Popeye the social work student

Book recommendations!

Sorry I've not been around this week, I've been unwell and haven't been able to string a sentence together!

This is a bit of a mish mash of books as a lot of these aren't ones you'd find on reading lists as I've found for subjects such as law and sociology lectures have their own favourite text which, in our case, was linked with our handouts.  I also feel I should point out that I have a rather costly obsession with books and I am by no means saying that you should go and buy all these books, I'm aware I have an obsession with books (love to read!) and am lazy when it comes to accessing the library regularly but these are a few (eek) of the books I've found useful and value for money - i.e. I keep coming back to them.

Critical Thinking Skills - Stella Cottrell.  I've found this book really useful at not only teaching me what analytical skills are but it gives exercises to work through and pages which you can photocopy and use to work through journal's, articles, books, arguments etc.  I wish I'd have known about this prior to starting the course as I was so motivated and desperate to start reading that I'd have worked through it prior to the course!

Contemporary British Society - Abercrombie.  This was recommended by a lecture, although it's a sociology book it's not a text book but I've found it useful for virtually every essay.  At the end of each chapter it recaps on key points and is easy to dip in and out of or I'm sure you could work through it cover to cover.

English Grammar - Usborne Better English.  Now this may be controversial with some of the more classic members of care space but at school I wasn't taught grammar, so when one of my first essays was returned talking of clauses belonging to the first sentence completed in the second I was a little flummoxed! A lecturer recommended this book, it's cheap and like the Cottrell book has exercises to work through and can be done quite quickly - it really made me think about not only writing a plan for entire essay but to look at planning paragraphs and sentences.  Brilliant book!

Radical Social Work - there's the original theory, a book dating back to movement in the 70's.  A brilliant book detailing a collection of essays looking at social issues on a larger scale.  Radical social work really appeals to me as it looks at the bigger picture, the structural issues and causes of the problems we will face on a day to day basis.  There's an up to date book called Radical Social Work in Practice - Ferguson due out in May (you can preorder it from Amazon) which brings the movement up to date and personally I think it's a must.

Not a book recommendation but on the subject of radical social work - a fantastic site offering commentary on current social issues - Barefoot Social Worker.

Ethics and Values in Social Work - Sarah Banks.  Really useful book and gets used for most essays.   I've found locating myself and my values an incredibly important part of my journey on the course, it hasn't been easy and at times quite harrowing to find out about myself but your ethics and your values are the most important part of direct work.  My learning style led me to buy another ethics book as I like small chunks with exercises to work through to apply the knowledge - this led me to buy Value Base of Social Work and Social Care - an active learning handbook.

Modern Social Work Theory - Malcolm Payne.  Really useful book when pulling together all the theories, I found it incredibly useful on placement.  Easily dipped in and out of and great for essays.

Anti Disciminatory Practice - Neil Thompson. I bought this to work through Thompson's PCS model of oppression and have found it really useful in essays, had to dip into it and apply it to essays to work through it, I couldn't have sat and read it cover to cover.

Lack of Statutory Placements

I am incredibly concerned by today’s Community Care article reporting Bill McKitterick’s comments about the lack of statutory placement available for students.  On my first day I was horrified to discover there were over 80 of us all crammed into a wooden hut – a temporary home for the faculty whilst another building was being refurbished.  The general noise disruption of this number of students was enough to cause distractions; some of us became quite frustrated and angry with the university for not limiting the numbers, considering we were in a temporary accommodation which is not compatible with learning.  Could an institute teaching the future generations of social workers really be so financially focused to the detriment of the students?  Fast forward 18 months and we’ve just finished our first placement - very few of us have been in statutory settings, the majority of us in charities.  In another 18 months, we’ll be £1000’s in debt, and during the course a number of relationships have broken down due to the stress, and also there have been major costs in terms of our children (I didn’t feel like I saw my children for 5 months!) and for what?  To discover that my university has taken more students than placements available?  Nearly a quarter of us will end up unemployed – within an occupation supposedly desperate for staff because we fail to get placements within a statutory setting. So why don’t statutory agencies want students?  We all know that social workers are over worked, do students really add that much to the work load?  Should every locality office be required to have a certain number of student placements available? And should universities really be enrolling such large numbers of students if they aren’t able to fulfil the requirements of the degree? There are so many questions – how did we get into this situation and how to move forward?  I wish the task force well!  Perhaps I should write to the Sun’s agony aunt?  

Why am I doing the course?

Within the household I grew up in there was a constant buzz of conversations about politics, social issues and particularly my mother’s work.  Until I was 10 she worked in a day centre for those with mental health issues, I regularly went to work with her during school holidays and sick days (in fact I’d fake illness to go with her!).

There are some key memories that ignited my passion and started to form my value base.  I remember being shocked at the age of 8 or so that firemen were paid less than Bros!  When a service user from my mum’s day centre died she was the only one at the funeral.  And most significantly the anticipation of a labour government, I remember this feeling that everything wrong with society was suddenly going to be righted over night.

The realisation that it wasn’t hasn’t and could never be hit hard and I felt I needed to do something (I’m an activist according to Honey and Mumford!) so I went off to work for my local authority in a children and families team.  I was very happy holding cases and facilitating contact however I saw a lot of bad practice and found my opinion wasn’t as valued as a social worker’s.  I also found myself getting more and more frustrated as I could see the bigger picture and the injustice on a larger scale.  After a lot of deliberation and tentative enquiries about other professions I decided that the social work degree was for me – some days I’m excited about going out and starting the next part of the journey, other days (like today!) I feel that being a social worker means being in a constant state of dissonance!

A couple of interesting links:

New Labour – ten years on:

http://www.listeningtowords.com/lecture.php?id=1380

Professional Dissonance:

http://www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/profile.asp?guid=e473c464-3d3b-4a58-9465-b6361ed7783c

Introductions!

 I thought I'd make my first post a little bit about me - feels only polite to introduce myself.  I'm Popeye, but you can call me Poppy.  I'm a "mature" second year social work student, trying to juggle two small children, the degree, a house and a husband.  It's not been easy, especially the last 5 months which I've spent on placement but now I'm back in the class room it all feels a little more manageable.

Since I agreed to do this blog I've been thinking about what I'd like to write about, I'm quite outspoken and can get very passionate about social issues so I guess I'll be touching on that at some point but I wondered, for all those students just getting confirmation of their university places, whether a run down of what books I've found useful would be beneficial?