Leadership

What does it take to become a resilient practitioner in social work? This free course from the Open University will guide you through some important concepts. An understanding of 'emotional resilience' and 'professional leadership' will help to guide you through taking a positive approach to problems that arise in social work practice. You will also be introduced to some ideas about leadership in social work practice.

The course is available online, but is also available to download for your Kindle as well as in PDF format, as a Word document, and many more.

Report by Iriss describing the rationale, process and learning from a project which explored the topic of supervision. The purpose of this report is to share the learning gathered through the project to provide some evidence, inspiration, and pointers for those interested in improving supervision. Key points from the report can be used to prompt reflection and discussion with teams, to review current supervision practice and to help plan improvements.

An activity from  'Modern Social Work Practice' by Mark Doel and Steven Shardlow (2005) that explores making decisions when there are conflicting priorities

Hosted on the Iriss Learning Exchange 

This free Open University course explores the principles and best practices underpinning mentoring. The entire course takes about 24 hours of study at your own pace, but you can also dip in and out of the topics that interest you. There are quizzes for each topic, and, if you complete these you can download a statement of participation.

The Institute for Research and Innovation in the Social Services (Iriss) explored the topic of supervision with a group of six partners from across the social services sector. The report shares learning from the project and provides pointers for practitioners and managers who wish to improve supervision practice.

A short introduction to reflection and reflective writing in relation to leadership. Part of a range of resources that support the Scottish Social Services Council's Step into Leadership resource.

A short guide to reflective writing about leadership, and a template for recording learning, available online from SSSC (Scottish Social Services Council)'s Step into Leadership website.

The purpose of the Coaching Learning Resource is to support individuals and organisations across Scotland's social services who are interested in developing a coaching approach. It aims to provide guidance about: