Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 1) | Page 54

Social Work and First Principles

integrative skills in skilled practitioners. When it comes to interventions, it
is equally demanding when it is about involving individuals and families in
the care and support plan and in identifying priority outcomes. Unlike other
professions which are generally about doing something to another being,
social work requires collaborative skills. Instead of relying on set techniques,
the social worker’s greatest tool is their use of self in understanding and
supporting others to achieve their self-selected outcomes.
So the years required to train a social worker can be explained by the breadth
and depth of knowledge and skills that straddle the social side of medicine,
law, justice and economics. The training done well breathes a new spirit into
such learning to develop highly skilled practitioners. Most of the time, the
social worker’s value proposition includes respecting the client’s point of
view to empower ownership and responsibility and safeguarding of these for
those who are vulnerable.
19th June 2015

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