Group work is central to social work, whether it be work with individuals and families, residential care, community work, management or social work education. Despite, however, the upsurge of interest in this aspect of social work method at the time Group Work: Learning and Practice, originally published in 1978, represented the first attempt at providing an up-to-date and carefully integrated source book for students – in the form of a series of mainly original and British papers on social group work: its knowledge base; the possible varieties of practice settings and objectives; and its implications for social work education and training models.

For new directions in social work education suggested that the small group was to become the core system around which much future social work teaching would be based. The main concern of this new National Institute for Social Work reader – the development and demonstration of intervention skills in practice – would be particularly relevant. The book draws attention to the opportunities for work with groups in the community, in residential institutions and with families, where the emphasis was rapidly shifting towards the need for greater understanding and use of the small group dimension.

Group Work: Learning and Practice would have been widely welcomed both by specialists in group work at the time and all those more generally interested in social work methods – as teachers, students, practitioners, supervisors and as local authority training officers. It would also be of interest to a wider readership of teachers, youth workers and those concerned with the group dynamics and counselling fields.