PRITAM

PRITAM - Rehumanising Social Work Practice is both a personal journey and a practical framework, offering a deeply human vision of what social work can be - and must become again.

Across three decades as a practitioner, academic, researcher, and senior manager in the UK and Australia, Satnam Singh has worked alongside children, families, and colleagues in some of the most challenging environments in the profession - from secure units to family reunification, from frontline safeguarding to strategic leadership. Over time, he has seen how the pressures of bureaucracy and risk management can erode the values that once drew people to this work.

This book is his response: a call to re-centre practice on relationships, compassion, and courage.

At the heart of the book is the PRITAM model - six principles drawn from Sikh values yet universally applicable:

• Presence - showing up with reliability and empathy
• Respect - honouring dignity, identity, and culture
• Integrity - holding to truth and ethics under pressure
• Trust - building reliability through consistency
• Aspiration - believing in potential, even when hope fades
• Moral Courage - speaking out when silence is easier

Through powerful real-world case studies, Satnam explores how these values can transform practice - from engaging with an oppositional teenager, to supporting a young person back home after years in secure care, to walking alongside care leavers as they build lives of independence.

Blending memoir, practice insight, and structured reflection, PRITAM offers:

• Honest, experience-based reflections on social work practice
• A values-based framework for decision-making and supervision
• Practical tools, worksheets, and reflection prompts for individuals and teams
• Guidance for embedding resilience and hope in everyday practice
• A vision for reconnecting social work with communities and social justice

PRITAM - Rehumanising Social Work Practice is not just a book to read - it is a workbook to use, discuss, and return to throughout a career.

It will resonate with frontline practitioners, social work students, team leaders, supervisors, educators, and anyone seeking to rebuild meaning in a profession too often shaped by fear, compliance, and burnout.

Rooted in Sikh values and dedicated to the welfare of all (Sarbat da Bhala), this book is both a testament to one social worker's journey and an invitation to the next generation to carry the work forward - with presence, respect, integrity, trust, aspiration, and moral courage.