Facts with feelings – social workers' experiences of sharing information across team and agency borders to safeguard children

Abstract

This paper reports findings from a psychosocially informed case study of information sharing across team and agency borders, carried out in three children and family social work teams within one local authority. The study investigated practitioners' understanding and experiences of information sharing, the tasks, processes and technologies involved, as well as perceived barriers and facilitators. It also considered how the emotional and social dynamics of working contexts could impinge upon information work. Practitioners described information tasks relating to collecting, interpreting, communicating and recording information, guided by the demands of rigid organizational protocols. Performance of these tasks was, however, infused by the emotional complexities of child protection work, presenting a number of challenges for practitioners seeking robust and reliable information in the midst of ambiguity, complexity and heightened emotions. For practitioners across all teams, information work, and information itself, was both cognitive and affective and often at odds with linear processes for its exchange across team boundaries, designed to filter out all but hard evidence. Increased recognition of the dual nature (facts and feelings) of information and information work, throughout the safeguarding process, has potential to enhance the generation of shared understandings and collaborative practice across team and agency borders.

The effects of interoperable information technology networks on patient safety: a realist synthesis

“…Thompson 134 undertook an observational study of referrals to local authorities. In common with Lees, 132 Thompson found that there was a distinction between the situations on the ground and the formal recorded accounts that were required in children's services. Thompson characterised the distinction in terms of different ways of thinking about a jigsaw.…”

“…Lees 132 undertook observations of teams, 32 semistructured interviews and document analysis in three children and family social work teams in one local authority in England. Lees 132 identified the dual nature of what she termed 'information work'. Lees emphasised the distinction, in practice, between the recording and communication of information across teams and the emotional nature of child protection work.…”

From communication to co‐operation: Reconceptualizing social workers' engagement with children

“…These activities are closely identified with the completion of overarching statutory, safeguarding tasks. Communication is perceived (and practised), largely, as a one directional process, with its emotional content stripped out (Lees, ). Indeed much of our research data illustrate exactly this practice dynamic and driver in operation—social workers asking children, albeit often in a sensitive manner, a battery of questions in order to gather information.…”

Managing the flow of private information on children and parents in poverty situations: Creating a panoptic eye in interorganizational networks?

“…Much attention has been devoted to the improvement of communication and to the sharing of information to enhance the continuity of service delivery (Allen, ; Anthony et al, ; Statham, ) and to avoid striking gaps and overlaps in service provision for families (McKeown, Haase, & Pratschke, ; Warin, ). The pressure on sharing information also derives from a protection logic and the need for a higher control of children at risk (Lees, ; Thompson, ). It has been argued that sharing information and documentation prevents the receipt of conflicting information, which often produces frustration on the side of social service providers because it results in a duplication of their efforts (Provan, ).…”