Assessment & Intervention in Social Work

Chris Beckett studied Psychology at Bristol University and qualified as a social worker at Bangor, North Wales, in 1980, going on to work for eighteen years as a social worker and social work manager, and then for fifteen years as a social work lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and the University of East Anglia. He has had a parallel career for some time as a writer of fiction and is now a full-time writer. His novel, Dark Eden was the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke award for 2012.

• IntroductionContextAssessmentInterventionJudgementNeedRiskChangeEvaluation

This book provides an interesting insight into the key issues facing social work practitioners involved in assessment. In particular I liked the approaches to thresholds and the competing issues which social workers face when assessing and intervening in the private life of individuals. Overall an accessible read and a book which achieves its goal of being easy to read from cover to cover or as individual chapters. Its readablity makes it a particularly good text for students or front line practitioners wanting to reflect on and improve their practice.