More than two-thirds of the people who voted in our online poll believe the social work degree is out of touch with practice (see below).

Ok, so it wasn't a particularly scientific survey and respondents were self selecting but it's an interesting finding nonetheless and squares with the guest post on this blog suggesting the social work degree was not practical enough.

Of course looking back at my blog over the past week or so, I am struck by its rather contradictory nature. First we have a guest post suggesting the degree needs to dump some of those theories in favour of more practical skills and then a post by me asking whether social work should have more of a grounding in philosophy.

I must say that both arguments appeal to me and this must be the difficulty facing social work educators. Newly qualified social workers need the practical skills to do the job but they also need to understand why they are doing what they are doing. But is the balance right? There are clearly a few people out there who think it isn't.

Read the complete post at http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/mental-health/2011/08/does-social-work-have-confiden.html