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In 2023, the UK Government published its long-awaited reform strategy for England's children's social care system. Whilst the strategy set out planned reforms for several aspects of the wider system, an area requiring particular 'priority' was the purported workforce instability seen within child protection social work. However, the strategy has subsequently faced criticism on the basis that the suggested reforms were not satisfactorily informed by the testimonies of practicing social workers. This paper draws from a mixed-method study to report on the lived experiences of a sample of 201 child protection social workers practicing across England, in the context of better understanding the factors which they believed were impacting on workforce stability within England's child protection system. Implications that emerge are the need for an increase in the monetary commitment offered by the UK Government (especially in the context of tackling high caseloads, and improving local authority pay scales to reduce the allure of agency work); a targeted emphasis on challenging local cultures preoccupied with evidencing compliance over time spent with children; and the Government taking a more assertive role in tackling the often-counterproductive commentary perpetuated by politicians and media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the findings from a longitudinal study of vulnerable young people's transitions to adulthood, this paper explores the ideas of shame and recognition. The young people, aged between 12 and 17 years at the first interview, had experienced chronic exposure to adversity from an early age (abuse, violence, mental health issues, addictions, and expulsion from school). They were clients of statutory and non‐governmental services: child welfare, juvenile justice, remedial education, and mental health services. This paper draws on the qualitative phase of the study (n = 107); young people and a trusted other, nominated by the young person, participated in three annual qualitative interviews. Interviews focused on young people's experiences of services, key transitions, their relationships, and the strategies they used to locate support and resources. Experiences of shame, misrecognition, and seeking recognition emerged as dominant themes in the young people's accounts, and these are explored in this paper. The paper concludes with a discussion on responsive social work interventions that generate a deeper understanding of young people's experiences of shame and misrecognition. Central to this practice are critical and relational social work practices that actively support young people to achieve recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong has recently witnessed heightened public awareness of the issues of rights, civil society and citizenship. Contested relations with the Beijing government and slower economic growth in mainland China have seen more Hong Kong citizens become involved in civic engagement and identity politics. Youth service providers thus find themselves forced to respond to a rapidly changing society and changing youth needs while being situated in institutions with their own structural constraints and work culture. The result is that occupational stress is increasingly common amongst Hong Kong secondary school teachers and social workers. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative ethnographic study involving 16 in-depth interviews with community leaders, teachers and school-based social workers. How does a changing society affect youth work in general? How does greater discussion of democracy and human rights in the public sphere affect the way that youth service providers perform youth work? What are the changing roles and responsibilities of these providers in offering support to Hong Kong youth? The research themes that emerged include changing demographics and youth scene, a democratising public sphere in relation to Chinese youth and professionalism as a youth service provider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports findings from a Ph.D. study that explored the involvement of older people in adult safeguarding. The aim was to gain a greater understanding of the key barriers to involvement in this area. The research applied a qualitative approach, underpinned by a critical realist research paradigm. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including social workers, advocates and family members of older people who had been involved in the safeguarding process, as well as members of the Adult Safeguarding Boards in two local authorities in the north-east of England. Observations of key strategic meetings of the Safeguarding Adults Boards and associated subgroups were also undertaken, as well as an analysis of the local authorities’ key policy and guidance documents. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes from the data. A number of key barriers to involvement were identified and are presented within this paper. These are explored and discussed in relation to the ways in which the construction of vulnerability and the positioning of older people within society, and within adult safeguarding in particular, have contributed to them. Overall, it is argued that older people are considered to be inherently vulnerable, and that this reduces their opportunities to be engaged in adult-safeguarding processes. A number of recommendations for practice and policy are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key issue for the social work profession concerns the nature, quality and content of communicative encounters with children and families. This article introduces some findings from a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) that took place across the UK between 2013 and 2015, which explored how social workers communicate with children in their everyday practice. The Talking and Listening to Children (TLC) project had three phases: the first was ethnographic, involving observations of social workers in their workplace and during visits; the second used videostimulated recall with a small number of children and their social workers; and the third developed online materials to support social workers. This paper discusses findings from the first phase. It highlights a diverse picture regarding the context and content of communicative processes; it is argued that attention to contextual issues is as important as focusing on individual practitioners' behaviours and outlines a model for so doing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on the findings of the qualitative phase of a New Zealand longitudinal study on vulnerable young people’s transitions to adulthood. The young people were aged between 12 and 17 years at the time of the first interview. The paper focuses on one key finding, how youth enact agency through their relationships with significant others: families, social workers, teachers and care workers. These youth had experienced sustained exposure to harm including abuse, violence, addictions, disengagement from school and mental health issues. The qualitative interviews focused on young people’s experiences with services (child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and education support services) their key transitions, and the strategies they used to locate support and resources. The thematic analysis of the interviews indicated that a search for agency was a central motif in young people’s experiences. This was reflected in three thematic clusters: making sense of the world, having a voice and acting on the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The China Social Work Longitudinal Study (CSWLS) aims to provide the first national longitudinal multilevel dataset that contains comprehensive domains to monitor the development of social work in China. This study presents the design and implementation of the baseline survey in 2019. Methods: The CSWLS includes three scholarly themes of professionalization, governmentality, and institutionalization, which are reflected in comprehensive questionnaires on social workers and social work agencies. The CSWLS is a longitudinal panel study that has multilevel datasets of social workers nested within agencies that are selected by a multistage sampling strategy. Results: The baseline survey collected 979 agency questionnaires and 5,965 social worker questionnaires in 56 cities, holding the validity rates of 98.59% and 99.92% respectively. The sample had certain national representativeness when comparing to existed national data in China. Conclusions: The CSWLS will become a critical tool for government officials, professional leaders, and academic researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documents, interviews, and observation notes were used to analyze 19 Taiwanese elementary school English teachers' professional identity construction through artifacts and tools. The conceptual framework was adopted from Wetzler's (2010) Teacher Learning and Performance and Wertsch's (1998) three conceptual terms of artifacts. The study concluded two findings. First, the power and authority of the artifacts and tools referenced by participants also helped them to construct their professional identities. Second, the affordance of artifacts and tools led English teachers to exercise their reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examine how frontline workers and supervisors delivering a research-supported intervention (RSI) to reduce child neglect negotiated system-related challenges, the pragmatics of RSI implementation, and their professional identities and relationships with clients. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews, small group discussions, and focus groups with frontline workers and supervisors in one large county over two time periods. We used iterative coding to analyze qualitative data. Results: Frontline workers navigated several aspects of RSI implementation and sustainment: (1) contract requirements and information dissemination, (2) fidelity, (3) competing demands and crises, (4) structure versus creativity, and (5) relationships with clients. Conclusions: Workers dynamically negotiated multiple system- and provider-level (or outer- and inner-contextual) demands influencing RSI provision for clients with complex service needs. Results affirm the need to attend to the unintended consequences of implementing new contract, reimbursement, and other system or organizational processes and to address the “committed work” supporting RSI delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The more than decade long tempo of war has taken a considerable toll on military families, with the rates of mental health concerns in non-deployed spouses on the rise. To date, few evidence-based programs exist to meet the unique needs of military spouses. The current study presents early findings from the development and implementation of HomeFront Strong (HFS), an 8 week group-based resiliency intervention designed to support military spouses through deployment transitions. In three group cohorts, 20 women completed the HFS intervention, and 14 of those participants provided evaluation data at the pre-group and 3 month follow up (3MFU) assessments, including a semi-structured interview designed to elicit a personal narrative about deployment experiences. Thematic analyses of the personal narratives demonstrated that negative cognitions (e.g., helplessness; feeling unsupported) about deployment were associated with higher rates of depression prior to group participation. At 3MFU, personal narratives included more positive cognitions and fewer negative cognitions, suggesting that HFS changed the way spouses thought about their deployment experiences. Moreover, participants reported fewer symptoms of depression, higher levels of social support, and greater life satisfaction at 3MFU. While this Phase I study is small and lacks a comparison group, the demonstration of positive results is promising and warrants further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

jonas-simpson c., mitchell g.j., carson j., whyte c., dupuis s. & gillies j. (2012) Phenomenological shifts for healthcare professionals after experiencing a research-based drama on living with dementia. Journal of Advanced Nursing 68(9), 1944-1955. Abstract Aim. The aim of this article is to report research findings describing phenomenological shifts, that is, changes in patterns of lived experience, for healthcare professionals who attended a performance of a research-based drama, called I'm Still Here. Background. The research drama, based on six studies, was created to help change the ways persons understand, think about and relate with persons living with dementia. Methods. In 2006-2007, 50 healthcare professionals from various disciplines and eight nursing students participated in this study. Participants were recruited from four Canadian cities in the province of Ontario where focus groups were held before and after engaging in a live performance of I'm Still Here. Findings. Analysis of focus group transcripts showed shifts in patterns of lived experience for the healthcare professional participants as evident in the participants' descriptions. The phenomenological shifts reflected a move from descriptions of 'diminishing humanness to discerning humanness', from 'disengaged care/mundane relating to reflexive relating in the now', and 'terrifying portrayals of loss to awakening to hopeful possibility'. The shifts described herein are supported with examples from the focus group transcripts. Conclusions. Findings reveal the power of drama as a vibrant and meaningful means of shifting understandings, images and intended actions of healthcare professions which have the potential to affect the lived experiences, relationships and quality of life of persons with dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of the Residential Aged Care Coronial Communiqué that have promoted previously reported professional practice change, and to explore the circumstances of these changes. Methods. This was an exploratory, qualitative study for which data was collected through semi-structured interview of 15 subscribers to the Residential Aged Care Coronial Communiqué. Results. The Residential Aged Care Coronial Communiqué was reported to promote self-reported practice change though the inclusion of case studies, by being associated with the Coroner, and by providing evidence to justify change. The combination of existing concerns about risk and staff awareness, in conjunction with reading the Residential Aged Care Coronial Communiqué was also reported to promote practice change, as was having the support of senior staff and the authority to implement change. Conclusions. The combination of narrative case studies in the context of an educational publication associated with the Coroner's Office has been reported to provided evidence and incentive to promote professional practice change in an aged care setting. However the relative influence of the Residential Aged Care Coronial Communiqué, and other background circumstance and facilitating factors on practice change cannot be determined from this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]