The development of student social workers' communication skills

A Good communication is central to effective social work practice, helping to develop constructive working relationships and improve the outcomes of people in receipt of social work services. There is strong consensus that the teaching and learning of communication skills for social work students is an essential component of social work qualifying courses. As a social work lecturer teaching on various practice-based modules, my research interest lies in understanding the impact of teaching on social work students' communication skills. The aim of this research project is to expand our disciplinary knowledge of this important aspect of social work education. Knowledge and practice reviews have identified two major gaps in the existing literature. First, outcomes evidence underpinning communication skills training interventions are limited. Second, the theoretical underpinnings of the teaching and learning of communication skills have not been made explicit. To address the first gap within the literature, a systematic review will be conducted to answer the question: 'What is the effectiveness of communication skills training for improving the communicative abilities of social work students?' The findings will help to determine whether communication skills training for social work students works and which types of communication skills training, if any, are more effective and lead to the most positive outcomes. To address the second gap within the literature - the need to theorise the intervention - a realist synthesis will be conducted. As an interpretive, theory-driven approach which allows different types of information, evidence and literature about complex social interventions to be reviewed, realist synthesis can explain how and why interventions might work. The realist synthesis will support the development of programme theories. Reflecting social work's commitment to user participation, and in keeping with the recommendation for stakeholder involvement in realist research, there is also a participatory element to this research project. Participatory research is a cross cutting research theme within the school of social policy. The primary supervisor has an interest in service user involvement and a wealth of experience teaching communication skills to social work students. The research interests and experience of the second supervisor include realist research and the third supervisor is a methodologist whose specialisms include conducting systematic reviews of psycho-social interventions. The supervisory team have the expertise and experience in the substantive topic and the methodologies to support the postgraduate researcher to undertake all aspects of the project. The research findings will provide a robust evaluation of the teaching and learning of communication skills in social work education, helping to explain underpinning mechanisms and variations in practice to support educators and policymakers to make evidence-based decisions about this subject.