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April 6, 2022
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Churning the Soil, caring professions (health, teaching and social care) and Madonna.

Last month I enjoyed the lecture of Durham University’s new social work lead Professor Carlene Firmin, on contextual safeguarding. I was particularly energized by the language of “spaces” and shifting the risk assessment paradigm from a myopic focus on families to variously friendship groups, streets and parks, or entire school years, and as investigative social... Read More
Commentary, Practice, Self Care
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February 19, 2022
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Language and Power in Social Work, a fresh perspective from the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein

Social work can be seen as an endeavour of attempting to grasp at another person’s reality. We assess people and families striving to be as faithful as possible.  In this article I will discuss how Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein may assist in providing some warnings and possibly a map of where the limits lie in... Read More
Commentary, Communication, Practice, Theory
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February 13, 2022
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Thoughts on ‘Radical Perspectives On Mental Health’

I had the luxury of a spare Saturday yesterday (12th February 2022) that coincided with an online festival of presentations and discussion on all manner of things from philosophy to science, all the way around culture and back again. It was the Winter Revel brought to us by How The Light Gets In. I’ve been to... Read More
Commentary, Practice, Student Zone, Students, Theory
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January 28, 2022
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Motivational Interviewing – be like Columbo

Remember the television show Columbo starring Peter Falk? The fictional Columbo was a detective who solved murder mysteries – hugely popular in the 1970’s. Having recently used this analogy with a group of second year undergraduate students on the social work programme I teach on I realise that some of my cultural references may be... Read More
Communication, Practice, Student Zone, Students, Theory
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December 9, 2021
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Podcast Show Notes: Stephen talks to George Bull about risk in light of the murder of Arthur

Social Work Shorts (Episode 25): Insights #8 In the latest episode of the Social Work Podcast Insights series Stephen and George talk about risk in light of the murder of Arthur and the media response to the Social Work Profession. Here is the podcast – click this link We acknowledge this is a difficult topic... Read More
Commentary, In the News, Practice
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November 18, 2021
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Academic referencing: Durham’s Moon, Nuclear Weapons, Avengers and middle aged man returns to University.

After a 13 year break I have returned to University to complete an Education Masters at Sunderland.   This week I have been writing my first essay and returned to the business of academic referencing. My  inner free child has been screaming variously, “why bother” “don’t the lecturers already know all this”. Then my adult subliminal... Read More
Student Zone, Students, Theory
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September 10, 2021
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 Efficiency, Slack and social work – Featuring Pareto, CostCo and Privatization.

There is a war raging in UK social work presently.  To name a few of the various battle fronts – the COVID recovery, rising inequality, the lurking shadow of increased privatization and increased levels of professional disaffection. Sometimes as social workers we feel we are not doing enough of the right work with the right... Read More
Commentary
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Social Work Shorts

Do you want bite size nuggets of social work practice to keep you informed? Then Social Work Shorts is for you. Written by people passionate about people, written by social work and social care professionals – you’ll find all sorts of interest… so pour a coffee and have a read…

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