‘Step-Up to Social Work is the latest in a long series of initiatives to reform social work education. In recent years, questions raised by some employers have allowed social work education to become associated more with vocational training for a specific purpose rather than as an education for a critically demanding human profession.  However, whatever misgivings there may be about the directions and tangents taken by social work education in the years since 2003, what is heartening and important to see is the level of insight and criticality developing in social work students’ accounts of their work, and the demonstration of their learning from this programme. The alliance of academy and practice is most clearly shown through these case reflections and studies that exemplify Professor Graham Ixer’s commitment to excellence in social work education, and the importance of developing criticality for contemporary practice. There has not been a book like this since my old Professor, Robert Harris, edited a, long out of print, collection of practice placement case studies of probation students in the late 1980s. This book is well overdue.’ (Professor Jonathan Parker)

Foreword by Professor Jonathan Parker • Preface by Dr Ray Jones • Step up’ to change: Ideas from practice written by students Graham Ixer • How fear, generated by client violence, impacts on child protection social workers Stephen Brearley • A contemporary discourse of social work decision-making Leo Harverson • The role of emotional containment in a child protection workforce Stella Vincent • A feminist analysis of mothers’ involvement in child abuse Alison Love • Key issues arising from practice under section 17  of the Children Act 1989 James McCullough • Key issues in the involvement of fathers in child protection Jacqueline Pilgrim • The issue of physical touch with children and young people Joanna Genter • The re-victimisation of women in domestic violence Samantha Belbin •  Online grooming: A consideration of everyday practice  in child protection Billy Hughes •  Reunification of looked after children with their birth parents Samuel Tolerton •  Meaningful contact between the child and social worker:  A critical review Clair Lockyer •  Life story work in promoting strong attachments  and identity in children Gary Castle •  Talking Mats as a tool to hear voices of disabled children Peter Holland •  ‘Seeing the Child Alone’ Jacqui Gaunt • Exploring digital technology and its potential to improve outcomes Anthony McMurdo