Human trafficking affects numerous countries worldwide, including South Africa. Given the multiple consequences and human rights violations to victims, trafficking requires a collective multi-disciplinary response involving social workers. This was a qualitative study looking at social service provision to adult victims of human trafficking at shelters in two provinces in South Africa. The findings revealed that a range of services are offered by social workers at shelters and that rights-based intervention approaches must always inform anti-trafficking efforts.

The Family Group Conference (FGC) service in New Brunswick has considerably reduced the numbers of children being taken into state care. The initiative has also had a positive impact on social work caseloads and practitioner self-esteem. This descriptive account seeks to explain why New Brunswick opted to introduce the FGC, how the initiative was implemented and what outcomes were achieved. Implications for research and future development with reference to a recent English initiative are also considered.

ABSTRACT Teach First is a fast-track route to teacher qualification in England and Wales. The initial aim of the programme was to place high-calibre graduates as classroom teachers in schools with challenging social intakes. The programme has grown incrementally since it began in 2002. In 2017, Teach First trained 5 per cent of the total number of postgraduate trainee teachers. Research into Teach First is a growing field but is generally focused on the impact of the programme or the identity of its participants. The aim of this think-piece is not to discuss, or indeed to challenge, the effectiveness of the Teach First programme. Drawing on the theoretical work of Michel Foucault, and in particular his thought on bio-politics, the aim of this article is to open up avenues for critical reflection on the possible effects of Teach First on the wider education and social policy landscape.

This paper provides a short history of social work education in Scotland. Its aim is to understand the patterns of the present through the lens of the past. A key argument is that social work education and practice exists persistently in the crossroads, that is, in the spaces between competing and often conflicting perspectives regarding that ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘who’ of social work and social change. At the same time, there is a dearth of robust theory and research underpinning social work education and practice, leaving the profession vulnerable in periods of rapid social and political change. Attention is given to the implications of these constants for education and practice, and to how we might address these going forward. The paper concludes that if we wish to realise the potential of social work education, learning and practice, we need to more collectively address long-neglected questions of learning identity, learning philosophy and learning practice.

This paper on practice education within a regional Teaching Partnership emanated from requests to consider how to progress its role and remit. It offers analysis of practice education within this context which may act as a starting point for exploring a broader understanding of practice education and its role in practice learning, supervision, recruitment and retention in England. This paper has materialised at a time of significant change, when the National Accreditation and Assessment System is anticipated and the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) and Practice Educator Professional Standards for Social Work (PEPS) are under review. It proposes an expanded role for practice education that could situate it as pivotal to promoting standards of supervision and cultures of learning within such changing contexts. A ‘communities of practice’ lens and a framework based on Caspi’s notions of structure, content and process are utilised to explore options for progress. This paper recognises that practice education, as both enterprise and system, is complex and messy and thus cautions against conceptualising it in simplistic terms. It concludes with suggestions to advance practice education and areas for further research. These are founded on establishing specialist practice educators and communities of practice within an overarching practice education consortium.

I was looking forward to reading this book and hoped it would be a useful contribution to understanding the role of social workers in the criminal justice system. I was then disappointed to discove...

The book is a collection of 13 articles addressing how women and alcohol are viewed in British society. The book has been edited and compiled by Patsy Staddon who offers a well-researched and gritt...

Racist discourse has significantly shifted away from the use of overt racial language and has predominantly become a coded and subtle discourse. This article highlights how paying attention the ways in which language is used in its social and cognitive contexts can provide social work with a more robust response to the shifting parameters of racist discourse. It illustrates how using a strand of discourse analysis called discursive psychology can result in an enhanced understanding of the ways in which exclusionary sentiments are couched in contemporary discourses. Drawing on data from a minority of social workers who participated in a wider study that explored the experiences of social workers who were working with asylum seekers in a UK local authority, the article highlights the ways in which exclusionary views can be articulated and legitimated by drawing on culture, instead of race, as a marker of difference. It is suggested that a turn to language can result in significant enhancements to current antiracist frameworks.