Evaluating effectiveness in social work: sharing dilemmas in practice

ABSTRACT

Evaluating effectiveness is of primary concern to social work practice; resources will always be limited, and those using services deserve the best. But what is effectiveness, and how should it be measured? This paper explores the challenge of measuring effectiveness in social work by examining two small-scale evaluations of services (statutory and voluntary) in Scotland. Both evaluations used a mixed method approach and both were conducted in a climate of funding cuts. It will be argued that evaluating effectiveness sits uncomfortably between new public management (NPM)’s imperative for measurement and efficiency within a market economy and agencies’ own need to reflect on their practice and respond to the views of their service users. Such processes force agencies into a continual cycle of monitoring and review that may, paradoxically, impede organic change and development. It is suggested that an alternative, critical paradigm in evaluation offers a positive way forward.

KEYWORDS:

• Evaluation
• new public management
• social work
• critical paradigm
• research methods
• realistic evaluation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note on contributors

Dr Viviene E. Cree, FAcSS, is Professor of Social Work Studies at The University of Edinburgh. She has professional qualifications in youth & community work and social work and worked in both statutory and voluntary settings for 16 years before becoming a full-time academic and researcher. Her research has focused largely on professional social work, social work history and higher education. She has recently worked with others on a UK-wide study of social workers’ communication with children in child protection. Her 14th book is published in 2018, entitled Social Work in A Changing Scotland. Email [email protected]

Dr Sumeet Jain is a Lecturer in Social Work at The University of Edinburgh. He has degrees in Social Work (McGill), International Development (Toronto) and Cultural Psychiatry (University College London). His research aims to strengthen community mental health care in the global south drawing on inter-disciplinary perspectives. Current research examines contextually grounded mental health ‘innovations’ in the global south; development of local approaches to ‘recovery’ in northern India; the role of community health workers in delivery of mental health care in India and Nepal; and the relationships between mental health and forms of marginality and social exclusion in India. Email [email protected]

Dr Peter Hillen has a background of working in social care in the fields of homelessness and addictions. He completed a PhD in social work in 2017 at The University of Edinburgh. He has worked on numerous research projects and currently works as Research Fellow in the School of Health and Social Care at Edinburgh Napier University. His research interests include problematic substance use and recovery, and spirituality and religious belief in relation to wellbeing, health and social care. Email [email protected]