Casework was the core of my Social Work training. With the impending amalgamation of the pre-Seebohm care agencies into generic Social Services Departments we began as trainee Child Care Officers and emerged as fledgling Social Workers.
Casework was the art of relating in a meaningful way to our clients. we learned to understand what we ourselves brought to the relationship; how our own previous experiences affected our responses to other people; how, when, and why we spoke; the importance of non-verbal communication, including facial expression, body language, and silences. This active listening was balanced against the need for positive intervention into people’s lives.
We learned to assess and understand the significance of families’ socio-economic situations – in other words their position in society, how they obtained their income, their education and their history. Had they experienced previous contact with such an agency, and that what that had been would influence how they responded to us. Earlier I have mentioned a woman I knew in Kingston who I would later meet in another London Borough. She shrank from me yet denied ever having met me before. Clearly she feared that I would take her child.
Visiting lecturers came to teach us human growth and development; human function and disfunction, embracing physical medicine, and mental health and illness. There were sessions on sociology, on social history, and on law. Written examinations in all these subjects were required.
A recommended reading list had been distributed before our course began. required reading was to follow. In those days many colleagues never read another book after gaining their qualification. This, I believe, has now changed, with top-up training required for registration.
Close, regular, supervision was considered far more necessary than seems possible today. This was modelled by the placement and tutor elements of Croydon’s training. We were required to present to our tutor two process recordings a week. In the days before video recording of our client interviews we wrote up these sessions in detail with particular attention to the factors in the second paragraph above. The two fieldwork placements were closely monitored by our placement supervisors who were required to write final reports on our performance. Although my written examination results were a little disappointing to Wolf, I received distinctions in each of my practical placements. I hadn’t wished to do any more than pass the exams.
Although it was abandoned a year or two after my time as a student, we each undertook a one month residential care placement. Mine, in a Dr Barnado’s children’s home, gave me a much deeper insight into the life than had my visiting Jackie at Shirley Oaks.
So impressed with the quality of your training.
Thank you so much, Laurie. See my response to Andrew.
So how do you assess that now, years later and do you still relate to it?
I would still adhere to it – but it is long gone. Social Work is more geared to a different idea of Safeguarding, and much of the work is outsourced to private profit making companies
The outsourcing to private for-profits can’t be good.
Not at all. But it is beyond return over here
The privitization of prisons hasn’t been a good thing either. Social institutions and for-profit corporations are not the same thing. Ugh.
If the country keeps voting Tory then privatisation of everything we hold dear is inevitable. Sad but True!
Yep
It is the outsourcing of important aspects of society to ‘private profit making companies’ that is worrying. There are several education companies here running schools on a results-driven basis too. I think the ‘human’ element – you can probably guess what I mean – disappears under these circumstances. Boxes are ticked and the people move on.
In the US, the outsourcing of higher education to for-profit companies is very worrying. It sinks to the level of training–learning to “work the machines”–rather than education–learning to think. I fear this development in higher education is going to widen the divide between the haves and the have-nots even further than it already is.
Unfortunately that seems to be the same all over
More’s the pity.
So right, Anne. Mammon rules
Sounds like very rigorous training.
It was. Just right for me. Thanks a lot, Rosaliene
It sounds like much more care and effort went into training people back then.
I am afraid so. In addition I had an exemplary experience which was already beginning to go out of fashion then. Thank you very much, Lavinia.
It sounds like you had very thorough training. I don’t remember hearing very much about my older child’s coursework, but they enjoyed and learned a lot from one field placement, not so much the second.
Thanks very much, Merril. I am sure you set them a good example
A tough job, Derrick. People underestimate the skill needed.
Thanks a lot, Helen
I never realized there would be so much training.
Thanks a lot, GP
My dad was a Barnardo’s Boy
Wow. I wish I could remember the name of the home – in Essex, I think, built to a design based on an Indian prison. Thanks very much, Sheree
Dad was in a home in Portsmouth but was fortunately rescued by an aunt who adopted him. He used to tell us about his time there and we found it rather sad and difficult to comprehend.
I have no doubt it was, Sheree.
Too bad when a system works well, they do away with it. Sounds like you really learned a lot from your training.
Very true, Pat. Thank you very much
Fascinating, Derrick. Two close friends of my daughter joined social work first post university to train up as social workers. It would be interesting to put you together with them to see what is worse, what better and what the same with their and your experiences. One works in Croydon too!
That would be interesting, Geoff. Thanks a lot
Having worked (during my 4 years of college) with children in a Sheltered Care Home (for abused, abandoned, and neglected children ages birth-18), I find this so interesting to hear about your training, your journey, your work.
(((HUGS))) 🙂
Thank you very much, Carolyn X
I am immensely impressed by the content and structure of the training, Derrick.
Thank you very much, Dolly.
My pleasure, Derrick.
Here the government still runs the social services. I can’t imagine a private company could do worse.
That is sad. Thanks very much, AnneMarie
Academic learning is necessary, but I found on the job training with close supervision to be more practical. Your residential care placement. was a good idea.
Thanks very much, JoAnna.
I think Social Services is something I would have enjoyed, Derrick. My life path took me along the accounting route and I often think it wasn’t the best choice for me.
I began in Marine Insurance
Did you decide insurance wasn’t for you?
I did. This post will explain why: https://derrickjknight.com/2012/07/17/one-life-cut-short-another-changed-forever/
Thanks for the link and reminder, Derrick. I remember that post. I think my focus was on other parts of it and less on your change in jobs, but it makes sense.
Thanks very much for the further observations, Robbie
Your training, and experiences through your work, must have informed interactions the rest of your life, Derrick. This kind of education – understanding that there is a bigger picture – has been so much a part of how I try to relate to others, now that I have learned it. Thank you for doing this necessary work with such compassion.
And thank you so much, Crystal
I was thinking the same thing – Also I was wishing we ALL had such lessons. What a place this world would be if we all were trained in such matters.
Indeed
xo
I wonder what your opinion was of the Dr Banado home where you stayed.
The small housing development at the top of our lane was converted from Dr Banardo’s children’s home. Back in the day, the children had their own school. The farm and land attached known as Grange farm, also belonged to Dr Banardo’s.
The children’s home also had a knitting wool shop, which I often visited when my children were little.
The home had a swimming pool that could be hired for parties, and we did. I felt sorry for the children who lived there – they must have thought the children at these parties from this very middle-class village were fortunate beyond belief.
I became friends with a young woman who worked there, she and her husband were house parents at the home, and she showed me around the flats where the children lived.
http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/BramhopeNCH/
Oh no, just realised it was the National Children’s Home not Dr Banardo’s! Couldn’t delete it after writing all this!
So difficult to remember it all. I really don’t have much recollection of my stay there, except to say that a visiting group of young walkers were welcomed in and everyone got on well.
A training helpful for life!
Yes, indeed, Ribana. Thanks very much
My Birth Certificate states Father’s Occupation as ‘Child Care Officer’. I’ve always been very proud of that.
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