This article offers a new conceptualisation of sensemaking in social work assessment. During assessment, social workers are required to make sense of a wide range of information. This may include written reports, behavioural cues, verbal, sensory and emotional data. In this article, the term 'sensemaking' is used to refer to the processes through which social workers gather, select and interpret this varied, and often incomplete, information during assessment. Sensemaking is defined as a psychosocial process which precedes and underpins professional judgement and decision-making. While there has been interest in how social workers assess risk to children, the sensemaking process that occurs before a decision is made has received less attention, and sensemaking lacks a clear definition. Drawing on existing research on assessment and theoretical literature from the fields of psychology and organisational studies, this article offers a view of sensemaking through three lenses: sensemaking as intuitive process, sensemaking as social storytelling and sensemaking as an emotionally-informed process. Drawing together key features from these three perspectives, we advance six propositions about sensemaking in child and family assessment: 1) sensemaking is a process of formulation; 2) sensemaking involves movement between conscious and non-conscious processes; 3) sensemaking can be developed through experience and learning through reflection; 4) sensemaking is inseparable from the environment in which it takes place 5) sensemaking is a dialogic process; 6) sensemaking is an emotionally-informed as well as cognitive process. The article concludes with the implications of this conceptualisation of sensemaking for assessment in child and family social work.

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Despite the importance of decision‐making in child and family social work, how social workers make sense of information in undertaking assessments and making decisions has received limited attention. Drawing on an ethnographic study of four child and family social work teams across two English local authorities, this article demonstrates how social workers make sense of the lives of children and families through a story‐building process. Data comprise interviews with social workers and supervisors (n = 22), recordings of one‐to‐one supervision (n = 17) and observations of everyday case‐talk (n = 21). A model of social work sensemaking is offered, consisting of three stages: (1) initial formulations, (2) developing the narrative and (3) adopted account. Across these stages, social workers engage in different forms of sensemaking activity, such as case framing, testing and weighing information, and generating hypotheses. Collegial and supervisory case‐talk provide opportunities for social workers to scrutinize their developing narratives; however, some forms of case‐talk can limit or shortcut sensemaking. This model has applications for practitioners and organizations as a tool to promote reflection on how social workers make sense of their cases. Further recommendations include social workers having access to formal and informal reflective spaces where sensemaking case‐talk can take place.

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