Competency in Social Work Practice1

8/12/2019 Competency in Social Work Practice1

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Competency in socialwork practice

sss3083


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Why competency?

Social work : a practice profession Social workers are in a powerful position :

decision and action affect the lives ofclients

Incompetent practice can have lastingnegative impact on clients lives.


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Competency: What is it ? Doing a job well ?

Good Social work practice

Professional competence is the demonstration ofknowledge, skills and values in the workplace to agreedstandard (OHagan, 1996: 5)

Competency refers to a demonstrable ability to fulfil oneor more aspect of the role, and is therefore closely linkedto the notion of skills (Thompson, 2000: 77)


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Competency in what? Competency (able to practice) in different fields/areas of

work e.g. competence in child protection work; mentalhealth

Competency in working with individuals, families, groupsand communities

Ethical practice

Cultural competency

Legal competency


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Competency: How to measure ?/Determine?

Must be measured in relation to what isconsidered the core purpose and thenature of social work; and the roles andtasks of social workers


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Core purpose of social work Assist and mobilise individuals, families and groups to enhance their

well-being and problem solving capacities ( enabler)

Link people with systems which provide them with resources,services, and opportunities (Mediator)

Promote the effective and humane operation of these systems

Contribute to the development and improvement of social policy(Change agent and Advocate)

Ref. Pincus & Minahan (1973)Social work practice: Model and method [Ch. 1 Nature of social work practice].


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Generic tasks and skills

Communicate and engage Promote and enable

Assess and plan Intervene and provide service Work in organisations

Develop professional competence


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Communicate and engage

Communicate : both verbal and written,with clients, as well as with colleagues andmembers of the community

Engage : being able to form purposeful,effective relationship with clients

Interrelated, although good communicationskills does not always lead to positiverelationship with clients


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Promote and enable

Promote : opportunities for people to usetheir own strength

Enable : clients to maximise theircapabilities, meet needs, solve problemsand achieve change


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Assess and Plan

Assess : Ability to gather information,to understand the situations,to form a picture of the differentissues surrounding the clients.-involve use of knowledge, skills

and values Plan: Ability to formulate a plan of action,

to intervene into clients situation

Assess and plan involve continuous reviewing,analysing, and negotiating (with clients and agency )


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Intervene and provide service

Assessment comes before intervention- How, when and whether to intervene?

- What service to provide?- What approaches to use ?

Involve a wide range of skills

Involve the use of intervention approachesat different levels


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Work in organisations

Ability to work competently within theorganisation

Accountable to agency policy andprocedures

Contribute to the responsiveness of theorganisation to people needs

Uphold professionalism


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Develop professional competence

Reflective and critical evaluation of ownpractice

Continuous training and make use ofsupervision


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Reflective practice

Ability to reflect and think about what wedo and how we do our work

Recognising that practice situations aregenerally messy, and have to be wrestlewith to make sense of them (Thompson,2000: 70)

Open to new ideas and to changes anddevelopment


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Exercise on reflecting whereI am at ?

Based on a case study, students in groupof 5 discuss and reflect your level ofcompetency in the following areas:

Communicate and engage Promote and enable Assess and plan Intervene and provide service Work in organisations


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Caseexample

Knowledgeneeded

Area ofcompetency

Self-evaluation

A 15 year oldgirl, referred byher mother tosee you, who isa social workerin a governmentagency.Mother said sheis beyondcontrol.

At first meeting,the girl appearsto be resistant,and refuses totalk to you.

Communicate andengage

Promote andenable

Assess and plan

Intervene andprovide service

Work inorganisation

Documents

Competency in Social Work Practice1