Social Work Skills - Assignment Example

Social Work Skills Social work is an occupation that aims to advance a community’s social conditions, in particular the conditions of those who are disadvantaged within the community. Some of the activities involved in social work involve guidance, counselling and assistance in terms of providing social services. Social work promotes social change, conflict resolutions in human relationships, and the liberation and empowerment of individuals to enhance their well being. Child welfare social workers play an important role within the child welfare system of providing protection to children at risk as well as supporting families in need. The social workers should possess some vital skills to enable them carry out their duties effectively. This essay seeks to identify and discuss four areas of skill that are vital for social workers in the United Kingdom for effectiveness in their day to day work. These are effective communication, building and maintenance of good working relationships, working in cooperation with other agencies and effective advocacy. Effective Communication Communication is a two-way process involving progression and exchange of ideas, feelings or thoughts towards a mutually accepted direction or goal. Communication skills influence all aspects of life making learning of effective ways of communication very vital. Ineffective communication is useless since the message or information that is to be passed on is lost. A good communicator has to be proficient in all forms of communication including not only the transmission of communication but also the ability to receive the information received by others. For effective communication, one needs to understand communication concepts to ensure the communication is effective. Communication, being a cycle of receiving and sending information, involves a message being sent to the receiver by the sender. The receiver is to listen to the sender and sends a feedback to the sender to acknowledge that the message was well understood. The above steps, when all followed ensure the occurrence of effective communication. A good number of looked after children have a at one time or another experienced family breakdowns, rejection or abuse. These situations can be complex and affect the children’s physical and emotional wellbeing, educational and social opportunities, effective self-sufficiency, resilience and personal relationships. These effects make it difficult for children in looked after centres to open up and communicate effectively (Buttler & Wiliamson 1994). Social workers’ effectiveness is highly depended on their possession of skills to communicate well and to help the children to be effective communicators (Zastrow, 2009). Some of the looked after children may also experience health conditions like speech impairment, dumbness or deafness and as such, social workers need to have themselves equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to communicate these children. The child welfare social workers in addition need to effectively communicate amongst themselves and to the authorities under which they work. Identification is one among the major elements of effective communication. Unless listeners identify with what is being communicated by the speakers, they are likely not to receive and understand the information. Social workers need to have undergone training that would enable then identify with the children needs and ways of communication. Good communication is not pegged on eloquence, articulation, rhetoric or syntax; on the contrary it depends on the emotional context within the message. When listening or speaking, people tend to focus more attention on the words rather than body language. When judging though, both are utilized. Audiences simultaneously process verbal and non verbal signs. On themselves, body movements are not judged positively or negatively; rather the message and the situation is what determines their appraisal. The correct attitude therefore will go a long way in improving communication especially with children. Techniques that can be utilized by the social workers in order to achieve effective communication include active listening, utilization of nonverbal messages, and not being adversarial while communicating (Burgess & Taylor, 2004). A social worker can be a good listener by being attentive and concentrating on what is being said by the child and being impartial in answering back. Reflecting back on what has been said helps the child feel understood. Summarizing the important information enables both parties know the important part of the conversation. Using the correct non-verbal message during a conversation enhances communication. Leaning towards the speaker and sitting up shows that the listener is interested in the conversation. A social worker should be careful not to send signals of angriness, boredom or non-interest towards the child as these may make the child too uncomfortable to communicate (Alston & Bowles 2003). Expression of thoughts and feelings during a conversation is important. Being able to trust each other with information brings in honesty and openness in conversations. Speaking clearly without mumbling helps the listener to correctly and clearly understand the message being passed on (Gitterman & Germain, 2008). Descriptions can be used in situations where the speaker does not know the word for something. Apart from enabling effective communication, possession of good communication skills is important for the establishment of reverential and effectual relationships with those using the services of social workers. The skills in addition come in handy when working with other social workers for assessments and decision making. Child welfare social workers work for children who need compassion, love and other life necessities which would be difficult to give without good and effective communication skills (Burgess and Taylor, 2004). Cooperative Working Relationships All workers, including social workers recognize the importance of having good and cooperative working relationships with whoever they are working for or working with. Common knowledge has it that the nature of worker-client relationship determines the outcomes from the client. With this in mind, many researchers have studied qualities that enhance working relationships so as to result in better client outcomes. Qualities such as encouragements, sincerity, affirmation, acceptance, non possessive warmth, caring and empathy are some of the characteristics associated with good helpers (Hubble, Duncan & Miller, 1999). When professionals show these qualities, they are likely to foster cooperative working relationships in which their clients develop increased sense of safety, security and trust along with decreases in anxiety, threat and tension. These enable the clients to handle their problems in ways that are more effective (Counoyer, 2007). Relationships form the basis of social work with communication skills and counselling being utilized in day to day operations in building good relationships that would enable effectiveness. Social workers perform interviews, assessments, evaluations, interventions and planning while in the process of looking after children. These processes involve interacting with people and getting to know their life worries and the crises they have passed through in life. Provision of quality services will depend on how well the social workers build cooperative relationships with their service users and work colleagues. Children looked after often are upset, distressed, angry and anxious over their situations making skills of relationship building be the bedrock of provision of quality in the services of the social workers. A report by the U.K parliament (2009) stated the importance for children to have nurturing, stable and caring relationships with their care takers. The report noted a long standing deficiency of the care system which has failed in replicating the stable relationships enjoyed by children and their parents. Children looked after are fragile due to abuses and neglects they may have experienced in the past making it vital to foster a strong relationship, like the parent-child relationship, to enable them feel important in life. The failure by the care system to develop cooperative relationships with the children pointed towards several factors like, inadequacy in time, good communication, reliability and effectiveness. Looked after children interviewed by the parliament committee complained of social workers spending much less time with them and felt like time with the social workers was most of the time rushed. The social workers seemed to only get in touch with the children whenever something was amiss. The children end up seeing so many professionals in a period to short to form ant bonds (Cattanach, 2003). Social workers seemed to be too busy to talk or unavailable at most times and did not promptly get back to the children. All children, especially those looked after experience the desire to regularly contact someone around the clock especially outside normal working hours when most problems are likely to come up( Rutter & Taylor, 2002). Being alone with the social worker encourages the child to open up and discuss matters freely. These shortcomings hinder the formation of a working relationship between the social workers and the children. Effective Advocacy The Children’s Act (1989) grants all children the right to be heard whenever decisions concerning them are being made. The Human Rights Act of 1998 enforces this right. Advocacy plays an important role in supporting looked after children to participate in decision making. Advocacy is about empowering children with the aim of ensuring their rights are adhered to, protected and their wishes and views are heard every time (Oliver, Knight & Candappa, 2006)). Children looked after in particular experience difficulty in gaining advocacy access and therefore need the services most. A child welfare social worker is expected to effectively advocate for system reforms and resources for the improvement of service delivery as per their jobs (NASW, 2005).Advocacy should be focused on improvement of administrative and public policies that support and empower children looked after. Emphasis should be placed on reforms that are geared towards improving child welfare services. Most of the looked after children do not have parents with the ability to effectively advocate for them to ensure their needs are not only recognized but met as well (Chambers & Licence, 2005). Advocacy by social workers is a way of offering the children care like a real parent would (Armstrong, 2006). Parents act as advocates for their children in terms of providing safety and making sure their children are accorded the right health services. These includes access to routine healthcare, seeking timely advice for ailments and ensuring diagnosis and treatments take place for more chronic conditions. A child may not have access to these services without an effective advocate. Few looked after children actually go through the recommended health plans bringing in the need for effective advocacy from the social workers. Social workers therefore need to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills that would enable them act as advocates for children looked after. There are a few cases where children experience unfair and inappropriate treatments from their schools. In such cases, a social worker has the ability to intervene and advocate for the child and resolve the conflict even though the school may not always take this positively. A report by school inspectors (2001) emphasizes that regular meetings between schools and social workers acting as the children’s advocates create room for the establishment of trust and a good working relationship leading to successful advocacies. The advocacy role however, reduces with the improvement of the relationships between the school staff and the social workers. Working in Partnerships Social worker need to have skills of working with other people pursuing the common interest of protecting looked after children (Zastrow, 2009). Foster carers, teachers, social workers and supporting agencies need to work together for the better care of the looked after children. These partnerships may include community leaders, paraprofessionals and professionals who work together to ensure the availability of services that would enable the identification of problems the moment they arise. Partnerships involve the pooling of resources for a common goal. This however can only be possible if the partners already enjoy a good working relationship (Cournoyer, 2007). Conclusion Social work is a noble profession which, like other careers, experiences obstacles and challenges. However, provision of direct services, especially health care and behavioural health can result in elevated levels of stress due to the emotional attenuating practice setting (Coyle, Edwards, Hannigan, Fothergill & Burnard, 2005). The profession gets more complicated when dealing with fragile people like the looked after children who need to be handled carefully. A child welfare social worker therefore needs to posses wide knowledge and skills on how to handle the minors if success is to be achieved The four skills mentioned by this essay are just but a few required by a social worker to achieve efficiency. References Alston M and Bowles W. (2003) Research for social workers: an introduction to methods, Routledge. Armstrong H. (2006) Advocacy for looked after children in need of conference, retrieved on 20th January, 2010 http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/corp/assets/publications/speeches/armstrong/doc/advocacy.doc Burgess H. and Taylor I. (2004) Effective learning and teaching in social policy and social work, London, Routledge. Buttler I. and Wiliamson H. (1994) Children speak Trauma and social work. London: Longman Publishing. Cattanach, A. (2003). Introduction to play therapy. Psychology Press. Chambers R. and Licence K. 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