Practice, Research and the Professional Voice

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Practice, Research and the Professional Voice

• Sue White
• University of Lancaster

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Why does Practice need Research?
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• Genuine ignorance is profitable because it is
  likely to be accompanied by humility, curiosity,
  and open mindedness whereas ability to repeat
  catch-phrases, cant terms, familiar propositions,
  gives the conceit of learning and coats the mind
  with a varnish waterproof to new ideas (Dewey,
  1910 177).

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• First take our innate equipment for making
  emotional judgements
• Add this to our tendencies as information
  processors towards seeking to confirm initial
  hypotheses
• Stir in some supple theory Attachment Theory is
  a particular favourite and is available
  everywhere in all seasons
• Result An intoxicating concoction rendering us
  dizzy and drunk on our own convictions

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Yes, I know, absolutely, mother was very
inappropriate

• The cocktail is all the more sweet and heady when
  supped in the company of like-minded friends!

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Practitioner to Professor an Autobiography

• Being a Fish - breaking the surface
• Discovering Water
• Leaving the Bowl?
• Empirical engagement with practice

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Unsettling Practice New Vocabularies

• Capacity hard to grow without exposure to
  different ways of thinking and doing
• Vocational management training and staff
  development wont do
• We need practitioners to be properly educated and
  employers to value research skills
• If we all know this why doesnt it happen?
• What is going on out there?

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Whither the Social Work Voice?

• The Tragedy of the Integrated Childrens System!

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Real Problems Poisonous Prescriptions?
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Dystopiary!!
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• If a social worker can find a way to miss out a
  process theyll do it, so weve made sure they
  cant (Integrated Childrens System IT provider)

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Tamed by Technology?

• Felicity French a bit cagey - She said that they
  had all been called into a meeting that morning
  with the manager. The manager, DD, was very
  annoyed and giving them all a bit of a dressing
  down about the state of affairs in IA. They have
  missed the performance indicator this week for
  the of IAs being done within 7 days and missed
  it by a lot. DD is very annoyed, she has been on
  sick leave herself for two weeks and has come
  back to find that workers have been slacking
  behind her back.

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WORKFLOW, SCREENS AND TIME SCALES

• Team leader There are 50 contacts in your inbox
  . . . you are under pressure because you have to
  clear them by the end of the day . . . and the
  question of whether you are more likely to close
  them in these circumstances? Well yeah . . . so,
  really we are looking to close cases not open
  them . . . thats why we work to the highest
  thresholds.

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Workarounds

• Option 1a)
• LAMPOON!
• Option 1b)
• LEAVE!

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Lampooning

• Social Worker I have a dreadful case where there
  were 6 children and 5 fathers and I couldnt work
  out who was who, so I had to go to mum and
  pretend that I was really stupid... And I said I
  really dont understand it who is this?, who is
  that?... And she wasnt living with any of the
  fathers but the computer had her down as living
  with one.. so there was quite a few changes with
  people in the wrong addresses, like I say, a 7
  and 5 year old that the computer said were living
  on their own!

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Getting worse?

• Its worse since Baby P. I used to tell my social
  workers to get the work with the family right and
  then recording lags behind and screens are red,
  but Ive been told Ive got to stop that. So,
  Ive had to say, cut your visits down, keep to 45
  minutes and dont write so much. Weve always
  resisted but weve come to the point where weve
  got to compromise practice, to devalue it because
  of the fear of spot inspection. I dont know why
  managers dont say its wrong. Theyre scared
  (Team manager, qualified 20 years stable team).

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•  
•  'The government want us to improve our game, get
  to know each individual child better- but it's an
  absolutely impossible task, there are some many
  different people working with the child now and
  so many changes of worker that it's impossible to
  get a feel for what's going on with the child-
  it's all chopped up- and ICS - it's a complete
  nightmare,- impossible to find the story-   I've
  a caseload of 130 kids- you are telling me that I
  can get to know each child individually and read
  my way through that lot- it's a joke!
  (Independent Reviewing Officer focus group)

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Getting IT wrong?

• Good socio-technical systems design requires
  designers to get close to the end users
• It also requires modification in response to
  trying it out
• Literature on reading electronic documents
  ignored, or not known?
• Escalation of commitment!!

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Bring on the noise!

• UNISON wishes to draw attention to the
  seriousness of the problems being experienced by
  social work staff with the Integrated Childrens
  System. The problems appear to be fundamental,
  widespread and consistent enough to call into
  question whether the ICS is fit for purpose. we
  have reports of a number of industrial disputes
  or collective grievances brewing or underway and
  in many more cases staff are voting with their
  feet and not using the system when they can get
  away with it (Unison, 2008).

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BASW

• We want a Chief Social Worker to be appointed at
  government level to lead on social work practice
  delivery across government departments, to work
  with lead social workers in key organisations and
  other policy leads across government, and report
  to Parliament on social work practice and
  delivery.

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Emerging Messages The Path Forward
Sue White Professor of Social Work Social Work
Task Force Member
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Introduction

• The Task Force Process
• What Weve Been Hearing

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Genesis of the Task Force
1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing

• A number of reviews highlighted significant
  challenges in social work
• 2020 Children and Young Peoples Workforce
  Strategy Expert Group
• Joint review by DH/DCSF of social work training
• Recent events have significantly raised the
  profile of social work with the public
• Ministers have said they want to help make social
  work a high quality, high status profession that
  is excellent in its practice and that attracts
  well-qualified applicants.
• Establishment of the Social Work Task Force

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Purpose of the Task Force
1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing

• Social Work Task Force was set up to
• Undertake a nuts and bolts review of front line
  social work practice
• Make recommendations jointly to both DCSF and DH
  on how improvements might be made in the short
  and long term (in April, July and October)
• And was later asked to advise Ed Balls and Alan
  Johnson on how Lord Lamings recommendations
  should be taken forward

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Task Force Relationships

1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing
Key Partners Group (KPG)
43 contacts established as representatives within
their organisations so that the Task Force can
engage with them quickly and effectively for
engaging, garnering knowledge and expertise and
achieving buy-in.
Task Force
Joint DH/DCSF Social Work Unit
Practitioners Reference Group (PRG)
16 front line social workers (from both children
and adults) to help ensure that the Task Force
understands how its emerging ideas and proposals
can have the greatest possible impact on
frontline practice.
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Our First Report
1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing

• The Task Force told the Government that these are
  the messages which need to be addressed through
  comprehensive reform
• Social workers feel they do not have enough time
  to devote directly to the people they want to
  help. They feel overstretched by staff shortages
  and tied up in bureaucracy
• Social workers feel very frustrated by some of
  the tools and support they are given to do their
  jobs
• New social workers are often not properly
  prepared for the demands of the job and the
  education system does not effectively support
  ongoing development and specialisation
• Social workers do not feel their profession
  speaks with a strong national voice or is well
  supported at national level
• Systems for managing the performance of social
  workers are not driving quality first and
  foremost
• Social workers feel that their profession is
  under-valued, poorly understood and under
  continuous media attack. This is making it hard
  for them to do their jobs and hard to attract
  people into the profession.

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Our First Report
1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing

• The Task Force is currently appraising a wide
  range of evidence including
• a workload survey of 1000 social workers
• regional events
• deep dive visits to local authorities
• international literature
• a call for evidence seeking views and solutions
  against each of these themes.

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1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing
Call for Evidence Responses to Themes

• As part of the Task Forces call for evidence, we
  asked respondents to our online survey to rank
  whether they recognised and agreed with our
  emerging themes.
• A score of 5 indicates strong agreement and a
  score of 0 indicates strong disagreement.
• 370 people completed the survey.

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1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing
Call for Evidence Responses to Themes
Theme 1 We have been told that social workers do
not have enough time to devote directly to the
people they want to help. They are overstretched
by staff shortages and tied up in bureaucracy.
Theme 2 We have been told that social workers
are not being given the tools and support they
need to do their jobs
92 Agree
68 Agree
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1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing
Call for Evidence Responses to Themes
Theme 3 We have been told that new social
workers are often not properly prepared for the
demands of the job. The education system does not
effectively support ongoing development and
specialisation
Theme 4 We have been told that the social work
profession does not have a strong national voice
and is not well supported at national level.
59 Agree
81 Agree
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1. The Task Force Process 2. What Weve Been
Hearing
Call for Evidence Responses to Themes
Theme 5 We have been told that systems for
managing the performance of social workers are
not driving quality first and foremost
Theme 6 We have been told that the social work
profession is under-valued, poorly understood and
under continuous media attack. This is making it
hard for social workers to do their jobs and hard
to attract people into the profession
69 Agree
88 Agree
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Our Future Reports

• The Task Force will report again in July and make
  its full recommendations to Government in October.

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Dead Meat or sustainable production?

• Its up to YOU Your Profession Needs You!