Introduction

There are two aspects to multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary working: first, the social worker, within their organisation or team, professionally qualified, working with unqualified, but experienced and knowledgeable colleagues who often have shared responsibilities for work with individuals and families. In this context they are the leader of practice and de facto supervisor of these colleagues. While this may not be explicitly recognised or respected in organisational or hierarchical terms, their leadership skills are critical in the provision of effective, good quality, consistent services. And second, social workers have the scope and responsibility to lead within teams that include other professional disciplines, contributing their particular knowledge and evidence base, insights and values. This is not a managerial or team leadership role, but one of an active and influential contributor. There is therefore valuable learning from other professions working in this way.

Integrated, multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary working

The social worker's own confidence in their professional base is critical, in terms of knowledge, practice skills, evidence and capability to articulate and persuade, what could be called the ‘rhetoric’ of social work. Social workers demonstrate and practise their particular and specialist skills, grounded in evidence, and use these to complement and supplement the contributions of other professional groups. In joint service settings such as health and education, they bring a fresh pair of eyes, half in, half out, working together in a team or joint service, but at the same time, distinct. They are the proponents of the psychosocial, ‘Drawing attention to the whole dimension of family and community … highlighting the strengths of individuals and families’ (Cullen, 2013, p 1357). They bring the perspectives of social justice and empowerment, for example,

Social work has a distinct but complementary role to that of health colleagues in relation to building community and family resilience, working in partnership and within a rights-based approach.