Social Work Agencies Research Articles

Electronic Information Systems to Guide Social Work Practice: The Perspectives of Practitioners as End Users

Evaluations of electronic information systems (IS) being used in social work agencies in England and Australia have been highly critical of their effects on frontline social work practice. Attention is now turning to how IS might be redesigned and used in the future. One particular development is the inclusion of particular practice frameworks in the design of IS, in order that, when practitioners use them, practice is shaped and guided. With the aim of improving social work practice, the IS is intended to act as an ‘external expert’. In this article, the findings of a small-scale ethnographic study of an IS that incorporates the Looking after Children framework for children in out of home care are presented. The challenges of incorporating practice frameworks into IS are discussed.

Social Work Students ‘Juggling’ Field Placement

Field education is widely acknowledged as a central component of social work education. However, it requires a substantial commitment of time and energy from students which can present challenges to students who have multiple responsibilities. Based on a literature review conducted in preparation for doctoral research into social work student experience of juggling multiple roles and responsibilities with field placement, this article summarises what is known about the challenges they face and what helps them to complete placement. The findings have implications for students, schools of social work and field placement agencies. Further research should provide guidance for professional social work bodies, schools of social work, field educators and students.

A Framework for Teaching Practice-Based Research With a Focus on Service Users

ABSTRACTThe integration of research and practice in social work education and agency practice is both complex and challenging. The analysis presented here builds upon the classic social work generalist framework (engagement, assessment, service planning and implementation, service evaluation, and termination) by developing a three-part framework to capture practice, research, and service user involvement. The article also includes a case vignette to illustrate the application of the framework. The evolution of practice-based research provides a venue for these integration issues, with special attention to the role played by service users. The analysis concludes with a series of questions to guide evolving practice and future research.

Community service contracting for older people in urban China: a case study in Guangdong Province.

Contracting of community services to non-governmental service-providing organisations - mainly social work agencies - is an emerging phenomenon and a social innovation with regard to delivering community services in urban China. Contracting of community services for the older person, which is the focus of this study, is embedded in the macro context of the development of social service contracting in China. Qualitative research techniques, including document analysis, case study, participant observation and in-depth interviews, were adopted for this study. Nine government officials, three staff working in Community Residents' Committees, 15 staff working in social work agencies and 41 older people were interviewed in an effort to understand the impact and challenges of community service contracting in urban China. The findings showed that the involvement of social work agencies in the community service provision system results in integration of community resources, expansion of service coverage and enhancement of older people's access to community services. However, several problems may impede the development of community service provision in the context of contracting in China. These include purchaser-oriented rather than user-oriented service provision, older people's negative attitude towards social work services, inappropriate performance measurement, reliance of non-government organisations on government funding and ambiguous definition of community services.

Evidence-Based Practice in Social Work: A Contemporary Perspective

This paper aims to provide a contemporary overview of evidence-based practice (EBP) in social work. As EBP is frequently misunderstood, we will define what EBP is as well as what it is not. In addition, we discuss some of the current challenges that social workers and the profession continue to face in integrating EBP into professional practice. Specifically, we identify concerns that practitioners have raised and include challenges related to social work education and agency concerns. We will conclude the paper with recommendations on how social workers can integrate EBP across practice settings within the profession, as well as recommendations for social work education and research.

P159 Sexual health services are ideally placed to manage vulnerable young people?

Background/introduction Identifying and assessing the risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in young people is a fundamental role of sexual health clinics. The ‘Spotting the signs’ proforma developed by BASHH recommends assessing all those Aim(s)/objectives The aim of this audit was to review those Methods EPR records for all Results 56 patients identified, 86 attendances. 36/56 (64%) were 16–17 yrs. 48/56 (86%) were female. 23/56 (41%) were seen in the Young Person’s Clinic, the rest seen throughout the service. Concerns included: sexual assault/non-consensual sex 41%, drugs and alcohol 39%, difficulties at home/in care 37%, mental health 37% and partner age/coercion 11%. 20% had concerns in ≥ 3 areas. Interventions: 24/56 (53%) already had social work or other agency involvement, 27% were referred to agencies for the first time as a consequence of their visit to the clinic. Further clinic follow up was arranged in 33/56 (59%). All patients had a clear action plan. Discussion/conclusion This audit suggests that older young people (16–17 yrs) have significant risk factors; the same vigilance accorded to under 16’s needs to be applied to this group. Sexual Health clinics are well placed to both recognise those at risk and provide ongoing support and referral.

A Social Work ‘Academic-in-Residence’?

This paper outlines ideas in action relating to establishing closer connections and collaboration between a University Social Work team and a third sector children and families social work agency. It suggests that there is much scope for such cooperation and advances the notion, common elsewhere but not so in social work education and practice, of establishing within the agency an ‘academic-in-residence’. It is argued that this is a further development of knowledge exchange and capable of producing much benefit for agencies, faculty, practitioners and students.

Tribal and Non-tribal Agencies

As definitions of “family” have evolved in the US over the past several decades, so too has child welfare agencies’ need to provide appropriate and meaningful services. This article discusses the findings and conclusions drawn from a case study involving two different types of social work agencies: Native American child welfare and not- for-profit family services. Within this discussion, the authors use their findings from case study vignette focus groups to explore how the definitions of family impact the provision of services.At each agency, participants addressed issues surrounding domestic violence, teen pregnancy, child welfare involvement and the inclusion of extended families as part of client’s support network. By focusing on the changing social concept of “family,” the study’s respondents discussed the need for direct practice using broader, more inclusive approaches to family and child welfare. Through the comparison of two agencies which serve different demographics, the article makes clear that further study is needed, and a wider scope must be considered, in order to adequately serve America’s expanding population in need of family services, direct practice and extended support.

A UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY OUTREACH INITIATIVE: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE EDUCATION

Practice education has always been a core component of social work education and provides social work students with opportunities to “learn to practice social work by delivering social work services in agency and community settings” (Bogo, 2006). The purpose of practice education is broadly to enable students to learn to integrate theory and practice, and to develop the knowledge, skills and values necessary for professional practice. One of the issues in transferring such theory into practice is “how to overcome the assumed ‘abstract’ nature of theory in relation to the assumed ‘real’ nature of practice” (Evans, Guile, Harris & Allan, 2010:245), and it is therefore essential to provide students with opportunities to engage in social work processes in the real world. Historically social work agencies acted as the universities’ partners in the practice education of social work students – they provided placement sites and access to social work practice and their supervisors guided and mentored social work students.

W(h)ither the academy? An exploration of the role of university social work in shaping the future of social work in Europe

A controversial proposal to pilot the training of child protection social workers through an intensive work-based route in England is being supported and funded by the UK Government. Frontline, the brainchild of a former teacher, locates social work training within local authorities (‘the agency’) rather than university social work departments (‘the academy’) and has stimulated debate amongst social work academics about their role in shaping the direction of the profession. As a contribution to this debate, this paper explores the duality of social work education, which derives its knowledge from both the academic social sciences and the experience of practice within social work agencies. While social work education has traditionally been delivered by the academy, this paper also explores whether the delivery of training in the allied professions of probation and nursing by ‘the agency’ is equally effective. Finally, this paper explores the Helsinki model which achieves a synergy of ‘academy’ and ‘agency’. It suggests that there are alternative models of social work education, practice and research which avoid dichotomies between the ‘academy’ and the ‘agency’ and enable the profession to be shaped by both social work academics and practitioners.

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare

Conceptualized by social work deans and actualized with the support of major social work organizations, the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare was established in 2009. This article describes the historical context and creation of the Academy, whose objectives include recognizing outstanding social work scholars and practitioners; informing social policy by serving as a signal scientific source of information for the social work profession and agencies seeking information; promoting the examination of social policy and the application of research to the design and development of more effective public policies, social welfare programs, and social work practice; and celebrating excellence in research, education, and practice. The Academy’s 72 members have been selected using the methods of the National Academy of Science. The Academy’s first substantive effort is the Grand Challenges of Social Work Initiative, designed to help transform social work science, education, and practice around visionary and achievable challenges.

Research Note—A Pilot Cyber Counseling Course in a Graduate Social Work Program

Cyber counseling is a new and growing medium for offering mental health services to children and youth. However, there is a lack of identification of the core competencies required to provide effective online counseling. A school of social work, in partnership with a national service agency providing online counseling to children and youth, developed and offered a 13-week course to participating MSW social work students and agency staff. The development of online counseling competencies was assessed through individual interviews with participants and a content analysis of online posts. Participants scored well in areas of assessment and intervention. Challenges were identified in relationship building within an online environment. This research was funded by Bell Canada.

Gendering ‘Soft’ policing: multi-agency working, female cops, and the fluidities of police culture/s

This article examines the role of female police officers within the context of developing ‘soft’ policing initiatives designed to divert young people away from crime. Within the police culture literature, a masculine model of policing associated with coercive crime fighting tasks is often contrasted with a more cooperative, problem-solving and compassionate mode of police work. The latter model is viewed as serving to create a more legitimate structure for female police officers to work within, involving increasing trust and cooperation in communities and engaging with community crime prevention strategies. The aim of this article is to assess the role of female police officers within recent changes under the auspices of community policing reform in England and Wales, highlighting the role of female officers in enacting ‘soft’ policing initiatives in collaboration with social work and other community agencies. This raises some limitations of the conventional police culture literature by illustrating the ways these operations have carved a niche for female officers, in addition to altering the style of policing across certain sections of the organisation more generally.

Social work and faith-based agencies in Sweden and Australia

The roles which faith-based agencies play in social work provision vary between countries. This article provides an overview of social work provision by the Church of Sweden in Sweden and the Catholic Church in Australia and explores how different relationships between faith-based organizations and professional social work practice have emerged in different countries. The article concludes with questions about the role of faith-based agencies which readers can reflect upon in their own contexts.

The experiences and perspectives of agency social workers in England

One of the solutions to the shortages of social workers in England has been to employ social workers on a temporary or locum basis, often these social workers are called agency social workers as their contract of employment is with a employment agency rather than the social work employer. This paper explores the background to the use of agency social workers in the current context of government efforts to reduce the expenditure of public sector employers on agency staff. Data were collected through interviews with 40 social workers working with adults in England, in three diverse local authority settings; spanning those social workers whose careers in social work were in their early years; those with that were experienced and third group who while experienced and specialist were considering possible retirement or career moves. The aim of the interviews was to investigate motivations and experiences around this type of social work employment. The findings of the interviews are presented, with illustrations of ‘push and pull’ factors around agency working. The article concludes that agency working presents opportunities for social workers that may be within the power of social work employers to foster more generally, such as ways to minimise ‘office politics’ and to provide greater variety of work.

Assessing the effectiveness of policy interventions to reduce the use of agency or temporary social workers in England

There has been growing concern that English local authorities are over reliant on temporary staff to meet the shortage of social workers. This has been criticised as inefficient and costly while leading to problems of continuity and consistency for people using social work services. Focussing on recent policy and the implementation of new administrative procedures for the procurement and management of temporary or agency staff, this article explores progress being made towards achieving the previous government's policy goal that by 2020 local authorities will no longer need to rely on agency workers to carry out tasks that would normally be carried out by a permanent social worker. The article draws on the findings of an exploratory study (2007-2010) commissioned by the Department of Health which comprised of the following: a survey of local councils in England with adult social services responsibilities; case studies in three different localities; and qualitative interviews with stakeholders (n = 93). The findings suggest that while local authorities have reduced the costs of employing temporary staff through the setting up of intermediary control mechanisms, agency social workers continue to play important roles in teams and services.

Becoming a Social Worker: BSW Social Workers' Educational Experiences

In this exploratory qualitative study, researchers examined key educational experiences bachelor- level social workers identified as being most helpful in transitioning to current social work careers. Twenty students from CSWE- accredited social work programs, having worked in a social work agency for a minimum of 4 months, voluntarily participated. The researchers conducted one- on- one interviews in which social workers were asked to describe educational experiences and beliefs that supported their transition to careers in social work. The data from these interviews were coded to identify themes to aid educators in examining variables significant in the education of future social workers. These themes include learning occurring in social work courses, self- awareness, learning in the field, and learning from others.

Introducing tools of reflective learning into peer supervision groups in a social work agency

This article describes an action research project carried out by the authors in conjunction with a group of Irish hospital based social workers. The aim of the research was to investigate the introduction of reflective learning tools into peer supervision groups. Twenty-one social workers engaged with the research process. Data was collected from nine focus groups over a twelve month period. Findings chart the development of practitioners’ understandings of reflection. Engagement with the tools of reflective learning in peer supervision groups led to increased awareness and mindfulness (as described by Langer [1989]) in practice. Some of the challenges of peer supervision group processes are also explicated leading to the identification of further research questions.

Improvement by degrees

Social work academic institutions and social work agencies in Northern Ireland, in common with counterparts in England, Wales and Scotland, have been working hard to meet the challenges of developing and delivering the academic and practice learning components of the new Degree in Social work. This article highlights a number of developments which have occurred in Northern Ireland. Using findings from recent local research and the authors’ own knowledge and insights, some of the broader implications of these developments are discussed and their capacity for learning and transferability is identified.

Constructing Practitioner Research

The authors draw on a case study evaluation of two networked cohorts of practitioner-researchers in a children's services national social work agency in one of the home countries of the United Kingdom. The aim of the present study was to understand the meaning of practitioner for social work professionals through an exploration of how language, ascriptions of meaning, and interpretation provide a social environment through which the nature and meaning of practitioner emerge. The authors used a moderate symbolic interactionist approach to analyze diverse qualitative data. The findings suggest it is possible to trace a weft of analytic ideas regarding language, memory, moral accountability, ownership, meaning, value, and social work as they run horizontally across the experience of the practitioner-as-researcher. The elements of practitioner have to be understood as being interwoven and bringing together and containing different career and life concerns that otherwise might remain scattered. The implications of this suggest that practitioner should not be seen as a less or more comfortable add-on to everyday core practice, but as a multiform activity that challenges the taken-for-grantedness of practice, mainstream academic research, management and, in all likelihood, the experience of receiving services. KEY WORDS: practitioner research; and practice; cultures; gaze; social work ********** The aim of this article was to capture the experience and nature of practitioner in social work. Our own developing understanding through work with social work practitioners is that the nature of practitioner is something that emerges from the action, rather than something that prescribes the form of the experience in advance. It is only in the doing of practitioner that the significant recurring questions take shape. SHIFTING DEBATES SURROUNDING PRACTITIONER RESEARCH Literature on practitioner research, especially as it is more likely to be understood in Europe and Australasia rather than in the United States, is of fairly recent origin. In its development, it has understandably focused on three main themes. First, there was a small but useful literature on how to set about doing small-scale practitioner (for example, Cheetham, 1994; Edwards & Talbot, 1994; Fuller & Petch, 1995; Lang, 1994). Second, there were several efforts to develop a case for the special nature of practitioner compared with university-based academic (for example, Elks & Kirkhart, 1993; Hess & Mullen, 1995), which sometimes engaged with ideas regarding reflexivity and critical reflection (for example, Fook, 2001; Schon, 1983). Third, and finally, there was literature that sought to bring together examples of good in practitioner (for example, Broad & Fletcher, 1993). Practitioner has sometimes been seen within wider categories that capture the distinctive character of social work and research. In Finland, for example, the idea of practice research (Satka, Karvinen-Ninikoski, Nylund, & Hoikkala, 2005) has been adopted with some success to convey a coherent identity in dialogue with funders and government. Practice in social work knowledge production is practice-based and practice-oriented. The interest is on development, and more conscious use of social work methods and instruments. Practice was seen [as] neither an administrative inquiry nor an academic pursuit; it makes use of social theory and well-known and recognized methods, but its goal is to improve social work practice. The criterion of adequacy is its relevance for the field work. The ideas of pragmatism, action and ethnography are near to the concept. (Saurama & Tukiala, 2009) The concept has been found useful elsewhere in the Nordic countries (for example, by Uggerhoj, n. …