If you are a social worker, practice educator, on-site supervisor wanting to expand your toolkit of creative ideas, this beautifully illustrated book edited by Heidi Dix and Aisha Howells provides an array of innovative and practical tools. To be used with students, apprentices, Newly Qualified Social Workers, the tools can even be used to develop a social worker’s own practice!

This book aims to show that ‘creativity is for everyone and it can be cultivated with practice’ (p165). As such, chapters are written by practice educators, social work academics and people with lived experience ranging from ideas around how to start and end a placement well, trauma-informed learning, anti-racist practice, the use of stories and more. Original poetry or spoken word are interwoven through the book, from acclaimed authors and poets to support creativity in learning and teaching in social work.

The book’s nine chapters outline standalone tools, providing a brief overview, examples of how to use the tool in practice and the theoretical ideas which underpin the tool. Vivid illustrations accompany the different sections capturing the different elements as inspiration for imaginative social work practice learning.

To use as either a quick-reference guide, during supervision or simply drawing on each tool sequentially through a social work placement journey, whatever the situation, this book is an essential and accessible resource which enhances creative approaches to learning. Although focussed on social work, the tools and learning activities are transferable across disciplines, such as education and health, which involve a practice learning experience.