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Abstract
Understanding how excellent practice is enabled is an important question for organisational and professional leaders to ask and work towards answering. But, what are the conditions needed for a great organisational culture? And, how can we find out? How do we promote and build on what works well? Social service organisations are complex — making the exercise of understanding our organisational culture a complex task. It needs a research approach. We discuss our experiences and shared learning from undertaking social work health checks. We worked together on a shared research methodology because our service systems are similar in design. This offered us a unique way to explore the organisational culture of two local authorities. We argue that a number of ‘conditions for success’ are needed so that great social work is at the heart of the organisation’s mission, delivery and learning. These conditions for success are supported by our health check findings.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tony Stanley
Tony Stanley Principal Social Worker, Education, Social Care and Wellbeing, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, 5th floor, Mulberry Place, London E14 2BG, UK. Email: [email protected]
Helen Lincoln
Helen Lincoln Executive Director for People Operations, Essex County Council, County Hall, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1LX, UK. Email: [email protected]