Practice Frameworks in Children’s Services in England: An Attempt to Steer Social Work Back on Course?

Abstract

This article examines the concept and adoption of practice frameworks and how these are becoming a key feature of many English local authorities in social work practice with children and families. A practice framework or model either drives practice or groups together various approaches. The article draws on data drawn from an evaluation of Signs of Safety, supplemented by a later survey, and a roundtable discussion with practitioners, researchers and social work educationalists held in 2018 on the nature and function of practice frameworks. It draws together data from these sources to provide an overview what is in place in local authorities, as well as what is being defined as a practice framework. These are discussed in relation to implementation and consistency.

Keywords:

• practice frameworks
• signs of safety
• local authorities
• professional knowledge
• social work

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer

This work was funded by the Department for Education through the Innovation Programme for Children's Social Care. We are most grateful to all those who assisted with interviews and surveys and to those who participated in the discussion group. The views expressed in this paper are the authors alone and should not be represented as being those of the Department for Education or the National Institute for Health Research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme was launched by the Department for Education (DfE) in 2014 to improve outcomes for children in need of help from the social care system. It is supporting innovative ideas to flourish and enabling policy and practice to be driven by evidence and best practice.

2 The report on the second stage of the evaluation conducted between 2018 and 2020 will be reported in late 2020. Nine of the ten pilots continued into the second stage and were joined by another authority already using SoS.

3 That pilot then ceased using SoS and adopted another model and by mid 2019 was judged to be ‘good’.

4 Although there are 152 authorities a few authorities share services

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Baginsky

Dr Mary Baginsky is associated with NIHR Policy Research Unit on Health and Social Care Workforce at the King’s College London, England. Email: [email protected]

Graham Ixer

Graham Ixer is Professor of Department of Interprofessional Studies (Children, Health, Social Work and Community) at the University of Winchester.

Jill Manthorpe

Jill Manthorpe is Professor of NIHR Policy Research Unit on Health and Social Care Workforce at the King’s College London, England.