Introducing social work practice

Introduction

Ever wondered what social workers do? This brief introduction gives you some insight into social work practice and the theory which informs the practice. This unit is made up of a series of six extracts. You are introduced to the four components to good practice and will look at the importance of the following approaches to social work practice:

• Biography

• The social context of social work

• Responding to children’s needs

• Empowerment and advocacy in social work

• Social work purpose, roles, codes and standards

We hope that this will give you a flavour of what social work is about and encourage you to explore further.

This unit is an adapted extract from the Open University course Foundations for social work practice (K113) [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]