National Institute for Social Work

NISW offered a one-year course and a three-month course, aimed at social work practitioners and managers in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. These covered all aspects of social work, including casework, group work, community development, residential and community care, as well as management and staff development. NISW staff also provided a consultancy service, and an extensive programme of residential short courses throughout the UK. By the late 1970s, they had also begun to work with colleague organisations in other European countries.

NISW’s Research Unit[4] was established in 1963 by Tilda Goldberg,[5] who designed the first randomised controlled trials in British social work. The Unit's numerous studies were each designed to answer the question: ‘What works, and why?’ These studies included evaluations of social work in general practice, the effectiveness of task-centred casework, the role of social work area offices and clients’ attitudes to social work. Thereafter, during the 1980s, the Unit carried out studies of the carers for the confused elderly, the reasons for admission into old people’s homes and the varying roles played by relatives, friends, neighbours and services in supporting frail elderly people living alone. During the 1990s, the Unit’s research included studies of respite services for those caring for someone with dementia, hospital discharge of elderly people, child care and the social services workforce.

From its inception, the Unit’s staff also took part in the Institute’s teaching programme, and published widely.

NISW hosted or provided members for a number of committees and their reports. These included:

• the Frederic Seebohm committee on the integration of social work services[6]
• the Geraldine Aves committee on the voluntary worker in social services.[7]
• the Gillian Wagner committee on residential care[8]
• the Peter Barclay committee on the roles and tasks of social workers[9]
• the Eileen Younghusband and Edward Boyle committees set up by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to consider the future of community development in the UK.[10]

Southwark Community Project (1968–1973)[11]

Race Equality Unit (1987–1995)[12]

By the end of the 1990s, NISW’s Library comprised some 30,000 books and 300 journal titles.[13] It had also developed an online information service, as well as an information and lending service for Social Services Departments. The library attracted social workers, students and scholars, but it was also a valuable resource to staff from government departments, as well those in other statutory bodies and voluntary agencies who had their headquarters in or near central London.

The Institute’s series, the National Institute Social Services Library, was run in partnership with George Allen and Unwin, who published over fifty books in the series on all aspects of social work practice and training. NISW also published its own in-house series, the National Institute for Social Work Papers, designed as accessible guides to various elements of social work practice.

Together with its library, the Institute’s gardens, meeting rooms and Common Room provided a congenial setting for minds to meet, from all walks of social work life. NISW's policy of renting out office space to kindred organisations brought in not just valuable income but also fellow professionals with new or different ideas to share.

All of NISW’s activities were strengthened by its ability to attract a steady stream of visiting professors, all but two of whom came from American universities:

Ken Daniels (New Zealand), Eileen Gambrill, Neil Gilbert, Charles Grosser, Arnold Gurin, Ken Heap (Norway), Ralph Kramer, Frank Maple, Anne Minahan, Mel Moguloff, Robert Perlman, Allen Pincus, Jack Rothman, Harry Specht, Roland Warren, James Whittaker.