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Social workers carry much of the frontline authority to define risk to children and discuss it with families. Assessment reports and other institutional documents record professional views about family information, and also have the potential to convey the 'voice' of the family to institutions. Social workers have responsibility for sharing these documents with families, yet little is known about how they do this. This paper focuses on episodes when social workers introduce institutional documents in home visits, and on the family responses elicited. These are high-stakes encounters which, when they go seriously wrong, emerge in the press as tragedies and scandals. For families, these documents carry an emotional depth-charge as intimate, potentially shaming and sometimes inaccurate details of their lives are inscribed in them by and for others. Latour's (1996) concept of interobjectivity sheds light on the use of documents, while concepts of epistemic authority (Heritage and Raymond, 2005) and epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007) are employed to examine how social workers respond to parental testimony about themselves and their children. Learning how to present institutional documentation in ways that reduce the risk of emotional reactivity and treating family perspectives with epistemic justice may enhance social work practice. At a policy level, the design of documents warrants review, so that they facilitate rather than obstruct social workers' efforts to build what are already fragile relationships with families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is not a research paper in the conventional sense. Instead, it is a reflexive account of the building of a relationship which would not have happened without the existence of digital technologies and might not have happened but for the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was through reading a digitised resource (an online PhD thesis) in the first UK 'lockdown' that Bob, now a semi-retired academic in the field of adult and organisational learning, began to reappraise his upbringing in a children's home in Scotland. Meanwhile, it was in getting to know Bob (through emails and Zoom meetings) and by accessing Bob's retrospectively digitised case record that Viv, the author of the PhD thesis and now a semi-retired social work academic, was stimulated to revisit her early research from a fresh perspective. We argue that our real-life example, serendipitous and unique as it undoubtedly is, demonstrates the democratising potential of the digital transformation that is currently being played out in child and family social work. Furthermore, it seems likely that digital technologies will continue to bring new and unexpected opportunities for forming such relationships in the future. Plain Language Summary: In this article, two older academics (one from social work and the other from management learning) introduce their meeting online during the Covid-19 pandemic and the relationship they have been building since then, from the very different perspectives of a social work researcher and a former resident of a children's home in Edinburgh in the 1940s and 50s. Bob and Viv describe coming together as an opportunity for shared learning, and they suggest that child and family social workers should be ready for, and welcome, such opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents parents' experiences of community support and their recommendations for how their communities, and the services within them, might support their families. Generated through a human‐centred design methodology and using a desire‐centred framework, the findings suggest that parents receiving a family service require support invoking feelings of intimacy, trust, reciprocity, inclusivity, connection and belonging. Parents' recommendations for community support include addressing material and attitudinal constraints impacting on engagement with services; creating non‐judgmental services tailored to their needs but accessed as a last resort; and creating peer‐based opportunities to support each other. Parents reflect that moving beyond basic survival of risk and vulnerability to a position where thriving is possible requires purposeful integration of parent's existing and desired community into service interventions. Facilitating deliberate change at the intersection of community and service support is pertinent to current and future social work policy and practice. Wider opportunities for understanding and enabling the needs and aspirations of parents, which are often overlooked because of a focus on addressing risk and vulnerability, are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that contemporary child and family social work in England and some other states in Europe needs an ethical 'turn'. This paper considers the facts in the Re W judgment and identifies certain features in the case that can be understood as products resulting from a particular paradigm of social work in contemporary practice. National and international implications are considered and hopeful ways forward are proffered: epistemic humility, inner dialogue and cultivating our humanity. The key message of this paper is that Re W indicates that contemporary child and family social work is dominated by an 'automatic' thinking that tends not to 'hear' the voices of actual human beings and a refocusing on ethics work is needed to put humane practice back at the heart of the social work profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Assessment Framework provides a model of early intervention, which is familiar in local authorities throughout England, and asserts a participatory framework of child and family engagement. This paper is based on a qualitative study of parents and children who were subject to a multi‐agency process of early intervention in children's social care in a local authority in the Midlands of England. I advance the concept of assemblage to consider the basis of an active service user participation as rather more a struggle to achieve than something that has been granted by practitioner agencies. Interview extracts are used to show the enrolment and assembly of participation as a process of service users developing their active human agency in a multi‐agency setting. The article explores the assembling of skills in administration and management of meetings and plans, accessing knowledge and expertise through service user networks, and challenging professional expertise and institutional space while developing personal qualities of confidence and voice as a means of marshalling an effective participation in a multi‐agency setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the social work reform process was to provide a generic framework and single professional body within a broad conception of generic social work. However, debates about the role and nature of social work continue to exist. This paper explores whether contemporary child and family social work is inclined at times to make use of a less humane social work practice with families and children. The policy context and the culture of child and family social work are considered. Implications for social work education are identified. The key message of this paper is twofold. There is a tendency in contemporary child and family social work to become synonymous with a particular version of child protection. The type of child protection adopted tends to be authoritarian with at times a limited consideration of the humanity of parents and adult carers in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses social workers' moral agency in addressing child abuse and neglect. We argue that ethically sound social work requires the capacity to exercise strong, multidimensional moral agency. The contribution is based on a qualitative interpretative meta-synthesis of four studies representing different forms of child abuse and neglect in varied contexts. Drawing on our analysis, we identify three thematic categories of moral considerations in terms of social workers' moral work in addressing child abuse and neglect: genders and generations, agencies and responsibilities, and families and communities. We then proceed to posit four dimensions of moral work in child and family social work – individual; cultural and communal; societal and political; and global – and argue that if they are to exercise strong moral agency, social workers must negotiate these intersecting contextual dimensions. Recognising the salience of these dimensions, how they increasingly intersect, and what this demands of social workers is necessary for the profession. Social workers must embrace individually sensitive, culturally translative, politically engaged and globally aware moral agency. This is crucial in elaborating context-sensitive practice that critically engages with moral complexities when working with individuals, families and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the underlying assumption that social workers need reflective supervision specifically, as opposed to managerial or any other form of supervision or support, and to consider whether our focus on the provision of reflective supervision may be preventing us from thinking more broadly and creatively about what support local authority child and family social workers need and how best to provide it.Design/methodology/approach The paper provides an argument based on the author’s own research and a selective review of the literature.Findings Reflective supervision has no future in local authority child and family social work because: first, there is no clear understanding of what reflective supervision is; second, there is no clear evidence for its effectiveness; and third, sizeable proportion of local authority child and family social workers in England do not receive reflective supervision and many never have.Originality/value The paper challenges the received wisdom about the value of reflective supervision and advocates exploring alternative models for supporting best practice in child and family social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioners, irrespective of the service users they work with, have educational, emotional and supervisory needs. In addition, they require appropriate physical space and a safe work environment. Social workers are most likely to develop effective relationships with families if these needs are met. Therefore, it is important that managers create an organisational culture that not only recognises, but also meets, practitioners' needs. In this paper, the various needs of social workers are considered in detail with a particular focus on those of child and family practitioners. Agency responses to meeting these various needs are also explored. An argument is made that the agency approach to work environment, staff development, supervision and managing the emotional demands of the job all influence practitioners' commitment and ability to engage with families and improve outcomes for children. Drawing on a framework of different types of practitioner engagement with carers, the negative effects on practitioners of working in a 'neglectful organisation' are considered. An argument is made that the neglected practitioner, working with a parent who is not meeting the needs of their child, leads to an unhealthy alliance and in effect a 'Toxic Duo' is created. The paper concludes by considering the work culture and climate that promote meaningful engagement and questions are raised as to how managers can create this culture when services are subject to year-on-year cuts, marketisation and increased service demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The importance of supervision for social work practice is one of the most widely accepted tenets of the profession. Yet, surprisingly little is known about what happens in supervision, making it difficult to unravel what it is about supervision that makes a difference to social work practice. This paper describes the development of a framework for assessing the quality of group supervision. It focuses on one sub-category of group supervision – systemic group supervision – and draws a wider evaluation of systemic social work practice in the UK. It is based on 29 observations of "live" of supervision to illustrate differences in quality of supervisory practice. The process of developing the coding framework was cyclical, and ultimately resulted in a three-point ordinal grouping for assessing systemic supervisory practice. Analysis of observational data assessed systemic group supervision as follows: 8 as non-systemic (28%); 12 (41%) as demonstrating some incorporation of systemic ideas into interactions, described as "green shoots" (or showing encouraging signs of development but not yet reached its full potential); and 9 (31%) supervision sessions demonstrating a full incorporation of systemic concepts and practice. What marked "systemic" sessions from "green shoots" supervision was the move from hypothesis generation about family relations and risk to children to purposeful, actionable conversations with families: the move from reflection to action. This paper supports a small but growing body of evidence about the fundamental characteristics of successful or effective supervision within children and families social work. Highlights • Describes a new method for assessing social work supervisory practice • Defines an emerging type of supervision – systemic group supervision – informed by systemic family therapy principles • Identifies six essential domains of systemic supervision, including the relational nature of family problems • Ranks systemic supervision as: non-systemic, "green shoots" (or showing promise) and fully "systemic" • "Systemic" sessions were marked by a move from hypotheses generation to purposeful, actionable conversations with families [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transforming classroom knowledge into practice competency is particularly challenging in social work with children and families. It involves complex, competitive practice approaches and different service settings with procedures and norms influencing a child’s wellbeing. The paper presents the content, application, and evaluation of a module based on a case scenario which considers the limitations and achievements of social work with children and families in different settings. A mixed-method approach was applied to this review process. Students were given an evaluative questionnaire based on the theoretical framework of experiential learning whereupon they wrote reflective essays describing their learning experience. Case method contributes to the acquisition of reflective, integrative, and stimulating knowledge. The participation level contributes to the students’ satisfaction during such learning. Students have learned that families with multiple and complex needs require a holistic approach that separate systems and services cannot provide. This way of learning, with certain limitations, allows activation and an intensive learning experience for large groups of students relevant for a number of social work schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Frontline programme is a social work qualifying route, in England, featuring a different approach to curriculum design and delivery. Students are based in groups of 4, learning through practicing social work in a statutory child and family social work setting, alongside a Consultant Social Worker (in the role of practice educator). They are also supported by an Academic Tutor who works in partnership with the Consultant Social Worker to facilitate learning. A weekly “unit meeting” is a foundational aspect of the programme, providing opportunities for in‐depth discussion, teaching, and reflection on practice with families. The authors worked together over the first 2 cohorts of the programme and undertook action research to explore the learning opportunities that arise when academic staff and practitioners work side by side to support student learning in this model. Three broad themes were identified which were considered to be significant in helping students to learn which are explored in the paper: Learning through engaging in joint dialogue about practice in a unit meeting The influence of relationships on learning in social work The importance of a connected model of learning which has practice with children and families at its heart [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Frontline programme is a social work qualification route, in England, which began in 2014. Students are based in statutory child and family contexts supported by an academic staff member and practice educator. The assessment strategy on the programme includes seven graded observations of students engaging in social work, marked by both staff. This paper investigates reliability of grading of direct practice between different markers on the programme. It reports findings for 30 recordings of direct observations of practice that were graded during the first cohort. These included observations graded by an academic and by a practice educator. Each was independently then graded by an academic, blind to the original score or who marked it. An acceptable level of reliability was found between the independent grader and the first mark (r = .621). In general the level of agreement was higher between the independent grader (a social work academic) and academics. In comparison, practice educators tended to give higher grades to students. Nonetheless, overall the reliability of marking suggests it is possible to agree on marks for students, which points to the potential for grading of practice to be more widely used in social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Reports perspectives of 49 frontline staff from five child protective services. • Systemic supervision used as a "rehearsal space" to plan family conversations. • Family systems understood via lens of hypothesising, circularity and curiosity. • Exploring family perspectives enhanced identification of risks to children. • Systemically-trained clinicians provided supportive practice leadership. The importance of supervision for social work practice is widely accepted. This paper focuses on one type of supervision: systemic group supervision or "systemic supervision". Systemic social work practice is generally a group-based, multi-disciplinary model of service delivery that aims to work therapeutically with the whole family. Central to this model is the use of systemically-informed group supervision. This has been shown to impact positively on the quality of direct practice with families, but what is it about this type of supervision that supports frontline practitioners to practice more skillfully? This paper is based on interviews with 49 frontline staff across five children's services departments in the UK. It identifies the key features of systemic supervision and explores why workers think that developing shared understandings of risk to children supports them to intervene more effectively with families in contact with children's services. These findings contribute to a growing body of knowledge about the practice shaping function of supervision within child and family social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has been done into what social workers do in everyday child protection practice. This paper outlines the broad findings from an ethnographic study of face‐to‐face encounters between social workers, children and families, especially on home visits. The social work practice was found to be deeply investigative. Children's bedrooms were routinely inspected and were the most common place where they were seen alone. A high proportion of children were not seen on their own because they were too young and the majority of the time was spent working with parents and children together. Small amounts of time were spent with children on their own and some first encounters were so rushed that social workers did not even introduce themselves to the child. This arose from two key factors: firstly, organisational pressures from high workloads and the short timescales that social workers were expected to adhere to by managers and Government; secondly, practitioners had varying levels of communication skills, playfulness and comfort with getting close to children and skills at family work. Where these skills and relational capacities were present, social workers were found to have developed deep and meaningful relationships with some children and families, for whom it was apparent that therapeutic change had occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses open and distance learning and supervision in child and family social work, and presents the results of an evaluation by students of a distance learning, post graduate certificate programme for first-line managers and supervisors in child and family social work. The programme also leads to an Advanced Award in Social Work. Eighteen students returned a postal questionnaire designed to gain their experiences of studying on the programme and their views about its different elements and its outcomes for themselves, their work, their organisations and service users. Most respondents thought that there were more advantages than disadvantages to studying by distance learning and to studying part-time while working full-time, but that self-discipline is required and that workload constraints and difficulties in taking study time away from work impinged on their studies. More than half rated as good or very good the support provided by their mentors. Reported outcomes of studying on the programme included increased self-confidence, enhanced supervisory practice, greater involvement of service users in service provision, and increased attention to gaining service user feedback. Key messages regarding the organisation of distance learning programmes are outlined, and pedagogical issues in post qualifying social work education are discussed, including the role of the mentor and the training needs of experienced staff or those working in specialised roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines research findings on the relevance of the Secure Base model (Schofield & Beek, 2014) for developing supportive teams in child and family social work. When the social work team functions as a secure base, this can help workers cope with the emotional demands of the role. The concept of the secure base comes from attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) in which our relationships with significant others, who are available, sensitive to our needs and reliable, provide us with a secure base to return to when life is stressful and provide us with comforting internal mental models when we are physically away from them. This ‘secure base for exploration’ reduces anxiety and enables us to engage with the world, consider the internal world of others (empathy) and remain resilient when life is stressful. Using data from 52 phone interviews with child and family social workers across eight local authorities in the UK, we show how the Secure Base model has relevance for emotion regulation and resilience for child and family social workers. Data were analysed using Theoretical Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In the context of the emotional demands of social work, our data indicate that the supervisors and teams provide a work related secure base across five dimensions by behaving in ways which instil these beliefs: Availability - ‘People are there for me’; Sensitivity - ‘My feelings are manageable’; Acceptance - I don't always have to be strong’; Cooperation - ‘I can work with others to find a solution’; Team belonging - ‘I am valued and I belong’. Implications for practice are proposed to help supervisors and team members reflect on beliefs and behaviours which can help provide a secure base for their teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychosocial perspectives on children's development are allied to theories that recognize the ‘self’ as essentially a social entity. The quality of relationships that children experience in their social environment have a profound effect on their socio-emotional development, personality formation and social competence. To this extent, psychosocial theories of children's development and wellbeing can provide child and family social workers with a powerful framework within which to analyse, assess and practise. However, it is also recognized that the character of child welfare practices and policies are influenced by prevailing political climates. A simple dichotomy is described between political philosophies of the right and left; libertarianism and communitarianism; individual freedom and collective action. It is argued that the present swing to libertarian individualism has brought about major changes in the policy and practice of much child and family social work, including a preference for theories that emphasize people's psychological independence, rationality and personal responsibility. In such a climate, child and family social work becomes more legalistic, orientated towards principles of justice rather than welfare, and towards rights and responsibilities rather than personal relationships and social competence. Psychosocial developmental theories, with their emphasis on the importance of social relationships and the emotional interconnectedness of people in community, fare less well under the rigours of psychological individualism and free-market economics. The paper concludes that if children's psychosocial development and competence are a product of their social history, practices that psychologically ‘disembed’ people from their relationship environment are unable to consider children's needs within a coherent, well-grounded theoretical framework. If child and family social work is premised on helping children develop social understanding and emotional wellbeing, theory and practice are best served by taking a psychosocial perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supervision has been described as the "pivot" upon which the integrity and excellence of social work practice can be maintained. However, there is little research that examines its impact on how social workers work directly with children and their families. Where effectiveness studies exist, they tend to explore the impact of supervision on organisational and staff-related outcomes such as retention rates or worker well-being. The current study focuses on one specific sub-category of the wider supervision and practice literature: systemic group supervision or "systemic supervision" and is based on a wider evaluation of systemic social work practice in the UK. The paper pairs observations of systemic supervision (n = 14) and observations of direct practice (n = 18) in peoples' homes. It presents correlational data on the relationship between supervision quality and direct practice quality to assess whether there is an association between the two practice forums. The paper demonstrates that there is a statistically significant relationship between supervision quality and overall quality of direct practice. Supervision was also associated with relationship-building skills and use of "good authority" skills; that is, practice that was more purposeful, child-focused and risks to children better articulated. Interestingly, where a clinician qualified in systemic family therapy was present in supervision, this was associated with both improved supervisory and direct practice quality. This suggests that there may be an important association between the discussions held in systemic supervision, particularly where a clinician is present and the quality of conversations that practitioners have with children and families. These findings contribute to a growing body of knowledge about the relationship between effective supervision and direct practice within children and families social work. • Pairs observations of systemic supervision with observations of direct practice. • Supervision and direct practice independently assessed for quality. • Systemically-informed supervision associated with skilful practice with families. • This includes both relationship-building and use of "good authority" skills. • Systemically-trained clinicians associated with improved supervisory and practice. • High quality supervision has the potential to support and shape "practice-making." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vague programme descriptions are known to impede implementation and evaluation. Yet social work change programmes often fail to describe in detail how they aim to provide better outcomes for children and families. This study focused on the Systemic Practice Model (SPM), which is a Finnish adaptation of Reclaiming Social Work, a practice model developed in England. The SPM aims to deliver systemic practice in children's social care and has recently been widely disseminated across Finland. However, research has found both considerable variation in its delivery and a lack of clarity about what it is. This study, applying realist evaluation, aimed to formulate a programme theory based on the perceptions of key informants (n = 12) involved in the national development and dissemination of the SPM during the period 2017–2019. The analysis yielded three core components (a systemic team, systemic weekly meetings, and systemic practice) and two context‐mechanism‐outcome (CMO) configurations, which represent causal chains of the SPM. The findings should enable its quality implementation and meaningful outcome and process evaluation. The findings will also aid organizations and practitioners both to identify changes required in their service provision and prevent adverse effects. This programme theory should be tested and refined with empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study compared the impact, challenges, and benefits of the Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P) intervention across two delivery modes: group center-based (GCCOS-P) and individual home-based (IHCOS-P). Methods: This mixed-methods study compared the impact of the COS-P on parental reflective functioning and parental stress across two delivery modes: GCCOS-P (n = 7) and IHCOS-P (n = 7). It compared the challenges and benefits of each, from the qualitative perspectives of participants (n = 2 IHCOS-P; n = 3 GCCOS-P) and facilitators (n = 4). Results: Quantitative statistical analysis comparing pre- and postintervention measures suggest that each delivery mode was equally effective in reducing parental stress and generally noneffective with respect to parental reflective functioning. Challenges and benefits of each mode, inherent in the peer/shared learning environment of the GCOS-P and the individualized, flexible delivery of the IHCOS-P, were identified. Discussion: This study adds to knowledge about the widely utilized COS-P, highlighting challenges and benefits of two modes of delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the years since 1948, child and family social work has, to differing degrees at different times, sought to identify itself with a national centrally directed service, with the local service organization, with its clientele and with an independent source of professional regulation. Changes in the organizational context in which the work has been carried out over this period have affected the prospects for the development of a secure identity. The effects of the following are considered: national structures, particularly in relation to children’s departments between 1948 and 1971; the corporate local authority; the managerial function in social services departments; social care; specialization; the detailed scrutiny of practice; care management and the Children Act 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coulter et al. (2019) argue that there is an urgent need for a theoretically coherent conceptualisation of contemporary relationship-based practice (RBP) models within child and family social work. They propose that a systemic and social constructionist 'lens' can provide this coherence. This reply draws attention to one particular difficulty with their argument and makes a partial case for maintaining clear distinctions between models, with distinct nomenclature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work practice has an essential, yet ambiguous, relationship with theory. This state of affairs is currently evident in the range of contemporary relationship-based practice (RBP) models being applied within Child and Family Social Work. This article argues that there is an urgent need for a theoretically coherent conceptualisation of these models to enable social work practitioners to embrace their common precepts and so enable more effective interventions. In contrast to attempts to show the distinctiveness of current models for reasons of fidelity, model identity and marketing, this unifying approach advocates for recognition of the commonality and complementarity of contemporary RBP models. The article argues that systemic theory which applies a social constructionist orientation can provide this coherence, helping social workers develop their practice in an informed way. In making this case, the emergent evidence base is noted and recommendations are made about how greater convergence and complementarity can be promoted. This article contributes to the debate about how practice and policy should be guided by theoretical ideas of coherence, alongside more utilitarian ideas advocating the importance of evidence and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article elucidates the challenges parents face when they lose the care of their children and their experiences of family counselling as a support service in Norway. A qualitative study following five mothers and one father whose children were in care was conducted through two focus groups and six individual interviews. The study found that the parents struggled to understand why their children had been placed in care and felt disempowered by the Child Protection Services (CPS). This situation led to complicated relationships with the CPS. We drew upon positioning theory and Goffman's theories about stigma and identity in this study, and these theories are explicitly used in discussing our analytic results. The study reveals the challenges encountered by CPS due to their dual role: On the one hand, they remove the children, and on the other, they offer support. The parents in this study also received assistance from the Family Counselling Services. Important results of this study are the parents' experiences of the two systems and, in particular, the different positions the systems seemed to place them in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fitkids aims to promote child-oriented drug counseling. This study evaluates its implementation by focusing on child-oriented counseling at the organizational and employee level in 15 newly recruited (before and after implementation) and 10 pilot centers (4–5 years after implementation). Associations of readiness for change facets with outcomes of successful implementation were investigated. Four out of five organizational-level outcomes changed after implementation, were higher in pilot sites, and were associated with readiness for change facets (e.g., willingness to change, change fatigue, activity latitude). Fitkids has the potential to promote child-oriented counseling. Addressing organization's readiness for change helps to tailor its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to explore knowledge use and learning among social workers in everyday child investigation work. Research was undertaken in two Swedish children's services departments. The study applied an ethnographic approach. Methods for data collection included interviews, participant observations, reflective dialogues and a documentary analysis of case files. The social workers' knowledge sources were classified into research‐based, practice‐based and ordinary knowledge. The findings show that the social workers preferred practice‐based knowledge, which was primarily conveyed from colleagues and previous experience, and rarely consulted knowledge from sources found outside the practice setting. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the integration of knowledge was made possible through the social workers' engagement in both a verbal and a more cognitive (tacit) reasoning activity, processes that fostered learning at work. The social workers' learning was predominantly adaptive as they learned to handle tasks in a fairly routinized way on the basis of rules or procedures. The findings lend support to the notion that the use of different knowledge forms could potentially trigger learning in everyday social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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