Recent reviews of social work and social work education have identified a need for social workers to more readily adopt the role of social scientist. Croisdale-Appleby (2014) advocates that social workers should not only use theory and evidence in their practice but should also engage in the process of research.
Plymouth City Council’s Academy of Social Work support social work students and our practitioners who wish to engage in this exciting field of study and who wish to be at the forefront of contemporary developments in social work practice.
To date, we have supported a number of seminal research projects with leaders in the field that have had impact for social work training and development. Some of our current areas of research focus include:
Kings College London- Exploration into mother’s in care proceedings where alcohol misuse is a key are of concern. The research team were able to talk to social workers to understand the processes and experiences in Plymouth. They benefitted particularly from Plymouth due to the uniqueness of there being a Family Drug and Alcohol Court. This research will enable service user experiences to be heard and understood. The research will offer macro and micro recommendations for how things can be improved for children and parents.
University of Bedfordshire- Research in the field of special guardianship. Specifically finding out about the way children’s social workers in local authorities evaluate, plan and recommend future contact between special guardian children and their birth parents. The researcher was keen to look at a variety of Local Authorities to understand what practice looks like across the country. This research will give social workers recommendations on ‘what works’ in this area of practice.
NHS CAMHS - Research to assess the effectiveness of the nurturing attachment training programme. To see whether self-efficacy of foster carers improves over the course of the programme. The findings and key messages were then fed back to trainers, social workers and foster carers. This research will lead to recommendations for changes and adaptions to the programme.
University of Manchester - Examination of the impact of agile working enabled by digital technology on working practices in children's safeguarding social work services. The project involves three different local authorities, representing different approaches to agile working. Once completed this training will identify service users', social workers' and social work supervisors' views about the impact of agile working and the use of mobile electronic devices on the quality of children's safeguarding social work services; produce detailed case studies of good practice in agile working and use of mobile electronic devices in children's safeguarding services; disseminate project findings, with a view to promoting good practice in children's safeguarding services.
Research projects undertaken by our students include:
- How social workers can best gain the views of children and young people.
- Understanding male perceptions within social work.
Plymouth City Council’s Children Young People and Families Service is a learning organisation and the Academy of Social Work supports a culture of social workers delivering evidence based practice. We have a Research Governance Framework which all potential projects must go through prior to the research commencing. This seeks to ensure that research is ethical, protects the safety of service user participants and is compliant with legislation and research guidance.
Reference
Croisdale-Appleby,D (2014) ‘Revisioning Social Work Education: An Independent Review’