A therapeutic social work team in practice

In 1996, as a result of interagency collaboration between social services and health, Leeds Social Services Department brought together three groups of social workers undertaking therapeutic work into a centrally managed team. Continued inter-agency working together has ensured that the Therapeutic Social Work Team has become an established service for children and families. This paper describes the work of the team by focusing on four areas: the context of interagency collaboration, therapeutic work in the child protection process, managing different theoretical approaches in one team, and evaluating practice.