Social Work

From Assessment to Intervention

Philip Heslop, Cathryn Meredith

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781526424495, 9781526424488
• eBook ISBN: 9781526454584
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

This book equips readers with the essential knowledge and skills to undertake effective assessments and appropriate interventions with confidence. In part one the authors unpick exactly what assessment is, outline the assessment toolkit, apply this to practice and discuss the ins and outs of the development of a clear care plan. Drawing on activities, case studies and service user perspectives part two guides readers through the application of different intervention methods in varied contexts with diverse service user groups. This book focuses on key issues such as resilience, professional values and ethics, complexity and reflective practice, helping students not only get to grips with all the essential theory but also to develop to emotional and professional intelligence.

Part I Assessments: Making Sense and Planning to Act

1 Definitions and Principles of Assessment

Introduction

Assessing, or making sense of situations, is an ordinary human activity: we all assess situations to identify problems and find solutions. For social workers, assessment is the tool through which we make sense of a situation in order to inform professional judgements. Like social work itself, assessment can be described as a ‘complex’ activity (Adams et al., 2009). In this chapter, we explore the expectations of our profession, which have evolved in response to our increasing focus on safeguarding, leading to overarching standards of practice. We look at approaches to social work assessments, exploring key models and principles. Finally, we define some of the key values and concepts which inform all social work assessments.

The expectations of UK social work

Social work can be an elusive concept to understand. Our roles are many and varied – they have to be, because we work with people across the life course, from babies through to older people. The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) uses the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) definition as the basis for UK social work practice.

Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge, social work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing. (IFSW, 2017)

‘Social worker’ is a legally protected title, which may only be used by a person registered with an appropriate regulatory body. Regulatory bodies are responsible for setting professional standards, holding the professional register, approving initial education and training courses for social workers and operating ‘fitness to practise’ systems. In the UK, the social work regulators are the Scottish Social Services Council, Social Care Wales, the Northern Ireland Social Care Council, and in England the newly established Social Work England (having replaced the Health and Care Professions Council).

The social work profession’s standards are set out in the Professional Capabilities Framework and the Chief Social Workers’ Knowledge and Skills Statements. It is crucial that professional standards exist, to set clear and consistent expectations of social work practice. However, standards must help the profession to flourish and continually develop, rather than stifling it through narrow prescription. Social work has become increasingly concerned with anticipating and responding to situations where there is a risk of harm in order to safeguard children and adults, to the extent where safeguarding has achieved paramountcy over all other social work tasks. The consequences of ‘getting it wrong’ are extremely high, and therefore the inherent pressure can engender anxiety in both individual practitioners and whole agencies. Guidance and requirements intended to ensure consistency and minimise error have imposed rigid timescales, targets and statistical performance indicators. Operationalising these requirements can result in procedural and managerial approaches reliant on pro formas, electronic record management systems and inflexible assessment tools, rather than professional judgement and discretion. In these conditions, social workers can lose their professional autonomy and feel that their knowledge and skills have been devalued (Galpin, 2016). There is much evidence that children and adults who have experienced procedural models of safeguarding have found it impersonal and excluding.

The Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF)

The PCF is the underpinning framework of social work practice in England. It is a visual tool that promotes social work as one profession, setting out the capabilities expected of social workers across all fields, all levels of practice and all stages of career. BASW is the custodian of the PCF, and in 2018 it launched a refreshed version of the framework (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 The Professional Capabilities Framework

Source: Published with kind permission of BASW – www.basw.co.uk

The refreshed PCF has three, overarching themes:

• The purpose of social work; its values, ethics and commitment to equalities, diversity, rights and social justice.
• The practice of social work with individuals, families and communities: its distinctive knowledge base, its application of reflection and critical analysis and the development of specific interventions and skills.
• The wider impact of social work through leadership, professionalism and influence at organisational and other contextual levels (BASW, 2018).

Each theme is subdivided into domains of capabilities, i.e. the knowledge, skills, behaviours and values required for effective social work practice. There are nine domains in total:

1. Professionalism
2. Values & Ethics
3. Diversity & Equality
4. Rights & Justice
5. Knowledge
6. Critical Reflection & Analysis
7. Skills & Interventions
8. Contexts & Organisations
9. Professional Leadership

Assessment permeates the whole PCF, but is most explicitly apparent within the Practice theme and the Critical Reflection & Analysis domain.

The Knowledge and Skills Statements (KSS)

Unlike the PCF, which takes an across the profession approach, the Knowledge and Skills Statements describe what a social worker should know, and be able to do, within specific practice settings and roles. The Knowledge and Skills Statements are issued by the Chief Social Workers, following consultation with the profession and those who use it. There are separate Chief Social Workers for Adults and for Children and Families, and therefore KSS are specific to practice with either children and families or adults. A number of Knowledge and Skills Statements have been produced, e.g. Knowledge and Skills Statements for Practice Leaders and Practice Supervisors (Department for Education, 2015a), Knowledge and Skills Statement: Achieving Permanence (Department for Education, 2016). Within this book we will focus on the two KSS with the broadest application for our readers, i.e. Knowledge and Skills for Child and Family Social Work (Department for Education, 2014), Knowledge and Skills Statement for Social Workers in Adult Services (Department of Health, 2015).

The relationship between the PCF and the KSS

In early 2018, BASW’s Chief Executive and the Chief Social Workers issued a joint statement clarifying that the PCF and KSS are intended to be used in conjunction with each other to guide everyday practice, with the KSS mapped onto the domains of the Practice theme of the PCF, Knowledge, Critical Reflection & Analysis and Skills & Interventions:

… the PCF is the overarching framework for social work in England, from pre-qualifying to strategic levels, across all practice areas. BASW now hosts the PCF, on behalf of the profession. The KSS have been developed by the Chief Social Workers to set out what is expected of qualified social workers in specific practice settings and roles. Both the PCF and the KSS have been developed by the profession through extensive engagement with social workers at all levels, representative bodies and the public.

Together, the PCF and KSS provide the foundation for social work education and practice in England at qualifying and post-qualifying levels and are used to inform recruitment, workforce development, performance appraisal and career progression. (BASW et al., 2018).

Approaches to, and principles of, assessment

We all assess, all the time. It is simply an everyday human activity, crucial to decisions such as ‘what will I have for breakfast?’ or ‘is it safe to cross the road?’ Unfortunately, assessments are not always accurate or successful, and therefore we will sometimes make the wrong decision about our breakfast, or more significantly, when to cross the road! To assess is to gather and use information to form an opinion; it is synonymous with judgement, evaluation, calculation, analysis and estimation. When we enter social work education, we already have the ability to assess, but through our training, we transition from making everyday personal assessments, to making professional assessments, the objective of which is to make robust, accurate and defensible judgements, founded on analysis of evidence. This professional assessment is a completely new level.

Social work is a highly personal profession: just think about how you assessed whether or not to enter it.

Exercise 1.1

• When can you first remember considering becoming a social worker?
• What influenced you to think about this?
• Did you consider any other careers? If so, why did you choose social work over them?
• What do you want to achieve by being a social worker?
• Has your experience of social work education changed your views and aspirations? How?

You may have been motivated by personal experiences or events, by negative or positive interactions with social work, by the experiences or examples of people close to you. You will have an emotional or cognitive rationale for choosing this career, and it will be individual to you. This personalised approach to practice should be appreciated and valued. How much awareness social workers have of their own theoretical approaches and personal values is difficult to determine, as we often struggle to recognise how much our internalised histories, values and theoretical preferences relate to our social work practice. Hennessey (2011) recommends that students studying social work complete a visual tool called a lifeline (we will explore lifelines in Chapter 8) to identify and reflect upon the significant events of their life from birth to the start of their training. Knowledge of this context is critical because the ‘theoretical approach taken by social workers and the agencies in which they work influences the assessment process in a similar way to personal values and belief systems’ (Parker and Bradley, 2014: 8).

Author’s Experience (PHIL)

As a newly qualified social worker, I was very happy to receive a thank you from a woman I had never met. She reminded me that we had spoken on the telephone a while ago, and told me how grateful she had been to talk to me at a time when something was bothering her a great deal. Although I was very pleased to hear I had helped, to be completely honest, I could not recollect the conversation. I must have said or done something right, if only by instinct. We do not always realise when our actions have impact. The telephone call had not seemed significant enough for me to remember, but it had been extremely significant to her.

Social work assessments

Social work assessments are concerned with professional judgements, risk identification, case management and decision making that are professionally and sometimes publicly accountable (Rutter and Brown, 2015). A simple reliance on the practitioner’s perspective is ineffective and not tailored to the person’s needs or situation. Acting instinctively, intui...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the Authors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Part I Assessments: Making Sense and Planning to Act
• 1 Definitions and Principles of Assessment
• 2 Social Work’s Evolving Context: A Brief History
• 3 Risk and Professional Judgement
• 4 Assessing Children, Young People and Families
• 5 Assessing Adults’ Needs
• 6 Planning, Reviews, Flexibility and Supervision
• Part II Interventions: Now Let’s Go and Help People
• 7 Intervening as a Social Worker
• 8 Relationships, Systems and Complexity
• 9 Intervening During a Crisis
• 10 Task-centred Interventions
• 11 Strengths and Solution-Focused Interventions
• 12 Working with Groups and Group Work
• Summary and Final Thoughts
• Summaries of Learning Exercises
• References
• Index