Team Building, Inter-agency Team Development and Social Work Practice

The need to improve the effectiveness of working teams in social work practice has often been recognized, and a variety of team development techniques exist which aim to develop teamwork skills. Some of the more important techniques are reviewed, along with the evidence for the effectiveness of team development strategies. Such approaches have however primarily been employed with teams in single autonomous organizations, and their transferability to multi-disciplinary or inter-agency teams remains problematic. Drawing on an intervention with a Community Drug Team involving social work, health and other professionals, and an action research project designed to promote better collaboration between hospital social workers and nursing staff in a hospital maternity unit ante-natal clinic, a framework for inter-agency team development is described and its relevance for social work practice discussed.