The Compleat Social Worker

This is a little gem of a book, it provides the reader with a perspective on a number of discussions that are taking place in social work on a day to day basis. David Howe adopts a neutral stance, delivered in a readable style.' - Dave Mason, Staffordshire University

This book provides a guide to the challenges and tensions bound up in the role of being a social worker. David Howe explores how practitioners have to contain sometimes quite opposing functions or philosophies in the work that they do, and demonstrates that in order to be effective and practise with skill and wisdom, they have to encompass it all.The role of the social worker is to be found lying interestingly between society and the individuals they work with. As a result, social workers often feel pulled between the demands and challenges that each presents. The Compleat Social Worker explores the many debates the profession enjoys, including those between nature and nurture, care and control, thought and feeling, art and science, facts and values. In examining these ideas and the discussions they sponsor it celebrates social work's rich heritage of scientific thought and human relationships. It is out of these many divisions and disagreements and their resolution that the idea of the well-rounded, compleat social worker emerges. For those wishing to explore and enjoy, argue and acknowledge what it is to be a good social worker, this elegant book will prompt lively interest and debate.