Worryingly this pratice in my opinion,based on experince and observations is eroded along with many other social work skills .Does it take place in supervision no,does it take place in team meeting no, does it take place on a one to one bases no,can you approach your team manager/advanced practitioner to have any meaning discussions no.Even during Stratgey discussions which are meant to gather, share information and reflect on the information. The police can ignore the social workers opinions even though it may be relevant.

A social worker may throughout the day experince both physical and emotional abuse from service users, negative communications from follow colleagues/professionals then expected to make decisions which will be life changing, for service users and children this can bring with it assumptions ( the stereotype bias),decisions which only focus on the negative,( the confirmation bias) (the halo bias) (the supporting evidence bias) all of which impacts our decision making and how we treat service users and colleagues.

For social workers the role brings with it under lying trauma. A social worker may attend work to hear that a serious incident has taken place on thier case load and or to a parent.The social worker is expected to continue to work inorder to be avaliable for questioning and in most cases continue to manage thier cases.

Social work is crisis lead now there appears no room for reflective practice until it is to late,decisions are made on knee jerk reactions to prevent criticism and blame.Social workers are not given the support to fully reflect and analyse decisions.Reflection and analysis makes for clearer decision making.If a social worker is able to demonstrate why, having taken into account the above and how a decision was made, does this pratice not support the social worker and manager better when in court.

Why are the majority of social workers blamed for a system which does little to support them and deliver a professional service? ,it is not all down to the social workers.A motor car can not function if it does not have the necessary engine.

“We expect you to hit the ground running” is often used.To me this is unhelpful and implies we do not have the time to provide adequate support by way of adequate admin assistance,IT support,legal support, supervision,consultation working long hours and more.

To request support does not mean you can not do the job.Is it not senior management who should ensure social workers are equipped.Pretending all is well and social workers are to blame does not address the issues faced by social workers who have to deal with much more than the public and senior managers care to admit.

All my comments I can further explain and demonstrate why i have come to the conclusion I have, however will not do so.

Ask why recruitment is difficult.Ask why experienced and skilled social workers are leaving the profession.Ask whether those who have experienced fitness to pratice have been fairly referred or is it due to a lack of resources,support to enable safe and professional services.

The profession is in need,for some it mask bad pratice.

So many questions none of which have been given answer’s by those who have the power to make changes.

This was the view of Schon in 1986 and the forms of words used or ‘thought-forms’ (Laske) to describe what’s written more accurately are missing in the references cited; is the desire to fill the emptiness or void a proof that social work has a formulation of what reflection, is, and that such-a-thing-in-itself exists, and can be actually taught is wrong, right?

We all know more than we can ever tell, (Polyani) and in reality use rule of thumb generalities to get by.

I mean what does transformative learning and social action actually mean without consideration of a requirement of submission to a higher authority? What ever happened to Seddon’s challenge to Command and Control in Public Services?

Similarly, the rehashing of Ashbridge’s works on Beliefs, Attitudes and Behaviour approaches are hardly going to push the evolution of the ideas. Is this merely product placement and shelf positioning, perhaps it is?

I wonder too about how Grave’s notion of ‘Spiral Dynamics’ is compatible with dialectics; argumentation and dialogics, maybe, but dialectical hermeneutics or synthesis between opposites ~ really?

And, what has curriculum mapping and the weather got to do with anything, precisely? The dependency on such idea’s covered in Beyond Metaphor and Model in International Relations by Bosanquet ~ and let’s face it the critical incidents in Leeds as elsewhere have a Post Brexit and international trade aspect.

I deliberately provoke because all of the above, beit reflective learning, mapping and spiralling and habits of mind are hardly critical in their very essence and impact; neo-liberal functionalism and the utilitarianism of health and welfare economics has outpaced us, no?

Social Work is in the shadows of itself ~ may reflective mirror exercises would work better ? Afterall, the current systemic narcissism is inherently and structurally determined, right?

Thoughts….