Social work practice and identity in joined-up teams (original) (raw)

Social workers in multidisciplinary teams: issues and dilemmas for professional practice

Child <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> Family Social Work, 2005

This paper draws on the findings of a project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, examining how child and family multidisciplinary teams learn and work together. It outlines the approach taken by the research team before going on to explore New Labour policy around 'joined-up thinking'. The paper focuses on the role of social workers in the teams and uses qualitative data to explore the experience of social workers in relation to four key issues: models of professional practice, status and power, confidentiality and information sharing, and relations with external agencies. We argue that these are complex and contested issues that are challenging for the workers concerned. We conclude that whilst joined-up working is complex and demanding, social work is well situated to meet the challenge, and that social workers in multidisciplinary teams are committed to making them work.

Joining up children's services: safeguarding children in multi-disciplinary teams

Child Abuse Review, 2007

In this article we reflect on the complexity and the contested nature of the roles of multi-disciplinary teams working with children. This is an increasingly important issue in the current UK child welfare policy environment. The article uses the theories of Etienne Wenger to understand data gathered from five multi-disciplinary teams working with children. We explore key issues relating to location; information sharing; models of understanding; and professional identities. We hope to demonstrate that the teams addressed tensions creatively through their engagement with diversity while at the same time developing common team values. We argue that effective strategies for making multi-disciplinary teams work will combine inter-agency issues with internal team-specific aspects.

Multi-agency working: implications for an early-intervention social work team

Child & Family Social Work, 2007

The adoption of multi-agency working is a key component of the Government's agenda for the reconfiguration of children's services. This study examines multi-agency working from the perspective of social workers within an early intervention family support team. Qualitative methods were used, involving individual interviews as well as focus groups with a total of 29 professionals within the early intervention social work team and its partner agencies. Thematic analysis of transcripts showed a number of challenges to multi-agency working, including issues focused on differences in partner agencies' protocols, as well as issues concerned with professional status and identity. Messages for best practice that emerged stress the need for clear protocols and methods of negotiating and reviewing protocols; opportunities for informal as well as formal communication between workers; and adequate financial support and timetabling of service developments. Benefits of multi-agency working include enhanced inter-agency respect and communication, greater understanding of child protection thresholds among partner agencies, and fast track referrals. Issues that require further investigation include the blurring of professional boundaries for social workers delivering early intervention services in community settings, and the outcomes for children of multi-agency working in early intervention services.

Successful Collaboration in Social Care Practice

Journal of Comparative Social Work, 2018

The aim of this ethnographic study is to analyse themes for ‘the successful collaborations’ that emerge from the study field notes on youth in Swedish juvenile care, and that can be interpreted as beneficial for these youth. These successful collaborations were observed, for instance, at meetings where the young persons were being discussed, and where an observer could distinguish planning for them that was carried out practically. The empirical base for this study is its total of 119 field observations/notes. The examples analysed reference a completed appointment for an eye test, a practical realization of active leisure, homework help and an internship placement that works. The coherence of three actors belonging to three different categories (coherent triads), and success points of interest that benefit the youth in the situation, create the image of a positive development for them. In this way, common identities of interplay that are useful for the young person are created and ...