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Now available! The Social Worker’s Practice Manual. Neil’s latest publication is not a textbook; it is a hands-on manual that distils his decades of experience in social work. Click on the box below to order your copy.  

It is very wise to be clear about your priorities and make sure that you attend to them. So much time, effort and energy can be wasted if you spend time on lesser matters and lose sight of the most important. It makes sense that the big, important issues need to come first. However, there is also much to be gained from appreciating the little things. The two ideas are not incompatible. It is perfectly possible to focus primarily on the main issues you face, while also setting aside some time for the things that, at first view, may not seem to matter much, but which can actually be of great importance and value. What I am talking about is…

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is best known for driverless cars and as the inspiration for endless Hollywood movies. We invariably see a future where robots turn from servants to oppressors of humans because their burgeoning intelligence has made them realise the planet needs saving from people. In the real world we are fairly sure that the ability of robots to self-learn (AI) is limited to within the parameters that are set for it. For example, robots that are programmed to make music are highly unlikely to turn on us because mankind has produced Justin Bieber. AI also has more prosaic uses, such deciphering handwriting and gaming. Essentially AI covers anything where computers have the possibility of learning from the point…

It would be funny if it wasn’t so distressing. After every recent election in the West, the reaction of so many pundits has been to ask: Why are the anti-establishment parties so strong again when GDP has been picking up recently?  But perhaps the pick-up in GDP is so removed from what really matters to people that voters are seeking significant change. Voter’s intuitions – that our economies are not aligned with what really matters to them – are mirrored in the evidence. The research is clear: growth in GDP has not been widely shared, instead it is the wallets of the already wealthy that have expanded. Moreover, while policy makers strain to squeeze more GDP from a stagnating economy, we know that, beyond…

I have been involved in youth services for more than 50 years, starting as a volunteer for a Bermondsey youth club, when the docks were still open, running summer camps for boys and girls. I believe that if the home secretary Amber Rudd really wants to reduce knife crime, she needs to give us back our youth services, our youth training projects and hostels for young people. In 1969 I became a teacher. I soon found that some children, bored at school, were completely different in the adventure playground I ran at weekends. One lad, Mickey*, got into trouble; his school report was appalling but in court I spoke about how positive he was in the playground and eventually he…

It was 1955 and Disneyland had just opened in Anaheim, California when a ten-year-old boy walked in and asked for a job. Labor laws were loose back then and the boy managed to land a position selling guidebooks to visitors for $0.50 a piece. Within a year, he had transitioned to Disney's magic shop where he learned tricks from the older employees. He experimented with jokes and tried out simple magic routines on the visitors. Soon, he discovered that what he loved was not performing magic, but performing in general. The young boy set his sights on becoming a comedian ... Click here to read more

Now available! The Social Worker’s Practice Manual. Neil’s latest publication is not a textbook; it is a hands-on manual that distils his decades of experience in social work. Click here for more information and a link to order your copy. Are you a social worker who uses Facebook? If so, why not join Neil’s Social Work Focus group? A group for discussion, support, learning and sharing. Just click here.

Communication is such a central part of our lives that we tend to take it for granted, it fades into the background, like the wallpaper. That is perfectly normal, but it can also be problematic. Consider language, for example. We largely live our lives through language. Much of our work is through language; we form relationships through language; we fall out through language. Much of our leisure time is enjoyed through language. Imagine, for example, trying to go for, say, a week without using language. We wouldn’t get very far would we? (not least because we tend to think through the medium of language). But the way we use language can be problematic. Misunderstandings are very common, sometimes with minor…