights in Social Work 48

Residential Child Care

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ISBN 978 1 84310 526 8

eISBN 978 0 85700 132 0

Research Highlights in Social Work 47

Social Work and Evidence-Based Practice

Edited by David Smith

ISBN 978 1 84310 156 7

eISBN 978 1 84642 068 9

Research Highlights in Social Work 45

Reconceptualising Work with Carers

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Edited by Kirsten Stalker

ISBN 978 1 84310 118 5

eISBN 978 1 84642 366 6

Research Highlights in Social Work 43

Women Who Offend

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ISBN 978 1 84310 154 3

eISBN 978 1 84642 041 2

Research Highlights in Social Work 44

Adult Day Services and Social Inclusion

Better Days

Edited by Chris Clark

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eISBN 978 1 84642 283 6

Research Highlights in Social Work 39

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN SOCIAL WORK 40

Managing Front Line Practice in Social Work

Edited by Daphne Statham

Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia

Research Highlights in SocialWork 40

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First published in the United Kingdom in 2004
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
73 Collier Street
London N1 9BE, UK
and
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Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

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Copyright Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2004

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Managing front line practice in social care / edited by Daphne Statham.-- 1st American pbk. ed.

p. cm. -- (Research highlights in social work ; 40)

Includes index.

ISBN 1-85302-886-X (pbk.)

1. Social work administration. 2. Socialwelfare--Management. 3. Publicwelfare--Management. I. Statham, Daphne. II. Series.

HV41.M27683 2004
361.30684--dc22

2004002760

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84310 886 1
eISBN 978 1 84642 431 1

Contents

Daphne Statham, Warwick University

Suzy Croft, St Johns Hospice, Peter Beresford, Brunel University and Elizabeth Wulff-Cochrane, CCETSW

Michael Turner, International Disability Equality Agency, DeMontfort University and Clare Evans, Disabled Peoples Forum, Leonard Cheshire

Yoni Ejo, Former Director of the Bibini Centre

Gerardine Cunningham, Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust

Patricia Kearney, Social Care Institute for Excellence

Eva Learner and Gwen Rosen, Social Care Institute for Excellence

Gayle Foster, NISW

Daphne Statham

Figure and Table

CHAPTER 1

The Context for Managing Practice

Daphne Statham

Over the past ten years there has been a gradual realisation that there is an intimate relationship between the attention given to the management and development of practice and delivering services and practice that are valued by people using services. This recognition is not new within social work or other professions whose daily work brings them into contact with people who are facing distressing life experiences. Isobel Menzies Lyth (1988) in the 1970s identified that, without support, nurses used survival techniques to cope with patients emotional and physical pain that reduced their involvement with patients. In the 1990s the Department of Healths research into child care found that experienced workers will not hear the childs pain if there is no legitimised time for the workers to recover from their own distress (Department of Health 1991). This was less well understood among policy makers and politicians than it is in the early twenty-first century. The requirement for supervision in social work is now embedded in the employers code of practice produced by the general councils regulating social care in the different countries of the UK (CCW 2002, GSCC 2002, NICC 2002, SSSC 2002). Employers are required to have written policies and procedures in place for Effectively managing and supervising staff to support effective practice and good conduct and supporting staff to address deficiencies in their performance.

As part of this process the management of practice has moved from being a professional to a public space. The chapters in this book identify evidence that: