SWK293 TMA SUSS: July 2024 (Tutor Marked Assignment)- Social Work Practice and Skills Lab III, Singapore

TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)

1. Please include a cover page that shows the title of the course, the assignment topic, the submission date, your name and student ID.
2. The total length of your paper should be between 2700 to 3000 words. It should be typewritten, double-spaced, with 1-inch margin all round, and ‘Times New Roman’ font size 12. The file name should be in this format: Surname_Name_SWK293_TMA01
3. Provide at least 7 academic references and cite them in APA 7 format.

The following case scenario applies to all the questions. Jonas, 32 years old, is a Senior Social Worker of Goodrich Family Services (GFS). Prior to joining GFS, Jonas worked five years as a Medical Social Worker in a hospital, and then as an Assistant Senior Social Worker in a Children’s Home. With 10 years of social work experience, Jonas was given the responsibility of supervising a team of three Social Workers, a Programme Executive and a Social Work Associate after 2 months into his new job at GFS.

The social workers in his team provide casework as their primary duty. Although they have varying number of years of experience, each has less than five years of social work experience. All three social workers are currently managing a full caseload. Jonas is expected to provide clinical supervision for these workers.

The team that is under Jonas’ supervision is in-charge of a community programme that reaches out to low-income families living in two Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks of rental housing within the GFS’ service boundary. The programme was piloted a year before and is slated to run for three years before its review.

This is Jonas’ first experience of supervising a team. In his prior jobs, Jonas had only supervised social work students during their internships, and one Social Work Associate. Back then, Jonas had not attended any training on supervision. He relied mostly on his experience of being supervised, as well as consulting his superiors whenever he encountered issues with his supervisees.

The members in Jonas’ team are cautious in welcoming him into the group. Their experience with the previous team leader had not been pleasant. The community programme had not been able to achieve the goals set by the Centre Head. Their previous team leader had blamed the failure on the individual members’ poor performance, lack of discipline in meeting task deadlines, and inadequate competencies in carrying out community work. Team members however, felt the leader could have done better at monitoring their progress, guiding members who are new to community work, troubleshooting problems during programme implementation, and being more assertive in dealing with members who are not taking their work seriously. This resulted in conflicts between the team members and the leader, which led to the team-leader’s resignation. There were also conflicts between team members because each felt the other is not carrying out his/her responsibilities, affecting their individual and overall team performance.
GFS has another team with a similar make-up. This team is led by Ching Yee, a Senior Social Worker who has been working for GFS since her graduation 12 years ago. Ching Yee’s team is in-charge of a programme for seniors who live alone. The programme encourages the seniors to gather at GFS for various activities every alternate Saturday. This includes a support group to address loneliness amongst seniors.

The programme has been running for 10 years. However, over the years, the number of participants had dwindled from 50 to less than 20 at every session. Ching Yee believed the attrition could be due to deaths of the senior participants over the years, and a changing demography. Her team felt it could be due to the activities that lacked creativity and are often recycled from the previous years’. They had received this feedback from some participants when they contacted the seniors who had not turned up for the activities. Since the programme will end its run for the year in three months’ time, the team will need to find ways to address the problem or submit a report of poor programme performance.

One of the social workers feared that, like the previous team leader who had left, Chin Yee would blame the poor results on the team’s lack of effort to engage the seniors. The social worker stated it would be unfair for her who had been diligent in carrying out her tasks. She had told the team’s Programme Executive and Social Work Associate to be prepared for a ‘showdown’ in their next team meeting.

Answer all questions. (100 marks)

Questions: 1.

Appraise the dysfunctions that are happening in Jonas’ team. Suggest how Jonas could apply teamwork skills to mitigate the dysfunctions and build a more cohesive team. (30 marks)

Discuss Jonas’ limitations that could affect his effectiveness as a supervisor of the team. (10 marks)

Question: 2.

Discuss one (1) different type of conflict that could have happened between: a. the previous team leader (i.e. Jonas’ predecessor) and the members; b. the individual members in Jonas’ team before he took over the team; c. Ching Yee and any of her team members; and d. the individual members in Ching Yee’s team. (20 marks)

Question: 3.

Outline three (3) roles that Ching Yee could play to improve the outcomes of her team’s community programme. State, Illustrate and elaborate your discussion with relevant examples. (15 marks)

Question: 4.

Analyse how Goodrich Family Services may have utilized the inter-relationship of micro, messo and macro practice to develop its community programmes. (15 marks)

Marks are given for appropriate in-text citations and literature references in the APA7 format, and overall organisation and structure of your answer. (10 marks)