Exploring Communication between Social Workers, Children and Young People

Abstract

A key issue for the social work profession concerns the nature, quality and content of communicative encounters with children and families. This article introduces some findings from a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) that took place across the United Kingdom between 2013 and 2015, which explored how social workers communicate with children in their everyday practice.The Talking and Listening to Children (TLC) project had three phases: the first was ethnographic, involving observations of social workers in their workplace and during visits; the second used video-stimulated recall with a small number of children and their social workers; and the third developed online materials to support social workers. This paper discusses findings from the first phase. It highlights a diverse picture regarding the context and content of communicative processes; it is argued that attention to contextual issues is as important as focusing on individual practitioners' behaviours and outlines a model for so doing.

Analysing invisibility: The decision‐making ecology and home visits

“…She was aware of Kohli's (2007) discussion of the "thin" stories asylum seekers tell to the authorities, stories from which much of the detail, complexity, and contradiction have been removed to make them easier to "sell." Winter et al (2017) found that some children refused to speak to the social worker because they were seen as a hostile intruder. This, in turn, is drawn from Geertz's (1973) work on the importance of richly detailed and contextualized "thick" descriptions of other cultures.…”

“…Recent ethnographies of home visits have highlighted this as a particularly problematic area for social workers who may lack the skills and confidence (Ferguson, 2016) and may be faced with children who refuse to communicate out of hostility (Winter et al, 2017) or, as the case study here illustrates, the nearby presence of a parent. Recent ethnographies of home visits have highlighted this as a particularly problematic area for social workers who may lack the skills and confidence (Ferguson, 2016) and may be faced with children who refuse to communicate out of hostility (Winter et al, 2017) or, as the case study here illustrates, the nearby presence of a parent.…”

“…Visits offer both unique opportunities to get to know families on their own ground and unique challenges as workers are deluged with contested information in situations that can be highly emotionally charged (Cook, 2017). However, this may be changing, in the United Kingdom at least, as a number of ethnographic studies of home visits have been published (e.g., Cook, 2017;Ferguson, 2016;Winter et al, 2017). Yet within the general lack of detailed research into the daily activities of practice, the absence of research into home visiting stands out.…”

Patterns of practice: An exploratory factor analysis of child and family social worker skills

“…The talking and listening to children project practice in this context (Ruch et al, 2017;Winter et al, 2016). The talking and listening to children project practice in this context (Ruch et al, 2017;Winter et al, 2016).…”

What makes it so hard to look and to listen? Exploring the use of the Cognitive and Affective Supervisory Approach with children’s social work managers

“…Some of the (often unintended) consequences of these developments and their impacts on day-to-day practice with children and families have been highlighted, with findings from a range of studies pointing to the fragmentation and sanitisation of practice (Broadhurst, Hall, Wastell, White, & Pithouse, 2010;Cooper & Lees, 2015;Hall, Parton, & White, 2010;Peckover, White, & Hall, 2008;Shaw et al, 2009;Winter et al, 2017), the way that 'the balance between following rules and exercising professional expertise has become skewed' (Munro, 2011, p. 87), and a concern that supervision has been colonised by 'new public management' (Ingram, 2013;Lees, Meyer, & Rafferty, 2013;Ruch, 2011).…”