Qualities and skills essential to effective social work practice

¶ … Social Worker Skills

What Makes a Good Social Worker?

The qualities that make a good social worker include many of the qualities that indeed make a good person, such as: being a good listener, having compassion and empathy for those less fortunate, giving of one's time and talent unselfishly, and avoiding any semblance of prejudice or lack of understanding of those persons who are in ethnic minority communities or are challenged emotionally, socially or physically.

But beyond simply being a good person, a professional social worker must be up-to-date with all laws and regulations regarding those receiving benefits and assistance; a social worker must be willing to get the training and develop the skills that will assist him or her in truly providing help to those in need, whether they be physically handicapped, victims of domestic violence, mentally handicapped, or in other ways "out of the mainstream" of society.

Good Social Workers Understand the Basics of their Profession

In his book, What is Social Work? Context and Perspectives

, Nigel Horner, Head of Social Work, Social Policy and Human Services at Nottingham Trent University, provides five basic reasons why, in his view, Western societies believed there was a need for social workers and social care. 1) "to fill a gap left by families, communities, social groups"; 2) "to control unacceptable behaviour or threats to social order"; 3) to protect the most vulnerable people in society from oppression and abuse"; 4) "to express a moral obligation to those in greatest need"; and 5) "to promote change to the social system on behalf of those with least power." These five concepts very thoroughly highlight the topics that a good social worker should learn about and develop skills with which to address these points.

Good Social Workers Understand Advocacy

A social service advocate, according to Fiona Hanley

, who won the BASW/PSW Student Award for 2003, "speaks or acts on another's behalf to secure them enhanced rights or to bring about a beneficial change in their life." Advocacy, Hanley continues, "aims to uphold choice, access and justice for service-users" (Hanley, 2003).

Good Social Workers do their Research

A fine way for a good social worker to stay abreast of the profession is to read enlightened books like Ethics and Values in Social Work

by Sarah Banks, which reviews the "still evolving mix of welfare" as well as "the role of a professional code of ethics," and also compares the "code of ethics from 20 countries," giving the social worker of today a big-picture perspective on what ethics means around the world and in the UK.

Good Social Workers Stay Up-to-Date in their Profession

Among the many important aspects of the job of a professional social worker is to stay within guidelines, and do the best job possible, whilst working with the public. But as hard as one tries, it is unavoidable that complaints will at some point be filed against nearly all social workers. Meanwhile, one of the issues addressed recently by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) underscores the need for social workers to stay abreast of current topics of concern, in particular the complain process. The BASW recently responded to a new proposal by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) for a revised social services complaints procedure.

The CSCI's proposal calls for a CSCI "take over" of "the Independent (Panel) Stage of the complaints procedure from local authorities" which would, according to the BASW, "introduce a conflict with the regulatory and inspection roles of CSCI ... " (Johnston, 2004). The impact of this proposal, if enacted, would be "increased delays" in the resolution of complaints and an "escalation in the number of complaints." Therefore, a good social worker should give input to this complaint revision procedure, since it may well affect every professional in the field at some point in time. Indeed, a good social worker is an investigator, and an avid reader, trying hard to keep abreast of all the issues surrounding the field.