Inclusive Leadership in Social Work and Social Care by Hafford-Letchfield Trish Lambley Sharon

Author:Hafford-Letchfield, Trish, Lambley, Sharon [Hafford-Letchfield, Trish, Lambley, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work
ISBN: 9781447309819
Google: V2mmAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2014-03-12T03:31:28+00:00

SIX

Providing formal and informal support to staff, service users and carers

Introduction

Having explored the strategic and operational context that support care, we now return to focus on the core of leadership practice. As traditional relationships between recipients of care services and professionals change, so must ideas about how services can support staff, service users and carers. In Chapter Two we considered systems theory as a particularly useful paradigm for thinking about the interdependency of organisations through its alliances and partnerships. In this chapter, a systems perspective has also been adopted to help examine how organisations can ensure appropriate support to staff, service users and carers, as these relationships are transformed by neoliberal ideas and policies through more inclusive approaches, including inclusive leadership, as new ways of relating become established.

A systemic view of formal and informal support

Organisations that commission or provide care services operate within complex systems, which, when examined closer, are comprised of sub-systems populated by service users and carers, managers, professionals and support staff. In England, for example, local councils are part of a national government system. Each local council has a children’s services department, where social work is organised and carried out by social workers in ‘looked-after children’s teams’, ‘duty and assessment teams’, and so on. Social workers routinely interact with other systems (for example, other government departments) and sub-systems (local police stations, hospitals, and so on). In some cases care provider organisations may be joined together in formal partnerships, or they may have joint working arrangements. In England, in common with other European and UK countries, some care and health organisations have merged to become fully integrated services, and increasingly more services are being delivered by voluntary organisations or social enterprises. Social workers can therefore be found working alongside a variety of other professionals in a variety of systems. These systems provide a ‘context’ for social work practice.

There is much evidence in the literature of managers and leaders developing new ways of thinking about, and providing organisational support to, staff, service users and carers, within and across a variety of organisational settings. In the London Borough of Hackney’s Children and Young People’s Services, for example, a more targeted service was developed, supported by integrated teamworking, and a change programme was evaluated (Cross et al, 2010). The change programme addressed the challenges posed when working with risk, which goes beyond financial consequences into the area of what Cross et al (2010) refer to as ‘human tragedy’ (Cross et al, 2010). The change programme was called ‘Reclaiming Social Work’ and required professionals to work in new ways. The evaluation focused on the impact of the changes that were being introduced into the organisation, including changes to the organisational culture, social work processes and outcomes. Reclaiming Social Work resulted in professionals organising themselves into small units, thereby bringing together a range of expertise and perspectives, to enable better assessments and interventions. The evaluation asserted that organising professionals into work units led to improvements in the quality of the service as professionals

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