Writing in professional social work practice in a changing communicative landscape (WISP)

The production and use of written texts is a high stakes activity in professional social work, playing a central role in all decisions about actions and services for people and at the same time used to evaluate social workers' professional competence. Writing of all kinds pervades everyday social work practice, from more formal writing, such as assessment reviews stored and shared via large ICT (Information and Communications Technology) systems, to more informal writing, such as note-making during a telephone call, brief emails, text messages and personal notes. Attention to professional social work writing is often minimal in formal education programmes and professional training initiatives. Yet social work writing (often under the label of 'recording') is frequently the target of criticism in formal reviews and public media reporting of social work practice, hitting headline news when a case of extreme abuse or death occurs.

Little empirical research has been carried out to date on the writing demands and practices of everyday social work and their changing nature given the range of technologies being used. The proposed study seeks to address this gap in the existing knowledge base by answering the following interrelated questions: what are the institutional writing demands of contemporary social work? what are the writing practices of professional social workers? how are the how are writing demands and practices shaping the nature of professional social work?

To answer these questions, the project focuses on three local authorities in the UK, exploring the range of written texts required and the writing practices of 50 social workers. It uses an integrated language methodology, including ethnographic description, discourse analysis using corpus software and the detailed tracking of the production of texts, in order to: map the types of writing that are required and carried out during the course of everyday practice; quantify the amount of writing that is being done and explore how writing is being managed alongside other commitments; identify the technologies mediating specific writing practices and the extent to which these enable or constrain effective writing and communication; track the trajectories of texts relating to specific cases; identify the writing challenges that social workers face, the problems identified and solutions adopted.

Beneficiaries of the research

The economic and societal impact of this research is its potential to develop highly effective writing practices which will significantly contribute to efficient and cost effective social care provision. Social care is costly (calculated at 27 billion pounds annually in the UK, Audit Commission 2013) and problems arising from errors, unnecessary repetition and ambiguities in writing significantly increase the cost of provision, as well as the risk of harm to service users. There are eight key groups of user beneficiaries: 1) professional social workers: 2) service users and carers; 3) social work agencies; 4) social work education and training providers; 5) social care inspection bodies; 6) policy makers on health and social care at local, national and international levels; 7) professional workers in other sectors where there are significant writing and recording demands, e.g. health, policing; 8) the general public. Key stakeholders have been involved in establishing the research focus including consultations around the project proposal and will play a key role throughout the life of the project (see Pathways to Impact).

How identified groups will benefit

Social workers will benefit from the research by being better informed about the specific writing demands of their profession and taking greater control over discourses and genres. This will be achieved through guidelines developed in consultation with the Impact Advisory Committee, workshops and conference presentations co-delivered with participating agencies, articles in professional magazines, the project web page, blogs and the use of social media. The overall impact will be improved recording practices in social work which will in turn benefit service users and carers who will receive a more targeted and effective service provision, in particular the timely identification of need and risk.

Social work agencies will benefit by adopting an integrated approach to writing and recording practices, taking account of the immediate demands social workers face and available resources (technological, human, discursive and material - e.g. time). Through collaboration with the Impact Advisory Committee and with participating agencies, specific guidelines and frameworks to support agencies' evaluation of existing writing practices will be generated, as well as helping to inform debate about what constitutes 'effective recording'.

Higher Education providers of social work programmes and post qualifying training initiatives will benefit from the generation of datasets of authentic texts and detailed descriptions of practices which they will use to support evidence based training and teaching. Co-produced case study material and workshop activities will be made freely available on the project website and advertised via education and training networks. A training workshop open to up to 30 HEI providers will be co-delivered with the HEA.

The research will benefit policy makers at local, national and international levels, both in specific relation to recording and as part of developing best practice in social work in general. The research will influence policy development through consultations and briefings targeted at the Local Government Association, relevant UK ministers for health and social care and ministers working on Europe's 2020 strategy, as well as relevant professional networks such as Social Services Europe.

Findings will benefit practitioners, trainers and educators in similar public facing sectors, such as health workers and the police, by offering frameworks for characterising the range of writing demands in their specific domains and evaluating problems and solutions.

The public will benefit as providers (tax payers) and users of social care services through more efficient and cost efficient recording practices and will be involved in the project through the project webpage, press briefings and social media