RESOURCES: Classic text revisited - Developmental Group Work withAdolescents Leslie Button (1974)

For example, Joan Matthews in Leicester championed social group work, Josephine Klein at Goldsmiths took a more therapeutic-oriented approach, while Fred Milson at Westhill College had his own peculiar mix.

Leslie Button taught on a teacher/youth worker programme at University College, Swansea, and it shows. His approach is programmatic, concerned with social skills development and interventionist. He accepts a simple "kindly interest" can bring considerable benefits to young people, and that this can sometimes be more effective than a more self-conscious worker who is inhibited about doing the wrong thing. Nonetheless, he maintains, effectiveness requires clarity about objectives and methods and thus there is a strong emphasis on diagnosis and on a repertoire of techniques such as group support, role-play, action research, sociodrama and psychodrama.