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4. The nature and culture of social work with children and families in long-term casework:Findings from a qualitative longitudinal study

Author

Ferguson, Harry, Warwick, Lisa, Singh Cooner, Tarsem, Leigh, Jadwiga, Beddoe, Liz, Disney, Tom, Plumridge, Gillian, Ferguson, Harry, Warwick, Lisa, Singh Cooner, Tarsem, Leigh, Jadwiga, Beddoe, Liz, Disney, Tom, and Plumridge, Gillian

Abstract

Social work in the United Kingdom is preoccupied with what social workers cannot do due to having limited time to spend with service users. Yet remarkably little research has examined what social workers actually do, especially in long-term relationships. This paper draws from an ethnographic study of two social work departments in England that spent 15 months observing practice and organizational life. Our findings show that social work some of the time has a significant amount of involvement with some service users and the dominant view that relationship-based practice is rarely achieved is in need of some revision. However, families at one research site received a much more substantial, reliable overall service due to the additional input of family support workers and having a stable workforce who had their own desks and were co-located with managers in small team offices. This generated a much more supportive, reflective culture for social workers and service users than at the second site, a large open plan "hot-desking" office. Drawing on relational, systemic, and complexity theories, the paper shows how the nature of what social workers do and culture of practice are shaped by the interaction between available services, office designs, and practitioners', managers', and service users' experiences of relating together.

Published
2020

8. From Snapshots of Practice to a Movie: Researching Long-Term Social Work and Child Protection by Getting as Close as Possible to Practice and Organisational Life.

Author

Ferguson, Harry, Leigh, Jadwiga, Cooner, Tarsem Singh, Beddoe, Liz, Disney, Tom, Warwick, Lisa, and Plumridge, Gillian

Subjects
CHILD welfare, CORPORATE culture, ETHNOLOGY, LONG-term health care, LONGITUDINAL method, RESEARCH funding, SOCIAL case work, QUALITATIVE research
Abstract

Research into social work and child protection has begun to observe practice to find out what social workers actually do, however, no such ethnographic research has been done into long-term practice. This article outlines and analyses the methods used in a study of long-term social work and child protection practice. Researchers spent fifteen months embedded in two social work departments observing organisational practices, culture and staff supervision. We also regularly observed social worker's encounters with children and families in a sample of thirty cases for up to a year, doing up to twenty-one observations of practice in the same cases. Family members were also interviewed up to 3 times during that time. This article argues that a methodology that gets as close as possible to practitioners and managers as they are doing the work and that takes a longitudinal approach can provide deep insights into what social work practice is, how helpful relationships with service users are established and sustained over time, or not, and the influence of organisations. The challenges and ethical dilemmas involved in doing long-term research that gets so close to social work teams, casework and service users for up to a year are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2020
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10. The role of support groups in facilitating families in coping with a genetic condition and in discussion of genetic risk information

Author

Plumridge, Gillian, Metcalfe, Alison, Coad, Jane, and Gill, Paramjit

Subjects
Male, Social Work, Adolescent, Communication, Genetic Diseases, Inborn, Social Support, Interviews as Topic, Self-Help Groups, Attitude, Adaptation, Psychological, Humans, Family, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Child, Original Research Papers, Health Education
Abstract

Giving children and young people information about genetic conditions and associated risk has been shown to be important to their identity, coping and decision making. Parents, however, find talking to their children difficult, and support from health professionals is often not available to them. To explore the role of support groups in family coping, and in assisting parents' communication about risk with children in families affected by an inherited genetic condition. Semi-structured interviews analysed using grounded theory and informed by models focusing on aspects of family communication. Affected and unaffected children and their parents, from families affected by one of six genetic conditions, that represent different patterns of inheritance, and variations in age of onset, life expectancy and impact on families. Parents often sought support they did not receive elsewhere from support groups. They identified benefits, but also potential disadvantages to this involvement. These related to the specific condition and also whether groups were run solely by parents or had professional input. Support groups rarely helped directly with family communication, but attendance often stimulated family discussion, and they provided information that improved parents' confidence in discussing the condition. Support groups should be seen only as additional to the support offered by health and social care professionals. An increased understanding of the role of support groups in assisting families with genetic conditions has been highlighted, but further work is needed to explore more fully how this may be made more sustainable and far-reaching.

Published
2011

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