Hugh McLaughlin - Understanding Social Work Research

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Understanding

Social Work Research

SAGE has been part of the global academic community since 1965, supporting high quality research and learning that transforms society and our understanding of individuals, groups, and cultures. SAGE is the independent, innovative, natural home for authors, editors and societies who share our commitment and passion for the social sciences.

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Understanding

Social Work Research

Second Edition

Hugh McLaughlin

Hugh McLaughlin 2012

First edition published 2007

This edition first published 2012

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011929787

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-85702-871-6

ISBN 978-0-85702-872-3 (pbk)

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Contents

About the Author

Hugh is a registered social worker and is currently Professor of Social Work at Manchester Metropolitan University. Hugh was born and brought up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. He is married to Catherine and they have two grown up children, James and Eleanor, of whom they are very proud.

Before moving into academia, he was a practising social worker, team leader, area manager, service manager and assistant director in local authority children and family services. During this time he maintained a keen interest in research for social work practice undertaking his PhD, MPhil, MSc and MA (Econ) part-time. Following 22 years in practice he moved to the University of Salford developing his research interests and publications to include the meaningful involvement and limitations of service users in evaluating/researching social care provision, developing a research informed social work practice, child care practice and the development of learning organisations. Hugh retains a keen interest in practice and is chair of the trustee board for After Adoption, a member of the trustee board for the National Childrens Bureau (NCB), the advisory group for Involve (NIHR) and a member of SCIEs Partner Council.

When Hugh is not working or writing he likes to run, go to the theatre and scuba dive preferably in warmer waters than the UK!

1 Why Research for Social Work?

Introduction

This book seeks to identify research as an underused but essential tool for the busy social worker in undertaking their difficult, demanding and often contradictory tasks within society. For too long research has been ignored by social workers or at best been relegated to an add-on or luxury. There are many reasons why this has been so and some of these will be explored in later chapters. Social workers work with people often at their most vulnerable children who have been abused, those who have been subject to domestic violence or those suffering chronic mental ill health. Each of these deserves the highest professional expertise from their social workers and this book argues that this is not possible without also including a research-minded perspective. Research can help social workers deliver their practice agenda and in many ways good research and good social work are synonymous. DCruz and Jones (2004: 2) write that:

We teach research to social work students because we believe that social work practice is more likely to be effective when social workers are able to draw on and evaluate previous research.

As a social worker, or social work student, you will want to know whether your interventions are making a difference, either positively or negatively. Social work is not a neutral activity. Social work can lead to a positive outcome for the service user or the social worker or it may lead to a negative outcome for one or both of them. To this end it is imperative for social workers to be in a continuous reflective relationship with their practice seeking to find evidence and answers that help them to identify whether their intervention is effective or mere interference. As such the social worker may have to ask:

• Will the care package I commission enable Mr and Mrs Jones to live independently in their own home?
• Is the Councils policy on personalisation working?
• What does the research evidence say about effective residential provision?
• Is there a link between domestic violence and child abuse?

As a social worker there is a need to be able to ask these and similar questions at the individual, your own caseload, the agency and the policy level. The policy level may be both at local service delivery and national in terms of government policy and its impact on practice.

The Notion of the Social Worker and Social Work

The notion of a social worker has been defined in a number of different ways over the years. In 1982 following a series of child abuse tragedies and inquiries, the then UK Conservative Government commissioned Peter Barclay to review the role and function of social workers. In the prelude to the report, Barclay noted:

Too much is expected of social workers. We load them with unrealistic expectations and then complain when they do not live up to them. Social work is a relatively young profession. It has grown rapidly as the flow of legislation has greatly increased the range and complexity of its work. (Barclay, 1982: vii)

Payne (2005) describes three major differing approaches to how we conceptualise social work. These are:

• Individualismreformism: this refers to social work as an activity that aims to meet social welfare needs on an individualised basis.
• Socialist-collectives: this approach focuses on promoting cooperation within society in order that the most oppressed and disadvantaged can gain power and take control of their own lives.
• Reflexivetherapeutic: this approach is focused on promoting and facilitating personal growth so that people are enabled to deal with the suffering and disadvantage that they experience.

Reflexive Questions

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