In-Service Training and Staff Development

There were many efforts from the early 1950s to provide refresher courses, seminars and conferences to introduce social workers, whether trained and experienced or unqualified, to new knowledge and new methods. They aimed to increase knowledge, to lobsen rigidities and broaden horizons, to shake self-satisfaction, excite curiosity, and contribute to common standards of practice. There was limited understanding about how people learn, but the considerable investment in these courses - which were provided for hundreds every year in the child care and probation services (see volume 1, chapter 8 ) and for substantial handfuls elsewhere - was an essential complement to professional training. In-service training and later staff development covered residential as well as other staff.