Professional development
These materials offer a practice overview of social work with carers, an evidence scope, an example session plan for trainers delivering learning and development and more.
Capabilities for social work with carers
These capabilities draw on the Professional Capabilities Framework and the Knowledge and Skills Statement for social work with adults to highlight important elements for working with carers.
Top tips for practice
The top tips for practice sets out the important messages from carers for how social workers can best relate to them.
Do - ✔
- Come prepared, having read the notes.
- Be honest, show empathy and listen carefully.
- Be friendly and professional so I can trust and have confidence in you.
- Explain what a carers assessment is (that it’s about my needs, not an assessment of my caring ability).
- Prioritise the person I care for and make sure you listen to them.
- Find out about the situation on a bad day – to understand fluctuating needs.
- See me as an asset, part of a support network helping to support the person I care for.
- Be knowledgeable of services and suggest options that might help.
- Talk about what can be done, rather than what can’t.
- See beyond me as just a carer.
- Give me a contact number and a name of a person I can get hold of.
- Write a summary of what has happened so other people can prepare themselves before visiting.
Don't - X
- Appear to be, or be in a rush.
- Use jargon or buzzwords (in writing or speaking).
- Make assumptions about what I like or can do.
- Be afraid of saying “I’ll get back to you as I don’t know the answer”.
- Make promises you can’t keep.
- ‘Signpost’ me endlessly with no result – help me use the information that you can give me.
Practice Overview
The Care Act 2014 gives carers a legal right to an assessment of their needs (regardless of how much care they provide) and suitable support to help them in their role as a carer. Social workers play a central role in ensuring that carers receive advice, information and help.
The Practice Overview sets out some of the main considerations around social work practice with carers. It covers:
- Ethics
- Law and policy
- Capabilities
- Evidence from research, practice and lived experience.
Evidence Scope
The Practice Overview references Social Work Practice With Carers: An Evidence Scope (Citarella 2016), which was completed for this website when it was first launched. The Evidence Scope is retained with these resources.
Example session plan
You can use this to plan professional development sessions.
Target Audience
- Social workers
- Wider social care and health staff
- Carers
- Voluntary sector
Materials
All materials are accessible on the website.
- Video: Carers tell us what they want from social work
- Top Tips for Practice
- Practice Overview
- Examples
- Capabilities for social work with carers
- Learning needs analysis
- Reflective cycle
- Learning and development action plan
Session content
You can use elements of this session as you choose.
- Watch the Carers video.
- Share the Top Tips for Practice.
- Reflective discussion: What do carers need and want from social work?
- Share the Summary messages from the Practice Overview.
- Reflective discussion: How do we need to strengthen practice in our local area?
- Share the Capabilities for social work with carers.
- Individual work: Learning Needs Analysis.
- Use the Examples and reflective questions to consider practice with carers.
- Use the Reflective cycle to consider your own practice.
- Use the Learning and development action plan to identify further learning and action to take following the session.