This paper describes research undertaken as part of an MA study in leadership. It draws on interviews with six high profile leaders at the fore front of end of life care sector in the UK. Its findings and emerging themes offer insights about the opportunities for social work leaders in palliative care in the future and how the profession and palliative care sector address current barriers to taking advantage of such opportunity. The main focus of this paper is leadership related to palliative care social work. However, it relates to much broader themes including the history, politics and culture of this profession and the requirements for leadership on the part of social work in the broader contexts of health and social care.

In this article, we explore views on an age-friendly space in the Netherlands by analysing the responses of older individuals ( = 54) in focus groups and by examining the perspectives around an age-friendly zone in the Netherlands, . We found that a central issue in the wishes for living at a later age are adjustments to envisioned physical limitations that come with the ageing process; this includes adjustments to ensure safety, accessibility and mobility, in order to facilitate older individuals' efforts to stay engaged with the world around them. In their wishes, the older participants constructed ideal dwelling places that closely resembled a senior home, but at the same time they rejected wishing to live in a place that was identified as a senior home. We explain this paradox by the representation of such a space as being for old people, i.e. needy older individuals, which was not how the older participants wished to be identified. We conclude that the conception of age-friendly environments will have to face the difficult challenge of overcoming the association with old age, while simultaneously taking into account adjustments that signify and relate to the ageing process and that seem inescapably tied to oldness.

This paper examines the place of emotions within social work practice. The perceived tensions between emotions and rational decision making are explored and it is argued that their relationship is compatible and necessary. A model for the co-creation of emotionally intelligent supervision is developed to support this vision of practice.

Positive family relationships are important for child well-being. However, family relationships are unique for youth in out-of-home child welfare placements because they involve both biological and foster parents. The aim of this study was to test the interactive association between current caregiver involvement and contact with biological parents on youths' externalizing symptoms using a sample representative of youth in out-of-home child welfare placements in the United States. Findings supported a significant interaction between current caregiver involvement and the amount of biological parent contact on youths' externalizing symptoms, such that there was a more pronounced buffering effect of high caregiver involvement on youth externalizing symptoms when there was more frequent youth contact with biological parents. Results can be used to support education initiatives about the importance of visitation for caseworkers and parents, and interventions aimed at promoting positive biological family and foster parent relationships focused on the best interests of the child.