Competency in social work practice

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Why competency?
Social work : a practice profession Social workers are in a powerful position : decision and action affect the lives of clients Incompetent practice can have lasting negative impact on clients lives.

Competency: What is it ?
Doing a job well ?
Good Social work practice

Professional competence is the demonstration of knowledge, skills and values in the workplace to agreed standard (OHagan, 1996: 5) Competency refers to a demonstrable ability to fulfil one or more aspect of the role, and is therefore closely linked to the notion of skills (Thompson, 2000: 77)

Competency in what?
Competency (able to practice) in different fields/areas of work e.g. competence in child protection work; mental health Competency in working with individuals, families, groups and communities Ethical practice Cultural competency Legal competency

Competency: How to measure ? /Determine?

Must be measured in relation to what is considered the core purpose and the nature of social work; and the roles and tasks of social workers

Core purpose of social work

Assist and mobilise individuals, families and groups to enhance their well-being and problem solving capacities (enabler) Link people with systems which provide them with resources, services, and opportunities (Mediator) Promote the effective and humane operation of these systems Contribute to the development and improvement of social policy (Change agent and Advocate)
Ref. Pincus & Minahan (1973)Social work practice: Model and method [Ch. 1 Nature of social work practice].

Generic tasks and skills

Communicate and engage Promote and enable Assess and plan Intervene and provide service Work in organisations Develop professional competence

Communicate and engage

Communicate : both verbal and written, with clients, as well as with colleagues and members of the community Engage: being able to form purposeful, effective relationship with clients Interrelated, although good communication skills does not always lead to positive relationship with clients

Promote and enable

Promote: opportunities for people to use their own strength Enable: clients to maximise their capabilities, meet needs, solve problems and achieve change

Assess and Plan

Assess: Ability to gather information, to understand the situations, to form a picture of the different issues surrounding the clients. -involve use of knowledge, skills and values Plan: Ability to formulate a plan of action, to intervene into clients situation Assess and plan involve continuous reviewing, analysing, and negotiating (with clients and agency )

Intervene and provide service

Assessment comes before intervention - How, when and whether to intervene? - What service to provide? - What approaches to use ? Involve a wide range of skills Involve the use of intervention approaches at different levels

Work in organisations
Ability to work competently within the organisation Accountable to agency policy and procedures Contribute to the responsiveness of the organisation to people needs Uphold professionalism

Develop professional competence

Reflective and critical evaluation of own practice Continuous training and make use of supervision

Reflective practice
Ability to reflect and think about what we do and how we do our work Recognising that practice situations are generally messy, and have to be wrestle with to make sense of them (Thompson, 2000: 70) Open to new ideas and to changes and development

Exercise on reflecting where I am at ?

Based on a case study, students in group of 5 discuss and reflect your level of competency in the following areas:
Communicate and engage Promote and enable Assess and plan Intervene and provide service Work in organisations

Case example
A 15 year old girl, referred by her mother to see you, who is a social worker in a government agency. Mother said she is beyond control. At first meeting, the girl appears to be resistant, and refuses to talk to you.

Knowledge needed

Area of competency
Communicate and engage Promote and enable

Selfevaluation

Assess and plan

Intervene and provide service

Work in organisation