Research Publications by Partners
Publications are organised into the following themes:
- Adoption & Fostering
- Adults with Learning Disabilities
- Autoethnography
- Carers
- Casework
- Children & Young People
- Children with Disabilities
- Child Sexual Exploitation
- Criminal Justice/Peer Mentoring
- Dementia
- Foster Care
- Hospice Work
- Lived Experience Leaders/Participation
- Older People
- Participation
- Power Relations
- Practice Learning
- Relationship Based Practice
- Research Ethics
- Research Skills
- Social Work Education
- Supervision
- Supervision & Management
- The Structure of Social Work
- The Voluntary Sector
- Visual Methods
- Young People's Mental Health
Fostering & Adopting
Harlow, Elizabeth; Mitchell, Andrew E. P.; Doherty, Pauline; Moran, Paul (University of Chester, 2015-04-01)
The aims of the Post-placement adoption support services (PPASSs) were to enhance the lives of 40 adopted children by: improving their school attainment; improving their relationships with teachers, peers and family members; building their confidence and well-being; and reducing behavioural difficulties.
Harlow, Elizabeth (Taylor & Francis, 2018-05-16)
In the United Kingdom as elsewhere, children across the age range are now being adopted from care. Some of these children, by no means all, are expressing additional physical, emotional, behavioural and educational needs. In consequence, the government has introduced legislation and attendant policies aimed at providing adoptive families with support. In 2013 in the northwest of England, a specialist post-adoption support service was established, and an illuminative evaluation of its organization and provision was conducted. A key theme emerging from the qualitative data concerned the difficulties parents had encountered in accessing appropriate support prior to the creation of the service. These difficulties have been interpreted as: uncertainty in defining the problems encountered and knowing which agencies and professionals to approach; ambivalence about seeking help; professionals’ uncertainty in knowing how to respond; and the scarcity of resources. This paper illustrates these difficulties, then draws attention to some of the ways in which they are being addressed.
Harlow, Elizabeth
Attachment theory may be considered controversial given that some of its foundational principles are contested. Not only this, it is currently being developed by insights from neuroscience, another perspective that academics have subjected to critique. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the twenty-first century in England and the United Kingdom in general, there has been a renewed interest in its explanation of child development, as well as its application in schools, social care settings and the practice of professionals such as social workers and teachers. This paper outlines the core principles of attachment theory, acknowledges some of the criticisms, then traces the ways in which the theory has been developed over time. The theory is then illustrated with a description of the ways in which it is being applied in the training of foster carers, the provision of support to adoptive parents and in the school environment.
Adults with Learning Difficulties
Understanding of the Care Act 2014 among carers of adults with learning disabilities
Gant, Valerie (RCN Publishing, 2017-05-26)
The Care Act (2014) gave new rights to carers for assessment and aimed to provide a structure for a more personalised approach to care and support (DoH, 2014). The UK population is an aging one and research indicates that people with learning disabilities are part of this longevity (Emerson and Hatton, 2008; Foster and Boxall, 2015; Walker and Ward, 2013) with the majority of people with learning disabilities remaining in family care for many years (Cairns, et al. 2013; Gant, 2010). Thus carers are frequently providers of care for their relative with a learning disability and take on many levels of responsibility, often lasting for decades. This paper describes a research study involving 9 carers of adults with learning disabilities to establish their views on this piece of legislation, its likely significance to them and their relatives, and provides a forum for discussion and debate in terms of possible implications for practice.
Siblings of Adults with Learning Disabilities: An Empirical Study
Gant, Valerie (Social Work and Society, 2018-01-01)
Adult siblings are frequently providers of care for their brother or sister with a learning disability* and many take on many levels of responsibility, which often lasts for decades. The majority of research focusing on siblings of people with learning disabilities comes from the perspective of those aged under 18. This paper draws on the work of Rawson (2012) and Pompeo (2009) to focus attention on adult siblings. This study, examined the relationships adult siblings have with their brother or sister with a learning disability. Fourteen participants were involved, in-depth interviews were conducted to gather data that was thematically analysed. The findings revealed that siblings want to be involved in the life of their brother or sister and to be seen as next of kin by professionals when their parents have died, but yet are unsure how best to approach this prospect. Based on these findings, implications for practitioners are discussed.
Authoethnography
Social Work Through Collaborative Autoethnography
Gant, Valerie; Cheatham, Lisa; DiVito, Hannah; Offei, Ebenezer; Williams, Gemma; Yatosenge, Nathalie (Taylor & Francis, 2019-02-13)
This paper discusses a research project involving 5 MA Social Work Students and 1 member of Social Work Academic Staff. Using narrative and taking a collaborative autoethnographical approach, this project highlights some of the feelings that students articulated following a 70 day placement experience. Findings include anxiety, powerlessness and frustration, together with growing confidence, recognition of their skills and a deeper understanding of the role of ‘self’ in social work. Raising issues of preparedness for practice placement, this paper has implications for both social work practice and social work education. Autoethnography (AE) is both a method of carrying out research and a methodology, specifically a qualitative methodology linked to ethnography and narrative inquiry. AE results in highly personalised narrative accounts of the researcher’s engagement with specific sociocultural contexts in the pursuit of knowing more about a phenomenon. Applying such a methodology to explore collaboratively issues of student lived experience of placement is a new and innovative use of this method.
Carers
Gant, Valerie (Sage, 2016-09-10)
This commentary offers some of the author’s experiences of parenting a child with a severe learning disability and complex and challenging behaviours. Drawing on principles of auto-ethnography and critical reflection, the author considers issues of transition from children’s to adult social care services and the potential for support from a new piece of UK Legislation, the Care Act, 2014.
Gant, Valerie; Bates, Claire
This paper discusses potential opportunities for best practice in the UK that may be brought about by the Care Act (2014). Carers in the UK were given new rights within this legislation with a focus on needs led assessment. The underpinning philosophy of the Care Act is to streamline previous legislation and offer a framework for carers and people in receipt of care, to enable a more personalised approach to care and support.
Gant, Valerie (Critical Publishing, 2018-06-06)
Care-giving transcends race, gender and age and most people will be a care giver or receiver (often both) at some point in their lives. This book explores the extent of caregiving in the UK and discusses its impact on individuals, groups and communities, as well as health and social care professionals. The book covers ways of identifying carers and providing information and advice and, given the likelihood of practitioners themselves providing care, a discussion regarding maintaining resilience and the extent to which personal experiences guide and inform practitioners response to work with carers is included. Exercises allow the reader to explore ways practitioners can engage with and support carers. The recent legislative changes brought about by the Care Act 2014 is discussed, as well as relevant policies. Caregiving has the potential to transcend disciplines, so this text will appeal to students of a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and across the professional arena including social work, nursing, occupational and physiotherapy. The author is donating her royalties on this book to Carers UK and Carers Trust.
Gant, Valerie; Bates, Claire (Journal of Health and Social Care Improvement, 2017-01)
Building on this previous research and the practice background of both authors, this paper aims to identify and then explore potential new opportunities and possible challenges brought about by the introduction of the Care Act 2014 for older parent-carers of adults with learning disabilities. By considering some of the themes that had emerged in this earlier research, set within the then current legislative and political landscape (2006), this paper aims to provide a retrospective and prospective analysis of the legal and policy context within which service delivery to this group takes place, such as to orient thinking regarding the role and function of law and policy in relation to the delivery of services to this and, potentially, other carer-groupings. Plans for future research to develop further these areas will also be discussed.
Gant, Valerie (2021)
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “Older carers of people with learning disabilities: their experiences with local authority assessment processes and personnel” written by Rachel Forrester-Jones. Design/methodology/approach – The commentary considers the experiences of older carers in the context of research, legislative and policy changes over the last 30+ years. Findings – The needs of older carers of adults with learning disabilities are well recognised within the (limited) literature. Less attention has been given to practical strategies to identify and support such carers or to their broader family context. Originality/value – This commentary highlights that assessors carrying out carers’ needs assessments should consider whether adults with learning disabilities are providing care to their older relative. The recognition of possible mutual or reciprocal care needs to be acknowledged and appropriate support offered.
Casework
Book review of The casework relationship
Harlow, Elizabeth (British Association of Social Workers, 2013-03-27)
Children & Young People
Carey, Malcolm (Taylor and Francis, 2019-03-01
This article analyses the negative ethical impact of privatisation, alongside the ongoing mar-ketisation of social care and social work provision for children and young people in England. It critically appraises the implications of a market-based formal social care system, which in-cludes the risk-averse and often detached role of social workers within ever more fragmented sectors of care. Analysis begins with a discussion of background policy and context. The ten-dency towards ‘service user’ objectification and commodification are then detailed, followed by a discussion of the limiting of choice for service users. Service and social fragmentation, and the often severely restricted ‘life chances’ of many children and young people in care, are then deliberated. The concluding discussion reiterates the moral implications of marketisation in relation to ethical frameworks, including those associated with autonomy, informed choice, social exclusion and social justice. The tendency towards children increasingly being utilised as a means to an end within business-orientated sectors of care is highlighted, alongside ethi-cal questions asked about the State’s purpose in providing a community of support.
Carey, Malcolm (Routledge, 2019-07-01)
The article considers some of the ethical impications of the ongoing privatisation of social care and social work services.
Harlow, Elizabeth (2018-01-11)
The implications of attachment theory are becoming more relevant to the work of schools. This article looks at the research and signposts a range of resources, training and support.
Children of the state: Reforming the case system. New Labour and corporate parenting
Harlow, Elizabeth; Frost, Nick (Whiting & Birch, 2011-08-05)
This book chapter discusses the role of the government as corporate patent to children who are unable to live with their birth parents. It describes and offers critical reflection on proposals to improve the education achievement of such children and their relational continuity with social workers.
Children with Disabilities
Carey, Malcolm; Prynallt-Jones, Katherine A. (Taylor & Francis, 2018-02-09)
This article evaluates the use of professional codes of ethics by social workers specialising in work with disabled children who communicate non-verbally. It draws upon phenomenological interviews and other studies to highlight challenges faced by practitioners in a complex role which demands high-levels of skills and knowledge. Supporting other research, codes of ethics were rarely utilised by practitioners who typically maintain a vague appreciation while often compelled to focus upon pragmatic and quick responses to a complex role. Despite this, it is argued that principle-based frameworks embedded within codes of ethics carry important political implications. These include the potential to strengthen existing utilitarian and bioethical discourses embedded in policy or dominant professional narratives, and which can at times marginalise or exclude disabled children.
Prynallt-Jones, Katherine A.; Carey, Malcolm; Doherty, Pauline (Oxford University Press, 2017-03-03)
This paper analyses data drawn from a small group of qualified social workers’ specialising in work with disabled children who communicate using non-verbal methods. While a number of studies have criticised social services for neglecting disabled children, this paper re-evaluates evidence from the standpoint of a small group of experienced practitioners. Three substantive themes are explored which include: problems faced by practitioner’s communicating with children and young people; barriers to direct work; and positive engagement or use of creative methods. Among other findings, the paper highlights the complexity of communication techniques when seeking to accommodate diverse service user and carer needs, as well as creative responses used by practitioners despite significant barriers that include limited available training, technology and financial resources. Despite policy initiatives and legal requirements emphasising the importance of direct work and participation with disabled children, the conclusion reiterates the narrow focus of current risk-averse social work around disability, as well a need for additional resources and training to improve relationships, communication and meaningful support for children and young people that meet basic legal requirements.
Child Sexual Exploitation
Buck, Gillian; Lawrence, Angela; Ragonese, Ester (OUP, 2017-09-02)
Peer-led approaches hold unique and innovative potential as a response to child sexual exploitation (CSE), yet little is known about such approaches in this field. This study aims to increase understanding by listening to young people using one such service. Qualitative methods were adopted in an attempt to understand how young people make sense of peer mentoring, data were collected through self-completion booklets, interviews and a focus group, and analysed using thematic analysis and Gilligan’s listening guide (see Kiegelmann, 2009). Given the small and local sample, the findings presented are not representative; rather they provide a snapshot, which enables us to consider the approach with this client group and the broader implications for peer-led practices. Peer mentoring emerges here as a method which may have emotional, practical and inter-personal benefits for young people facing multiple vulnerabilities. It also, importantly, reaches young women from hidden populations, who are often missing from, or missed by, support services. The article concludes by reflecting on the dilemmas associated with peer-led work and by outlining suggestions made by young people themselves, in the hope that inherent strengths in the approach can be recognised and embedded.
Criminal Justice/Peer Mentoring
Employing with conviction: The experiences of employers who actively recruit criminalised people
Atherton, Peter; Buck, Gillian (2021)
In England and Wales, criminal reoffending costs £18 billion annually. Securing employment can support desistance from crime, but only 17% of ex-prisoners are employed a year after release. Understanding the motivations of employers who do recruit criminalised people therefore represents an important area of inquiry. This article draws upon qualitative interviews with twelve business leaders in England who proactively employ criminalised people. Findings reveal that inclusive recruitment can be (indirectly) encouraged by planning policies aimed to improve social and environmental well-being and that employers often work creatively to meet employees’ additional needs, resulting in commercial benefits and (re)settlement opportunities.
Buck, Gillian (2021) justiceinspectorates.gov.uk
Mentoring and ‘peer’ mentoring are increasing features of probation and youth justice settings. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (2019) defines mentoring as ‘a one-to-one non-judgmental relationship in which an individual (mentor) gives time to support and encourage another (mentee)’. In the context of youth justice, it is a relationship between a young person and supportive adult, established to help the young person achieve their goals (Nellis, 2004). ‘Peer’ mentors are community members, often with lived experiences of criminal justice, who work or volunteer to help people in rehabilitative settings. It can be a diverse practice, encompassing one-to-one sessions, group work or more informal leisure activities (Buck, 2020). This Academic Insights paper outlines the potential of mentoring to assist individuals to leave crime behind, with a specific focus on mentors who draw upon their own lived experiences. It also considers some common problems encountered in the hope they can be avoided. Finally, the practicalities of undertaking (peer) mentoring within criminal justice contexts are explored, as these require specific consideration to develop and maintain safe and ethical practice.
Peer Mentoring in Criminal Justice
Buck, Gillian (2020)
Peer mentoring in criminal justice involves criminalised people and community members with an (often personal) interest in criminal justice working in helping relationships within the criminal justice system. This workbook briefly summarises the findings of a four-year study of peer mentoring in criminal justice (Buck, 2020). Each section briefly summarises a key finding. It then asks reflective questions which may be helpful to mentors working in this field to consider. The workbook is designed to help you reflect on the work you are doing and the additional support that you and/or your mentee might need. Write in this book and work on additional pages as required. You may find it helpful to work on some of these questions further in supervision.
Buck, Gillian (Wiley, 2019-09-04)
Meaningful ‘user involvement’ is an established aim of social work practice, and increasingly, an aspiration of criminal justice, yet there are unique challenges to participatory work within punitive contexts. Drawing upon a study of peer mentoring in the voluntary sector, this article unveils some core tensions related to (ex)service user involvement in criminal justice. Interviews with mentors, mentees, and key stakeholders, along with direct observations of practice, reveal that respondents often see their work as personal-political, emphasising the value of lived expertise and of collective action to address limiting social conditions. Simultaneously, however, mentoring is framed nationally and shaped locally by more established aims to correct, improve, and manage, individual ‘offenders’. There is, therefore, a fundamental tension between processes of politicisation, or coming together to assert a user voice and affect social change; and professionalisation, wherein mentors are co-opted into forms of practice they often critique.
The core conditions of peer mentoring
Buck, Gillian (SAGE, 2017-03-21)
Peer mentoring is an increasing feature of UK criminal justice, yet very little is known about the micro dynamics of this practice. Drawing upon an ethnographic study, this article identifies a number of ‘core conditions’ underpinning the practice, including caring, listening and encouraging small steps. Mentors and mentees highlight these conditions as antidotes to what they often perceive as disconnected, unhearing and technocratic criminal justice practices. Peer mentoring is claimed to release suffering, to unburden the self of grief and to explore new directions, given that mentors ‘genuinely care’ and are tolerant of slip-ups. Respondents offer valuable insight into the experience of being intervened upon and advocate for manageable shifts, which could meaningfully improve services for a range of vulnerable and stigmatized populations. However, the article also introduces tensions, including the expectation of emotional toil for little financial reward and the context of an increasingly results-driven criminal justice system.
Buck, Gillian (Taylor & Francis, 2016-10-10)
Despite growing enthusiasm for peer mentoring as a criminal justice intervention, very little is known about what actually happens within these relationships. Drawing on an ethnographic study of peer mentoring in the North of England this article will foreground the concept of inspiration” in these settings. It will argue that Rene Girard’s theory of mimesis offers a framework with which to analyze role modeling in mentoring relationships and that a Girardian reading also offers interesting insights into the unresolved problem of the origins of personal change.
Buck, Gillian (SAGE, 2016-12-20)
This article draws upon an ethnographic study of peer mentoring in the United Kingdom criminal justice system. It examines how people attempting to desist from criminal lifestyles often experience a period of crisis, characterized by unsettling practical and personal losses. Through interviews with peer mentors and mentees, and observations of mentoring practices, this study renders this sense of adversity visible. It also reveals the ways in which peer mentors may alleviate the weight of the crisis, by providing a blueprint of change, while appearing to be nonauthoritarian. These are important components given that mentees often feel untethered from known ways of being and describe their interactions with authority figures as embattled. An interesting secondary effect which emerges here is that peer mentors appear to shift the perceptions of external observers. This is a vital feature, given that sustained desistance from crime requires contexts conducive to such changes.
Mentoring: crossing boundaries with care?
Gosling, Helena, Buck, Gillian (2015)
There is growing enthusiasm for mentoring as a criminal justice intervention. Indeed, there is a stated policy aim to offer a mentor to every person leaving prison (Grayling, 2012). The idea is reminiscent of the abolitionist inspired radical community interventions of the 1970s (Dronfield, 1980). It is also appealing to policy makers concerned with austerity measures and opening up the justice ‘market to a diverse range of rehabilitation providers’, given that most mentors are volunteers (Ministry of Justice, 2014). Despite the enthusiasm, however, there is little empirical evidence documenting how these relationships develop in practice. This conversation piece, whilst not representative of mentoring more broadly, given its small sample size, is intended to illustrate some of the nuanced challenges that can exist within an evolving mentoring relationship. It is our hope that this will begin a discussion about the nature and evolution of mentoring relationships in this field.
Dementia
Is living well with dementia a credible aspiration for spousal carers?
Tolhurst, Edward; Carey, Malcolm; Weicht, Bernhard; Kingston, Paul (Taylor & Francis, 2018-05-21)
In England there has been substantial policy development and an academic drive to promote the goal of ‘living well’ for people with dementia and their family members. This article critically evaluates the feasibility of this intention, with reference to the experience of those caring for people with the condition. Qualitative data are utilised from a study which explored how couples negotiate relationships and care. The focus of this paper is the perspectives of spousal carers and the challenges they encounter within their caring role. Views were obtained via semi-structured joint interviews where the carer participated alongside the person with dementia. The extent to which living well with dementia is a credible aspiration for carers is examined via three themes: identity subsumed under care responsibilities; the couple as an isolated family unit; and barriers to professional support. The findings highlight that experience of caring is highly complex and fraught with multiple practical, emotional and moral pressures. It is asserted that research into dementia and care relationships must avoid a zero sum situation, prompted by living well discourses, where attempts to bolster the position of people with dementia compound the marginalisation and stigmatisation of informal carers.
Foster Care
Harlow, Elizabeth (Whiting & Birch, 2011-08-05)
Hospice Work
The Use of Language in Hospice Care and the Impact on Patients and Families
Gant, Valerie (Sage, 2017-07-01)
Whilst there is an expanding literature and a growing knowledge-base relating to patient and family experiences in hospice settings (1,2,3), there is a much more limited corpus reflecting the first-person perspective of patients and their families. These accounts can be helpful in highlighting perceived gaps between current practice and family needs (4). This narrative account reflects upon the perspective of a hospice patient’s family during her last week of life and notes how the actions and language of staff members and volunteers had a major impact on the overall experience and subsequent grieving processes of family members.
Lived Experience Leaders/Participation
All our justice: People with convictions and ‘participatory’ criminal justice
Gillian Buck, Paula Harriott, Kemi Ryan, Natasha Ryan, Philippa Tomczak
Despite experiencing strong cultural messages that they are outsiders to be contained and corrected (Becker, 1963/2008), criminalised people play varied roles in the development and delivery of criminal justice services and advocacy around the world (Buck, 2020; Prison Reform Trust, 2017). These roles include peer listeners and mentors (e.g. Seppings, 2016), involvement in service design and commissioning (Revolving Doors, 2016), establishing innovative programmes (e.g. User Voice) and creating service user ‘voice’ and policy lobbying formations (e.g. the Prisoner Policy Network, Revolving Doors Lived Experience forums). This work is often organised by voluntary organisations, from local to national scales. It has been driven by people with convictions themselves, and UK policy plans to i) blend volunteer and peer mentoring into criminal justice ‘rehabilitation’ services (Grayling, 2012; Gough, 2017), and ii) involve young people in the planning, delivery and evaluation of activities across youth justice (YJB participation strategy, 2016).
Older People
Carey, Malcolm (SAGE, 2016-05-01)
This article details how social work with older people is disappearing whilst also being supplanted by seemingly more cost-effective forms of intervention in the UK. This has included the use of higher numbers of unqualified staff in roles once completed by qualified social workers, alongside highly rationed interventions that utilise fewer staff or associate welfare professionals, including those drawn from health care. Findings: Such reforms represent important changes embedded within neo-liberal inspired professional discursive practices. These include the biomedicalization of ageing and associate narrow gaze interpretations of social care needs that privilege pathology and risk. For social work there has also occurred an ongoing retreat from older adults within communities: from care managed and personalised support to the extension of ‘risk averse’ safeguarding and promotion of personal autonomy and informal care. Rather than represent a break with the past such socially constructed and politically motivated reforms remain part of longer held societal and ideological trends. Importantly these include assumptions that older users remain a peripheral concern in contrast to other social groups or needs Applications: The article concludes that the social work profession needs to articulate its distinct role with regard its capability to provide substantive support to an ageing population alongside it’s capacity to look beyond a narrow and unsustainable focus on rationing or the endorsement of self-support, treating illness and controlling risk.
Carey, Malcolm (Routledge, 2019-01-15)
This chapter examines some ethical and political challenges generated by the increasingly complex needs of an ageing society upon social work. It concentrates on the UK as a case study and critically evaluates related age-graded policies and practices relating to social work and care. The chapter includes a discussion of the on-going tensions between social diversity within an ageing society and the shrinking of formal care provision, alongside the impact of professional codes of ethics.
Issues of Ageing, Social Class, and Poverty
Carey, Malcolm (Routledge, 2019-01-18)
This chapter examines some ethical and political challenges generated by the increasingly complex needs of an ageing society upon social work. It concentrates on the UK as a case study and critically evaluates related age-graded policies and practices relating to social work and care. The chapter includes a discussion of the on-going ethical tensions between social diversity within an ageing society and the shrinking of formal care provision.
Carey, Malcolm (SAGE, 2016-06-28)
This paper questions ongoing moves towards integration into health care for social work with older people in the UK. Whilst potentially constructing clearer pathways to support integration risks reducing welfare provisions for a traditional low priority user group, while further extending privatisation. Integration models also understate the ideological impact of biomedical perspectives within health and social care domains, conflate roles and undermine the potential positive role of ‘holistic’ multi-agency care. Constructive social work for older people is likely to further dilute within aggressive integrated models of welfare: which will be detrimental for meeting many of the complex needs of ageing populations.
The neoliberal university, social work and personalised care for older adults
Carey, Malcolm
This article critically examines the impact of the neoliberal university upon social work education and practice relating to older people. It appraises market-led pedagogical reforms, including of the training of social workers who go on to work with older adults, such in support of policies including personalisation. Influence is drawn from the work of Nancy Fraser (2019): specifically, her understanding of ‘progressive neoliberalism’, or the improbable fusion of free market ideals with the politics of recognition to create a rejuvenated hegemonic bloc. This theoretical framework is utilized to analyse the prevalence of emancipatory constructs such as empowerment, participation, anti-oppression, equality, choice and independence within acutely underfunded, bureaucratic, and risk-averse fields of social care and social work. While benefiting some older ‘service users’, it is argued that personalisation policy regularly disadvantages or excludes older people within fragmented adult social care sectors. Progressive neoliberalism has helped to promote policies which envisage participative self-care whilst more often excluding or objectifying older adults, especially those with higher level needs.
Participation
Carey, Malcolm (Cambridge University Press, 2018-03-14
This paper critically examines service user participation and involvement for older adults. It concentrates upon research and community-led engagement for older people, and maintains that despite extensive support and expansion, participation offers a complex form of governance and ideological control, as well as a means by which local governments and some welfare professions seek to legitimise or extend their activities. Some of the paradoxes of participation are discussed, including tensions that persist between rhetorical claims of empowerment, active citizenship and democratic engagement on one hand, despite tendencies towards risk-aversion, welfare retrenchment and participant ambivalence on the other. The paper also highlights practical problems in relation to participative research and community involvement, and questions arguments that participation may challenge the authority of welfare professionals. Critical theory is drawn upon to contextualise the role of participative narratives within wider welfare, including its role in moving debate away from ownership or redistribution while masking and validating policy related goals which can counter many older people’s needs. Tension is also noted between participation projects represented as resource to support ageing identities as opposed to those representing technologies for social regulation and conformity.
Ethical Involvement of Service Users chapterpdf
Burke, B. and Newman, A. (2020) Ethical involvement of service users in, The Routledge Handbook of Service User Involvement In Human Services Research and Education, London, Routledge
In this chapter, we critically reflect on and explore examples taken from our experiences of service user involvement in our various professional roles. By focussing on some of the concerns and dilemmas which have arisen during our practice when involving service users, we have developed a set of ethical practice principles which we believe would support and facilitate meaningful and ethical involvement of service users.
Newman, A. Carey,B. and Kinney, M.
In this article, we discuss our approach to YPs’ participation, exploring their experiences of involvement.
Newman, A. Senior Lecturer, LJMU
The project’s aim was to deliver the first stages of facilitating engagement between refugee women and the mainstream voluntary sector. Central to the project was the employment of two refugee women to carry out much of the project work by acting as bridge builders connecting refugee communities and voluntary organisations with each other.
Teaching qualitative research and participatory practices in neoliberal times QSW 2016 May
Newman, A. and McNamara, Y. Faculty of Education, Health and Community, LJMU
This paper begins by questioning these assumptions, recognising that neoliberal managerialism remains dominant and is resistant to qualitatively inspired practice, determined that practitioners are ‘siloed’ into skills or competence-based approaches in the name of accountability, value for money and ‘outcomes’ consistent with neoliberal ideology.
Power Relations
Powell, Jason; Carey, Malcolm (De Gruyter, 2007-06-01)
Drawing from interviews and ethnographic research, evidence is provided to suggest a sense of “anxiety” and “regret” amongst state social workers and case managers working on the “front-line” within local authority social service departments. There have been a number of theoretical approaches that have attempted to ground the concept of “power” to understand organizational practice though Foucauldian insights have been most captivating in illuminating power relations and subject positioning. In order to theoretically interrogate the relationship between social theory and professional power, we draw from the neo-Foucauldian work of American Social Philosopher Judith Butler—especially regarding Butler’s (1990, 1993 and 1998) powerful work on “performativity” and its relationship to social work. We also attempt to examine the “distances” between the social work role and social workers narratives through an examination of notions of “anxiety” and “regret” in the face of the professionalisation of state social work.
‘Paradigm shift? Biomedical science and social work thinking’
Carey, Malcolm (Routledge, 2019-07-17)
This chapter examines the relationship between biomedical science and social work thinking. It looks at the similarities and differences between two unique but increasingly closely associated ‘helping professions’. As part of the discussion, the role of paradigm, power and ideological disparities and distinct traditions are stressed, as well as the impact of ongoing policy-led reforms which continue to bring each profession closer together.
Practice Learning
Caffrey, Bridget; Fruin, Helen (Whiting and Birch, 2019)
This article explores issues affecting assessment of social work students on practice placements in England. The authors have many years of experience in this area of social work and aim to highlight concerns about the complexity of assessment in practice settings. This report draws on research presented by Bailey-McHale and Caffrey (2018) at the 12th International Conference on Practice Teaching and Field Education in Health and Social Work in order to consider student perspectives. These highlight a sense of feeling powerless and judged. This article also explores the wider issues potentially impacting on the assessment of students practice. Acknowledging the challenges of all assessments, we consider how assessment of student practice may be further complicated by factors including the role and demands of universities, the impact of training and support for practice educators and pressures within current social work practice. This commentary highlights longstanding inequalities within social work assessment on placements for some student groups, including BAME students. The authors draw on Brookfield’s (1998) reflective lenses and encourage the social work profession to reflect and consider how current practice might be improved. The authors invite ideas and feedback to stimulate a professional debate and new ideas.
Walker, Jane; Gant, Valerie
This paper offers a commentary regarding the centrality of critical reflection in social work before discussing a research project drawing on a sample of ten social work students as they approached the end of their social work training in one English university. The original intention of the research was to focus solely on students’ perceptions of critical reflection, but when using a more reflexive approach, we identified that participants utilised the focus groups as an opportunity to discuss their practice learning experiences per se before considering and discussing critical reflection. Most students were placed in child protection social work teams and discussed how they felt unprepared for such a fast-paced and stressful environment. Participants felt that the expectations some practitioners had of students were unrealistic, and not always commensurate with the Professional Capabilities Framework. Students highlighted the use of practice scenarios in developing their knowledge and skills particularly when considering their application of critical reflection. This study highlights the significance of adequate preparation for practice and argues for a more focused agenda for future research exploring the culture of learning, including those factors that inhibit students sharing their concerns as well as the training needs of educators
Navigating relationships in practice learning voices from practice educators
Echo Yuet Wah Yeung, Andrea Newman & Beverley Burke
This paper explores the nature and quality of relationships between social work students and their practice educators and discusses how practice educators navigate their multifaceted and complex role in the context of practice learning in England.
Vanessa Goldsmith, Emma Rimmer, Matthew Rive & Gill Buck
This paper explores two different models of social work practice education within Local Authority (LA) placements. It is based on data from 4 focus groups with 9 student social workers and 9 practice educators. We examined strengths and limitations of the “on-site” model of practice education (student and practice educator are located within the same social work team) in comparison to the “off-team” model of practice education (practice educator is located on a different team to the student, but within the same LA). Results indicate that on-site and off-team models both offer viable pathways for supporting and assessing students on LA placements but there are differences and the models both have distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Relationship Based Practice
Harlow, Elizabeth (2012-07-02)
Published in 1957, Biestek’s text The Casework Relationship might be described as a social work classic. According to Biesteck, social science formed the foundations for practice. Whilst sociology was valued, it was psychoanalytic and humanist psychology that appeared to be of greatest significance. Biestek drew on psychological knowledge as a means of understanding others, but personal reflection was also considered to be crucial: put another way, in order to understand others, a practitioner had to understand him or herself. It was scientific knowledge, as well as a deep understanding of the self, that enabled practitioners to build purposeful relationships with clients or service users. Biestek emphasised relationship as essential to humanity: relationships were seen as the most crucial component of our existence and the main source of our happiness. In terms of social work, it was by means of the practitioner – client relationship that problems were resolved. With the cultural change of the 1960s, Biestek’s work became an edifice of another era. Whilst Howe (2008) suggests that enclaves of relationship based casework have continued over the years, of late there has been a more evident promotion of this approach (see Hennessey 2011; Munro 2011 and Ruch et al. 2010). Concerned as this conference is with the question of whether developments in social work are evolving or revolving, this theory based paper draws on evidence from the literature, and compares relationship based practice of the past with relationship based practice of the present. In acknowledging the particular contribution of psychology to this approach, the paper will include a brief reflection on the place of this discipline in the newly emerging curriculum.
Research Ethics
Carey, Malcolm (Taylor & Francis, 2018-11-29)
This paper examines problems which current ethical governance processes generate for qualitative researchers within social work. It draws upon case studies and critical theory to detail the unpredictable and diverse nature of much social work qualitative research. It argues that too often this research is pitted against a narrow institutional focus placed on positivist-orientated empirical research and income generation. Overtly instrumental interpretations of ethics – often determined by realist and bioethical paradigms – can quickly inhibit the methodological dynamism required to meaningfully capture the complex and non-binary issues which social workers accommodate in their work and subsequent research. Arguments that policy-led, institutional and professional cultures have generated a conservative culture of risk-aversion within the neo-liberal university are also considered.
Research Skills
Harlow, Elizabeth (SAGE, 2013-12-16)
Harlow, Elizabeth (SAGE, 2012-11-12)
Social Work Education
Carey, Malcolm
This article appraises the role of the neoliberal university in regulating social work education, research and practice. The dominance of governments and employers in determining social work education is highlighted, alongside the ascendancy of skills-based and vocational training. Moreover, it is proposed that research, associated learning, and practice are now more often moulded around essentialist science-based, behavioural or functionalist paradigms, which fit conveniently with free market, politically conservative and authoritarian agendas. The neoliberal university is increasingly able to rationally prepare social workers to fulfil narrow ideological objectives, which includes priority given to attempts to empower, pathologise, and scientifically manage structurally disadvantaged populations from minority groups. Reductive paradigms, nevertheless, can struggle to cope with social fragmentation and diversity, with social work students often ill prepared for many of the complex challenges which they later face as qualified practitioners. Analysis for the article draws from critical theory, and it is concluded that market-based discourses and related professional paradigms – and the symbolically constituted and hyperreal fantasies which they help to maintain – can prove difficult to escape. Social work continues to face a precarious future within university settings in which free market narratives, associated norms, targets, and labour insecurity prevail.
Gant, Valerie; Hewson, Michael
Drawing on principles of auto-ethnography, this commentary offers for discussion reflections on a personal reaction to some of the struggles experienced when navigating the English social work placement landscape for a student who has a diagnosis (or label) of dyslexia/dyspraxia. Commenting on some of the challenges faced in order to try and survive the placement experience necessary to complete the programme, this account makes recommendations and suggestions for educators in university and in practice.
Supervision
When Questions are the Answers
Harlow, Elizabeth; Daley, Maureen; Stone, Karen (British Association of Social Workers, 2015-10)
Professional supervision enables social work practitioners to reflect on their performance in relation to organizational goals, but also their own developmental needs. Over recent times, front line managers have been encouraged to incorporate reflective techniques in their supervision, such as those associated with coaching. Among coaching theorists there is a consensus that ‘questions are the answers’. Good quality questioning conversations, which are part of a trusting supervisory relationship, may be of benefit to social work practitioners as well as the people they aim to help.
Coaching, supervision and the social work zeitgeist
Harlow, Elizabeth (British Association of Social Workers, 2013-03-20)
With reference to local authorities in England, this paper acknowledges the intensified critique of the managerial context in which social work is carried out. It recognizes that professional supervision has been in jeopardy, as principles of corporate line management have overshadowed the approaches of the past, and most particularly the supportive components. However, recent developments have reinvigorated the interest in relationship based social work as well as relationship based supervision. Surprisingly or not, it is executive and business coaching that is seen as offering fruitful techniques for front line managers and practitioners, with the possibility of encouraging the progress of this particular trend.
Evaluation of the CWDC’s support to front line managers project
Harlow, Elizabeth; Blunt, Gordan; Stanley, Nick (2011)
Coaching, and the social work zeitgeist
Harlow, Elizabeth (2011-09-01)
Harlow, Elizabeth (SAGE, 2013-12-16)
Harlow, Elizabeth; Izod, Karen (Taylor and Francis, 2015-06-01)
This guest editorial introduces the special edition on the supervision of social work practice
Harlow, Elizabeth (Sage, 2015-09-28)
In England in 2010, the then Children’s Workforce Development Council introduced an initiative which aimed to support front line social work managers in the performance of their role. This article reflects on the way in which support was interpreted and implemented by the Children’s Workforce Development Council and the local authorities that participated in the project, but also the relevance of the project for the social work profession in England at the time.
Supervision & Management
Book review of Social work management and leadership: Managing complexity with creativity
Harlow, Elizabeth (British Association of Social Workers, 2011-01)
Evaluating the support to the front line managers of social work
Harlow, Elizabeth (2011-07-01)
Supporting social work managers
Harlow, Elizabeth (2011-09-14)
Work-life balance, social support, and burnout: A quantitative study of social workers
Selwyn Stanley, Anand Jerard Sebastine, 2023 (sagepub.com)
The Structure of Social Work
Constructing the Social, Constructing Social Work
Harlow, Elizabeth (Routledge, 2017-06-06)
Over recent times, social work has faced many challenges. This chapter does not focus on these challenges, but takes them into account when giving consideration to the construction of the profession in general, and the welfare regime of which it is a part. In giving consideration to this construction, the meaning of the ‘social’ component of ‘social work’ is deemed to be important to the identity of the profession, along with the socio-economic context from which it emerged, and to which it currently belongs. This theoretical foundation calls into question the essentialism of a fixed professional identity, but it also assumes that there is a body of practice known as social work which, over time has become associated with some prevailing features. A chronological approach to the construction of social work is taken and then a case study is offered. A concluding discussion follows on from the case study.
Neoliberalism, managerialism and the reconfiguring of social work in Sweden and the United Kingdom
Harlow, Elizabeth; Berg, Elizabeth; Barry, Jim; Chandler, John (SAGE, 2013-07-01)
This paper considers some of the ways in which neoliberalism, through the processes of managerialism, has impacted on the occupation of social work in Sweden and the UK. It is argued that there are similar implications in both countries, through the managerial drive for increased performance in economy, efficiency and effectiveness, but also in the development of evidence based practice. Whilst the key focus of the paper is on similarities between these two countries, differences are also noted. There is also recognition of the way in which resistance to the reconfiguration of social work is taking shape.
The Voluntary Sector
The penal voluntary sector: a hybrid sociology
Tomczak, Philippa; Buck, Gillian (Oxford Academic, 2019-01-09)
The penal voluntary sector (PVS) is an important, complex, under-theorised area. Its non-profit, non-statutory organisations are highly significant in the operation of punishment around the world, yet ill-understood. Burgeoning scholarship has begun to examine specific parts of the sector, particularly individualised service delivery. We offer a five paradigm framework which more fully conceptualises the PVS, including different types of service delivery and important campaigning work. Our hybrid framework applies and extends Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) influential four paradigm model of social theory, which maps the theoretical diversity underpinning varying organisational activities. Our framework i) provides ideal-types which illustrate the range, fluidity and hybridity of PVS programmes and practices, and ii) highlights the (potential) roles of brokers in (re)directing activity.
The criminal justice voluntary sector: concepts and an agenda for an emerging field
Tomczak, Philippa; Buck, Gillian (John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2019-09-04)
Volunteers and voluntary organisations play significant roles pervading criminal justice. They are key actors, with unrecognised potential to shore up criminal justice and/or collaboratively reshape social justice. Unlike public and for-profit agents, criminal justice volunteers and voluntary organisations (CJVVOs) have been neglected by scholars. We call for analyses of diverse CJVVOs, in national and comparative contexts. We provide three categories to highlight distinctive organising auspices, which hold across criminal justice: statutory volunteers, quasi-statutory volunteers and voluntary organisations. The unknown implications of these different forms of non-state, non-profit justice involvement deserve far greater attention from academics, policymakers and practitioners.
Visual Methods
Bailey-McHale, Julie; Bailey-McHale, Rebecca; Caffrey, Bridget; Macleand, Siobhan; Ridgway, Victoria (Taylor & Francis, 2018-06-21)
Practice learning within social work education plays a significant part in students’ educational journey. Little is understood about the emotional climate of placements. This paper presents a small scale qualitative study of 13 social work students’ perceptions of their relationship with a practice educator (PE) and 6 PE’s perceptions of these emotional experiences. Visual methodology was employed over a two-phased research project, first social work students were asked to draw an image of what they thought practice education looked like, phase two used photo eliciation, PEs were then asked to explore the meaning of these images. Results demonstrated that social work students focused on their own professional discourse, the identity of PEs, power relationship and dynamics between themselves and PEs, the disjointed journey and practice education in its entirety. Whilst the PEs shared their personal views of practice education and reflected on this, both groups had a shared understanding of practice education including its values and frustrations. Keywords: social work placements, visual methodology, practice educators
Caffrey, Bridget; Fruin, Helen; Bailey-McHale, Julie; Ridgeway, Victoria; Bailey-McHale, Bex
The importance of learning in practice is acknowledged across health and social care professions. Social work students’ experiences in practice settings has attracted some attention in academic literature, and the role and impact of the Practice Educator (PE) on student learning is increasingly recognised. However, there is a paucity of research examining the role of the social work tutor generally and particularly within practice learning settings. This paper presents a small-scale qualitative study exploring the impact of visual images produced by social work students reflecting their practice experiences on six social work tutors. Photo elicitation prompted discussion in a focus group setting which was subsequently thematically analysed, with four themes emerging. These were dichotomous relationships, difference and diversity, tutor brokerage skills, and student support. The images encouraged tutors to reflect upon the complexity of their relationship with social work students and question whether they were professionally equipped to support students in complex placement situations. In addition, the effectiveness of the curriculum in preparing social work students for practice was considered, particularly space afforded to students to reflect on practice learning in a safe environment. Opportunities to support SW tutors in their role and SW students in practice are deliberated.
Young People’s Mental Health
Mental health, young people and punishments
Buck, Gillian and Creaney, Sean (2020)
This chapter focuses upon young people who have come to the attention of criminal justice services in England and Wales and will offer a critical introduction to the ways which their behaviour and mental health are constructed. The chapter begins with an overview of the young people who populate today’s youth justice system, before documenting the prevalence of mental ill-health amongst this group and gaps in provision for them. We consider how diverse conceptualisations of mental health can create tensions in practice, and in doing so, ask critical questions of existing approaches, exploring the capacity for present systems to exclude key stakeholders, punish the vulnerable, and label the nonconforming. The chapter concludes by advocating for systems and approaches which do not emotionally harm young people (further) but nurture wellbeing and healthy relationships. We additionally suggest that young people be placed at the centre of these improvements so that any work done on their behalf is meaningful to them and fit for purpose.