Working in Group Care: Social work and social care in residential and day care settings

  Working in Group Care: Social work and social care in residential and day care settings
  Adrian Ward,
  BASW/Policy Press
  ISBN 1861347065,
  £17.99

  STAR RATING: 4/5




Adrian Ward offers a useful theoretical and practical ­framework for analysing what happens in social work in a range of group settings and applies this to practice, writes Nichola Glover-Edge.

This second edition has been revised to reflect the growth of service-user empowerment and to embrace the change in government and local policy. It has four perspectives and takes you on a journey from working within the contexts of group care, the team and its task, expectations of a worker and the service users’ experience of the care setting.

It focuses on the fundamental issues that social workers will need to address and the responsibilities that they will have to undertake in everyday care and support. It is excellent at looking at the how and why things happen and is thought-provoking. This is supported by some of the writers’ own experiences and emphasises the rights and needs of the people using services.

The book is free of jargon and, for issues that need further reading, it provides an excellent reference guide.

Although the book is aimed at everyone working in social care, it lends itself more to those who are going to undertake placements as part of social work learning and development.

Nichola Glover-Edge is service manager, community living, Staffordshire Council