Changing the Practice Landscape. The Care Act: Implications for Practice.

1. The Care Act – New Approaches
to Social Work
Enfield – 21 November 2014
Annie Hudson
Chief Executive
The College of Social Work

2. The ground to cover:
• Transformative or transactional change?
• Emerging expectations: scarey, unrealistic or
exciting?
• Building professional capability + capital
(Footnote: whither integration – possibilities not
panacea)

4. 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?

5. Context framing expectations + challenges
• Demographic imperatives
• ‘Poor times’ + ‘graphs of doom’ +
• Expectations + aspirations
• NHS – ‘Big Boys’: Big Money + Big Influence
• ‘Magical thinking’ - integration debates

6. Changing
expectations
Capability +
capital
Leadership
+ Voice

7. 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)

8. 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’

9. 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 ….

11. 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

12. What TCSW does …
First for practice
First for policy
First voice for social work

13. 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