From Snapshots of Practice to a Movie

Researching Long-Term Social Work and Child Protection by Getting as Close as Possible to Practice and Organisational Life

Bibliographic Data

ID10894633
AuthorsHarry Ferguson (0000-0002-7191-6353, University of Birmingham, corresponding author), Jadwiga Leigh (0000-0002-0171-4019, Lancaster University), Tarsem Singh Cooner (0000-0003-4950-8844, University of Birmingham, Room 841, 8th Floor, Muirhead Tower, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK), Liz Beddoe (0000-0001-7953-7369, University of Auckland), Tom Disney (0000-0002-6080-7709, Northumbria University), Lisa Warwick (0000-0002-9405-6958, B6 Law and Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, NG7 2RD, UK), Gillian Plumridge (University of Birmingham)
Year2020
Volume50
Issue6
Pages1706-1723
Publication date2020-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Social Work (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0045-3102 • E-ISSN: 1468-263X
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/bjsw/bcz119
OpenAlexW2982506263
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited33

Research into social work and child protection has begun to observe practice to find out what social workers actually do, however, no such ethnographic research has been done into long-term practice. This article outlines and analyses the methods used in a study of long-term social work and child protection practice. Researchers spent fifteen months embedded in two social work departments observing organisational practices, culture and staff supervision. We also regularly observed social worker’s encounters with children and families in a sample of thirty cases for up to a year, doing up to twenty-one observations of practice in the same cases. Family members were also interviewed up to 3 times during that time. This article argues that a methodology that gets as close as possible to practitioners and managers as they are doing the work and that takes a longitudinal approach can provide deep insights into what social work practice is, how helpful relationships with service users are established and sustained over time, or not, and the influence of organisations. The challenges and ethical dilemmas involved in doing long-term research that gets so close to social work teams, casework and service users for up to a year are considered

Business · Child protection · Ethnography · Political science · Public relations · Service (business) · Sociology · Term (time) · Work (physics) · Child Abuse and Trauma · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Marketing · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access