1. Joanna Rawles London South Bank University rawlesj@lsbu.ac.uk 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

2. Semi-structured interviews  9 Practice Educators/field instructors  2 recent social work Masters graduates  How relevant is EI to social work practice?  To what extent can/do students use these skills?  How are they being enabled to do so in practice?  How equipped are PEs to assess for this? 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

3. 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University My own social work experience 1990s & 2000s Student “I would have no emotional reaction” Students’ failing placements Research on What service users want from social workers Very little on social work and EI, even less on social work education and EI

4. From the late 1980s in the UK  Shifting relationship between the state and citizens – neo liberalism  The marketisation of welfare  A mistrust of public services ◦ From professional autonomy to accountability ◦ Performance management “controlling the front line” Kirkpatrick et al (2005) 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

5.  The purpose – “identification with the organisation rather than with a specific profession” (Ferguson 2008 p47)  The task – to fulfil the procedures of that organisation through increasingly mechanised and prescriptive ways.  The aim – defending resources rather than engaging with the human situation 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

6. “The ability to monitor one’s own and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions” Salovey and Mayer’s (1990: 189)  EI as “a discrete set of emotional processing abilities” (Morrison 2007:252) rather than an affective state as in other interpretations e.g. Goleman 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

7. a) Perceive emotion b) Use emotion to facilitate thought c) Understand emotional meanings d) Manage emotions in oneself and others Salovey (2006) Joanna Rawles

8. Intrapersonal skills = Self Awareness Interpersonal skills = Other Awareness 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

9. “hugely important” “fundamental” All PEs could immediately recognise and recall those students who had excelled in this area and those who had struggled 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

10. They “flew”; were “exceptional” “her ability to relate to other people.. Intuitive.. self aware..reflective, able to appraise situations quickly, able to respond in the moment” “able to articulate feelings… able to identify what belongs to her or what might have been getting in the way” “she acknowledges feelings but is not overwhelmed by them” “Aware of team dynamics..notices if people are getting quite stressed and tries to offer to do things” Joanna Rawles

11. “if anything went outside the prepared question he wasn’t able to see where that person was coming from.. He would just freeze” “just stunned about everything like it was a shock to her, the work and what she was exposed to” “she missed a key opportunity to acknowledge somebody’s pain and hurt…she was so busy giving information” “she read a file with all these incestuous relationships in and I know it really affected her but she was loath to tell me” “blank look” “its incredibly difficult to read her emotions with clients” Joanna Rawles

12.  Decision making  Resilience  Understanding and engaging with service users (Morrison 2007; Howe 2008; Munro 2011) 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

13. “well I think she was quite defensive…“why do you want to know” almost, “why do you need to know how I was feeling” you knew what went on and what happened etc etc why do you need to know what the impact of that was?” PE 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

14. “I think it’s the missing bit in terms of the new performance indicators and check lists and all the managerialism that’s crept into the profession so I think that getting back to kind of understanding how other people feel and really being empathic and understanding our own feelings I think its really important.” PE 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

15. “I am struggling with the student who needs more support in this area with how to raise it without it feeling very personal” PE “In this team, people do the work its bang bang bang but whilst doing that we have at the back of our mind we know that there are children out there.. it doesn’t mean you don’t think about it, I certainly did, I was thinking poor things how is it going to effect them. I need to find out from my student …. if she was actually thinking the same thing” PE 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

16. Student “like being given a map of an area you know fairly well…. The title Emotional Intelligence and the definition is really helpful… its not just a name it helps you to apply it and understand it more” 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University

17. 03/07/2012 Joanna Rawles London South Bank University What?Why?Task Decision MakingWe use our emotions for decision making. This can assist or get in the way Think of an example from your practice where emotional reaction has influenced your decision making. Was this in a positive or negative way? Understanding Service Users (and other workers) Emotion forms a part of people’s lives to ignore it means an understanding of the person and their situation would be incomplete 1) Think of an example where working out someone’s emotions helped you understand them and their needs better 2) Think of the last service user/carer you met what do you think they were feeling? How do you know? Personal resilienceThe work we do can be difficult because  Disturbing and difficult things happen to people we work with and people we work with sometimes do disturbing things  People experience disadvantage which can be personally upsetting  People can be aggressive toward us and challenge us  Things we encounter can resonate with our personal experience  The uncertainty of social work and the responsibility of our professional role can be difficult  We have to juggle priorities  We have to make difficult decisions Relate one of these examples to your own experience of practice. Reflect on how it made you feel, what was difficult about it? What helped? Why do you think it helped? An awareness of the impact of your emotional response Just as how others’ emotional response affects you, your emotional response affects others. This is part of your communication skills and can impact on your relationship with the service user and therefore the outcome of your work with them. Think of one of the service users you mentioned above. What do you think they thought you were feeling? Why do you think this? What impact might this have had on the outcome of your meeting/relationship/intervention? Student Social Worker Activity - Emotional Intelligence is important for …

18. Beresford, P (2007) The Changing Roles and Tasks of Social Workers from a Service Users’ Perspective: A Literature Informed Discussion Paper: Shaping Our Lives Damasio, A (2006) Descartes’ Error: Emotion Reason and the Human Brain: London. Vintage Ferguson, I (2008) Reclaiming Social Work: London. Sage Gardner, H (1983) Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences: New York: Basic Books Goleman, D (1996) Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ. London: Bloomsbury Howe, D (2008) The Emotionally Intelligent Social Worker. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Kirkpatrick, Ackroyed & Walker (2005) The New Managerialism and Public Service Professionals: Basingstoke. Palgrave MacMillan Mayer, J (2006) ‘A New Field Guide to Emotional Intelligence’ in Ciarrochi, J, Forgas, J, Mayer, J eds (2006) Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life. Hove: Psychology Press Munro, I (2011) The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report: A Child Centred System. Department of Education: London Salovey, P & Mayer, J (1990) ‘Emotional Intelligence’ in Imagination, Cognition and Personality 9, 181-211 Morrison, T (2007) ‘Emotional Intelligence, Emotion and Social Work: Context, Characteristics, Complications and Contribution’ in British Journal of Social Work 37, 245-263 Joanna Rawles