Developing an Open Dialogue inspired model of systemic social work assessment in a local authority children's social care department

Abstract

We outline a new approach to initial social work child and family assessment, focused on listening practices. The wider social context of contemporary children's services and, in particular, public concern about child death inquiries and the impacts of government's austerity policies create significant challenges for the development of listening practices. Our model seeks to develop listening practices which attend to these challenges, while retaining a focus on safe and effective social work practice. Our model develops principles of dialogicity and Open Dialogue, with systemic and narrative practices developed by Fredman and Jenkins. In crisis situations care must be taken to develop contexts for listening, where families and professionals are given opportunities to listen well to each other.Practitioner points Dialogicity principles and Open Dialogue practices can be applied in children's social care assessment contexts Listening is under‐theorised in children's social care contexts; listening theory can be applied in systemic social work assessment meetings Systemic practices can make valuable contributions to effective child and family social work Open Dialogue practices contribute to the development of communities of practice, and can be supported through manualisation