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Engaging in 'reflexive practice' throughout the research process (Benson and O'Reilly, 2022) and a 'reflexivity of discomfort' (Hamdan, 2009) through an intersectional lens, this article presents a reflective account of accessing and conducting observations and interviews at a South Asian women's organisation, in North England, to explore Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim (PBM) lone motherhood. It critically explores how researchers' own subjectivities and intersecting identities – in this case, my intersecting identities and positionalities as a young British Pakistani Muslim women, researcher and volunteer – impact interactions in different circumstances with different groups of participants and the importance of having continuous critical self-awareness. Moving beyond simplistic insider–outsider debates, the paper contributes towards further developing reflexivity debates taking an 'intersectional reflexivity' approach. It argues for thinking about the research process and engagements in the field as socially constructed, changing, adapting and negotiated overtime and to utilise intersectionality to unpick broader categories. Finally, it encourages researchers to adopt reflexivity in their research practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research looking at the phenomenon of burnout, little is known about how individuals working in traditionally high-burnout occupations understand the term. Interviews were conducted with six teachers working in state schools in England centring on how the term burnout was understood and how it was used or encountered. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed from a critical realist perspective to analyse the data generated. All participants described burnout as a stress-related condition, yet for some participants the point at which stress became burnout was unclear leading to an understanding that burnout was the point at which one was unable to work. Many participants highlighted an individualistic understanding of burnout, perceiving it as representing an individual deficit rather than an organisational failing. This was often reinforced by where the term was encountered (at work or in the media) and was linked to the stigma many participants associated with burnout. This paper concludes that individualistic framings of burnout obscure its organisational determinants while reinforcing notions that mental well-being is something which should be personally – and privately – managed by individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Café (TWC) method is now established as a participatory tool used in community development and qualitative research. However, there is a limited critique of TWC as a social work research method, especially with children. This paper discusses TWC as a method for understanding what matters for children on the British Overseas Territory of St Helena Island. As a social worker, the importance of supporting children's engagement and voice is well known in participation, necessitating careful ethical consideration. Within this project facilitating authentic conversations with children on a remote island required examining assumptions alongside engaging with colonial legacies to bring forward respectful participation. TWC shares several fractures of other participatory approaches evolving from critical pedagogy, which appeared aligned with social work values and ethics. Facilitated shared learning and allowed children to discuss issues that mattered to them, although handing over dialogue to children required commitment to trust and sharing control with young people. Café events revealed the complex positioning of social roles situating lived experiences, whereby children developed their learning of what mattered to them through interactions and a growing understanding of their global position. The method edged dialogue towards transformative conversations, acknowledging the oppression of marginalised peoples, requires reflection and action from children and young people themselves to elevate their positions from within their own knowledge. This supports the potential for further research to understand if creative methods can create more spaces for dialogue, allowing the emergence of more authentic children's engagement in research which is more socially just. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on two experiences of undertaking comparative research in England, Sweden and Italy, and offers a discussion of the kinds of dilemmas raised in relation to language and meaning surfaced by these. Its primary focus is to examine the reflexive construction of meaning, both in relation generally to the workings of an international research team and, more specifically, how such construction of meaning impacts on the process of qualitative interviewing across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The article argues that a culture of reflexive research practice is helpful for approaching national differences, to facilitate understanding in internationally mixed research teams and to support and empower participants in research, in second languages and differing cultures. Overall, the paper attempts to advance some tentative ideas that other international researchers may be able to consider and deploy in relation to their own research ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Audio recording interviews, focus groups, and naturally occurring interactions have been utilised by social researchers for decades. Yet, the use of audio recordings as a tool to elicit participant responses has received less attention in social science research. This is despite heightened interest in non-traditional techniques such as the use of visual methodologies, and arts-based methods. In this article, I describe how I advanced a known method, vignettes, into an audio narrative to explore perceptions of sex work. This article reports on the methodological rationale for the novel use of audio vignettes, and the capacity they have for memory retrieval, eliciting reflections on lived experiences, and for providing richer attitudinal data. By drawing on 'accessibility theory', this article argues that audio vignettes are a powerful elicitor of attitudes. Furthermore, I claim that audio methods as I define them, can enhance the social scientists' toolkit and that, what I term 'audio sociology' needs further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a model of multi-agency consultation created for social workers and other allied professionals working with Looked After Children. THINKSPACE is based on a reflecting team model as developed by Andersen (1987). This paper describes some of the dilemmas and solutions faced when implementing the model and incorporates feedback from those providing and using the service.THINKSPACE has had a significant impact on creating a shared understanding of a child’s behaviour and needs across agencies, containing the system’s anxiety about a case, and at times ensuring that the relevant agencies are informed and appropriately involved in a child’s care plan. It is a successful example of the Government’s drive for multi-agency working and has allowed professionals to work together effectively across agencies to support some of the most vulnerable Looked After Children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background. The diagnosis of young-onset dementia presents significant challenges both for the person and their families, which often differ from the challenges faced with late-onset dementia. Evidence of the experience of service users and carers tends to reveal a negative appraisal of the care received, citing longer diagnosis times, poor clinician knowledge and lack of age-appropriate care. However, evidence looking into staff experiences of supporting someone with young-onset dementia is relatively scarce. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and reflections of health and social care staff who support people with young-onset dementia within older adult mental health services, and whether their knowledge of the systems they work in could reveal the existence of barriers or facilitators to young-onset dementia care. Methods. Health and social care professionals working with people and carers with young-onset dementia across England were remotely interviewed between September and December 2021. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings. Sixteen staff members were interviewed. Three themes were constructed with six sub-themes. The first theme related to the perception of greater complexity around young-onset dementia support. The second theme describes staff fears around their ability to effectively support people with young-onset dementia, including the perception that young-onset dementia requires specialist input. The final theme describes systemic and structural inefficiencies which provide additional challenges for staff. Conclusions. Providing effective support for people with young-onset dementia and their families requires adjustments both within the clinician role and mental health services. Staff considered young-onset dementia support to be a specialist intervention and felt the services they work for are suited to generic mental health and dementia provision. Findings are discussed with recommendations relating to developing a standardised model of dementia care for young-onset dementia which recognises and responds to the unique experiences of young-onset dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health 'recovery narratives' are increasingly used within teaching, learning and practice environments. The mainstreaming of their use has been critiqued by scholars and activists as a co-option of lived experience for organisational purposes. But how people report their experiences of telling their stories has not been investigated at scale. We present accounts from 71 people with lived experience of multiple inequalities of telling their stories in formal and informal settings. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted within a critical constructivist approach. Our overarching finding was that questions of power were central to all accounts. Four themes were identified: (1) Challenging the status quo; (2) Risky consequences; (3) Producing 'acceptable' stories; (4) Untellable stories. We discuss how the concept of narrative power foregrounds inequalities in settings within which recovery stories are invited and co-constructed, and conclude that power imbalances complicate the seemingly benign act of telling stories of lived experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing social science interest in the potential for images to facilitate access to embodied experience, this study re-examines the relative value of visual and verbal methods in body-oriented research. Taking one lead from Kyrölä's (2016) idea of body image as the relationship between representation and corporeality, and another from Gendlin's (1993, 1995, 1997) methods for attending to and articulating from pre-reflective experience, we develop a method that juxtaposes words and images to explore the role of pre-reflective understanding on body image among teenage girls. The study highlights both an influencing role for pre-reflective understanding in body image and the availability of pre-reflective understanding to participants. While recognising persistent challenges in communicating embodied experience, we propose a method for engaging and working with embodied or pre-reflective experience in social science research by integrating the verbal and the visual in a specific way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Palliative rehabilitation involves multi-professional processes and interventions aimed at optimising patients' symptom self-management, independence and social participation throughout advanced illness. Rehabilitation services were highly disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Aim: To understand rehabilitation provision in palliative care services during the Covid-19 pandemic, identifying and reflecting on adaptative and innovative practice to inform ongoing provision. Design: Cross-sectional national online survey. Setting/participants: Rehabilitation leads for specialist palliative care services across hospice, hospital, or community settings, conducted from 30/07/20 to 21/09/2020. Findings: 61 completed responses (England, n = 55; Scotland, n = 4; Wales, n = 1; and Northern Ireland, n = 1) most frequently from services based in hospices (56/61, 92%) providing adult rehabilitation. Most services (55/61, 90%) reported rehabilitation provision becoming remote during Covid-19 and half reported reduced caseloads. Rehabilitation teams frequently had staff members on sick-leave with suspected/confirmed Covid-19 (27/61, 44%), redeployed to other services/organisations (25/61, 41%) or furloughed (15/61, 26%). Free text responses were constructed into four themes: (i) fluctuating shared spaces; (ii) remote and digitised rehabilitation offer; (iii) capacity to provide and participate in rehabilitation; (iv) Covid-19 as a springboard for positive change. These represent how rehabilitation services contracted, reconfigured, and were redirected to more remote modes of delivery, and how this affected the capacity of clinicians and patients to participate in rehabilitation. Conclusion: This study demonstrates how changes in provision of rehabilitation during the pandemic could act as a springboard for positive changes. Hybrid models of rehabilitation have the potential to expand the equity of access and reach of rehabilitation within specialist palliative care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the idea of the body as a research tool in ethnographic fieldwork, looking specifically at how the body can play a part in facilitating and developing relationships in the field. I use my experiences of fieldwork, undertaken in a Chinese community centre in the North West of England, to explore this in two ways. Firstly, through the process of using the body to learn a physical skill – Tai Chi – alongside the other centre members; and secondly through my pregnancy in the field, in order to consider what is communicated and enabled through the particular nature of specific bodies in the field. Both examples explore fieldwork as embodied, relational and intersubjective; in both, relationships with research participants are forged and developed in different ways through the body. Implications are drawn from this in relation to the impact of the research participants on the researcher and in relation to aspects of building relationships in the field that do not rely solely on verbal interactions or shared language, particularly in multi-cultural and multi-lingual research sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first study to use ethno-mimesis to explore the lived experiences of mothers navigating child-to-parent violence initiated by pre-adolescent children. The current child-to-parent violence research landscape is predominantly focused upon the experiences of parents of adolescent children, identifying that violent behaviours can be used as a life-long strategy. This research uses innovative methods to explore the lived experiences of mothers, and how they understand and navigate the violence of their pre-adolescent child. Using ethno-mimesis to allow for the intersection of socio-cultural theory (social roles and expectations); experience (reflection on motherhood); and practice (creating visual representations), five mother experiencing child-to-parent violence were identified and recruited from three parent support groups in the North of England. These mothers individually reflected on their experiences of violence, as mothers with young children, with responses thematically analyzed underpinned by phenomenological inquiry. Mothers in this research identified the violence as a symptom of wider structural, neurological, or mental health difficulties their child was experiencing rather than the problem itself. Participants did not believe the violence was intentional but was due to uncontrollable and overwhelming emotions. Nevertheless, there was considerable overlap between the experiences of these mothers and previous research into maternal experiences of adolescent violence; maternal experiences of adult child-to-parent violence, and intimate partner violence. By understanding the behaviours of younger children, there is opportunity to provide whole-family interventions which will prevent lifecourse trajectories, and focus upon the challenges and support needs of mothers living with this form of violence and abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we describe and critique a methodological exercise that brings together multimodality, ethnography and walking in order to investigate the city. Drawing on the experience of enacting our methodology in central London, we describe how an openness to the full range of meaning-making phenomena encountered during an unscripted excursion through the city provided ways of thinking critically about our relationship with the city. This research is undertaken against a backdrop of a growing critical interest in the complex and shifting nature of the urban environment, reflected in the range of approaches that investigate how we understand and experience our surroundings. Central to this methodological approach is the intersection of ethnography and multimodality which, when brought together within the device of an unscripted walk, provides valuable opportunities for thinking critically about our surroundings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary In England in 2010, the then Children’s Workforce Development Council introduced an initiative which aimed to support front line social work managers in the performance of their role. This article reflects on the way in which support was interpreted and implemented by the Children’s Workforce Development Council and the local authorities that participated in the project, but also the relevance of the project for the social work profession in England at the time. Findings The construction and implementation of the ‘Support to Front Line Managers Project’ was negotiated, iterative and contingent. However, in keeping with the aims of the project, relational and reflective methods of developing supervisory skills were deployed by local authorities. Applications In acknowledging the limitations of techno-rational systems of management, this article offers an interpretive case study of a national initiative which encouraged investment in reflective and relational approaches to performance enhancement. It highlights the interest in coaching, mentoring and action learning as developmental techniques, but also the significance of supervision to the identity of social work as a profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to characterise the internal conversations of individual young people in transition from state care, with a goal of supporting practitioners’ approaches to ‘pathway planning’, and contributing to theories of agency in emerging adulthood under conditions of long-term adversity. We used Margaret Archer’s theory of agency, in which internal conversations are regarded as playing a central role in mediating between structure and agency. Archer describes three different modes of (actively agential) internal conversation: communicative reflexivity, autonomous reflexivity and meta-reflexivity; and one mode of passive agency: fractured reflexivity – associated with adverse contextual constraints. In a qualitative design, using Archer’s open-ended interview framework we met nine participants, aged 19–24, varying considerably in outcome, recruited at a specialised service for care leavers in London UK. Analysis of the interview data included an extended phase of individual case analysis. Two participants experienced emerging active agency (however, both experienced elements of fractured reflexivity). Three participants experienced fractured reflexivity, with limited internal conversation, and low planning agency (however, each experienced green shoots of focused internal dialogue). Four participants experienced a survival-oriented mode of internal conversations, a category not found in Archer’s previous work. All four of these participants showed some elements of fractured reflexivity, but narrated rich internal conversations, including accounts of adverse experiences in which self-reliance was seen as having been essential. The majority of participants (across modes) found the idea of planning (beyond day-to-day) anathema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I explore the rise of the concept of ‘leadership’ in the English NHS, highlighting the similarity with a previous shift from (bad, old) ‘administration’ to (good, new) ‘management’. I take a critical look at this discursive shift and highlight some of the overblown claims made for the value of ‘clinical leadership’. I argue that, rather than turning all NHS staff into leaders, we should perhaps tone down the level of our rhetoric and instead emphasize the need for a service full of good followers who will maintain a relentless focus on care, quality and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents an analysis of workforce development study used in the change of services for children in England. Topics discussed include the study on workforce development, the use of survey and case study methods to determine a diverse range of research activities, and the research contributes to a creative culture of inquiry that shapes change processes particularly if both practitioners and children are involved.

The article discusses research which investigated challenges associated with the use of systematic review evidence in the decommissioning procedure for ineffective health services. It reports study details which include interviewing of Primary Care Trusts (PCT) health care commissioners in England, data collection about usage of various therapeutic interventions, and the categorization of evidence gathered. A brief overview of the decommissioning process being handled by clinicians is given.

•Summary: This article reviews evidence on how social workers incorporate legal rules in their decision-making. It draws on a small empirical study in which practitioners shared with each other, in peer interviews, examples of their own casework, followed by individual interviews with a researcher. Taken together, the conversations cast light on the extent to which legal knowledge is foregrounded in practitioners’ accounts of their work.•Findings: The findings show that references to law are more likely to be implicit than explicit, particularly in adult social care, and that absence of legal references is a striking feature of the social workers’ narratives. The article draws on related literature to interrogate the potential reasons for the relatively low profile of ‘law talk’ and identifies four factors – lack of legal knowledge and confidence, reliance on organizational and procedural approaches, assumptions about the role of law in different service contexts, and individual orientations to practice – as significant factors in determining whether and how legal rules are relied upon. Thus it presents a more nuanced analysis of the relationship between law and practice than has hitherto been available.• Applications: The findings are significant in casting light on the complex range of factors that present barriers to the robust and consistent implementation of legal rules in social work. They have implications – in particular for the role of organizational management in the audit, development and supervision of practice – that are particularly topical in the context of the work in England of the Social Work Reform Board. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]