Beyond Outcome Measures in Child Protection: Using Feedback to Direct and Evaluate Social Work Practice

Abstract

There is a consensus in the current literature that the existing use of outcome measures in child protection, applied under the auspices of new public management philosophy, is having a negative impact on social work practice. Process measures used as a proxy for the aims of social work result in perverse case decisions and alienate practitioners from their work. This study used a qualitative methodology employing focus groups in a London borough to explore new ways of judging and improving the quality of social work practice. Following analysis six themes were identified: outcome measures maintain a sense of urgency; outcome measures are not practice orientated; a change of approach to using outcome measures is needed; a vision of good practice should be cultivated; feedback should be used to measure practice; and audits can be used to measure and improve practice. These findings are used to suggest ways in which reforms underway in the UK and around the world can be utilised at a local level to bring policy into more sympathetic alignment with social work practice.