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How not to observe social workers in practice

  • David Wilkins
    ,
  • Vivi Antonopoulou
Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

The home visit is central to the practice of contemporary child and family social work, yet we know comparatively little about what social workers use them for and how. Descriptions of practice and policies and procedures that overlook the emotional, physical and relational complexity of the home visit will inevitably miss something important about the social work role. More and more researchers are using observational methods to produce descriptions of home visit practices, while the Department for Education has been trialing observations as part of a national accreditation programme in England. Local authorities for many years have been engaged in observations of students and newly-qualified workers. However, none of these developments mean that observing social workers in practice and on a wider scale is straight-forward. This paper describes an attempt to introduce regular observations of social work practice in three inner London local authorities—and discusses how and why this attempt failed. By so doing, we hope to provide helpful lessons for others who may be thinking of using observations of practice more widely within their own authorities or as part of a research project.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 837-843

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Social Work Education (Volume 36, Issue 7)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 19/06/2017

Publication status

Published - 19/06/2017

ISSN

0261-5479

Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/622136
  • Scopus: 85021090888

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