Essential skills for professional social work practice

¶ … Social Worker Skills

What Makes a Good Social Worker?

The qualities that make a good social worker include many of the qualities that indeed make a good person, such as: being a good listener, having compassion and empathy for those less fortunate, giving of one's time and talent unselfishly, and avoiding any semblance of prejudice or lack of understanding of those persons who are in ethnic minority communities or are challenged emotionally, socially or physically.

But beyond simply being a good person, a professional social worker must be up-to-date with all laws and regulations regarding those receiving benefits and assistance; a social worker must be willing to get the training and develop the skills that will assist him or her in truly providing help to those in need, whether they be physically handicapped, victims of domestic violence, mentally handicapped, or in other ways "out of the mainstream" of society.

Good Social Workers Understand the Basics of their Profession

In his book, What is Social Work? Context and Perspectives

, Nigel Horner, Head of Social Work, Social Policy and Human Services at Nottingham Trent University, provides five basic reasons why, in his view, Western societies believed there was a need for social workers and social care. 1) "to fill a gap left by families, communities, social groups"; 2) "to control unacceptable behaviour or threats to social order"; 3) to protect the most vulnerable people in society from oppression and abuse"; 4) "to express a moral obligation to those in greatest need"; and 5) "to promote change to the social system on behalf of those with least power." These five concepts very thoroughly highlight the topics that a good social worker should learn about and develop skills with which to address these points.

Good Social Workers Understand Advocacy

A social service advocate, according to Fiona Hanley

, who won the BASW/PSW Student Award for 2003, "speaks or acts on another's behalf to secure them enhanced rights or to bring about a beneficial change in their life." Advocacy, Hanley continues, "aims to uphold choice, access and justice for service-users" (Hanley, 2003).

Good Social Workers Understand the Need to help Young People

A good social worker knows that society may need his or her efforts in areas of the community that may not be the most pleasant to work in. For example, in her book, Ethical Issues in Youth Work, Sarah Banks

notes that there are an estimated 550,000 people engaged in some form with youth work, and yet, "concern about the problems caused by and facing young people is as high as it's ever been."

Another perspective on Banks' Ethical Values in Youth Work book is expressed by Alan France

in the Journal of Youth Studies. He states that the book "is an excellent book for practitioners," because "youth workers have always had to deal with difficult ethical dilemmas, therefore this book will be very useful in offering guidance ... "

In the book, which "attempts to both identify what the key ethical questions are for workers with this context and how they might integrate others learning and experience into their own practice," seven different writers outline, "from their own experience, key ethical questions that have arisen in their practice." It is a good source for a good social worker to be appraised of, in terms of understanding the whole of social work.

Good Social Workers do their Research

A fine way for a good social worker to stay abreast of the profession is to read enlightened books like Ethics and Values in Social Work

by Sarah Banks, which reviews the "still evolving mix of welfare" as well as "the role of a professional code of ethics," and also compares the "code of ethics from 20 countries," giving the social worker of today a big-picture perspective on what ethics means around the world and in the UK.

Good Social Workers Stay Up-to-Date in their Profession

Among the many important aspects of the job of a professional social worker is to stay within guidelines, and do the best job possible, whilst working with the public. But as hard as one tries, it is unavoidable that complaints will at some point be filed against nearly all social workers. Meanwhile, one of the issues addressed recently by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) underscores the need for social workers to stay abreast of current topics of concern, in particular the complain process. The BASW recently responded to a new proposal by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) for a revised social services complaints procedure.