Ms Caroline White C.White@hull.ac.uk
Research Associate
Signs of Safety and the Paradox of Simplicity: Insights from Research with Social Work Students
White, Caroline; Bell, Jo; Revell, Lisa
Authors
Dr Jo Bell J.Bell@hull.ac.uk
Reader
Miss Lisa Revell Lisa.Revell@hull.ac.uk
Lecturer in Social Work / Director of Student Experience
Abstract
Signs of Safety (SOS) is a widely adopted approach in child protection internationally. However, very little is known about the effectiveness of students’ learning and engagement with this approach. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore social work students’ perceptions and experiences of SOS based on training and use of the approach during final practice placements. Interviews, focus groups, and surveys were undertaken at two time points: post-training and during placement. Findings highlighted student appreciation of SOS which was perceived as easy to use, promoting clear communication, and enabling collation of information within a simple structure. However, the perceived simplicity of SOS was also problematic in respect of recording information, and in developing balanced communication which facilitated relationship building, alongside skilful use of authority. These findings suggest that the apparent simplicity of the SOS framework, applied in the context of complex child protection and family work, can present a paradox for social work students. It is vital that, in adopting SOS, agencies do not seek to over-simplify a complicated and challenging area of practice, and that ongoing support from experienced practitioners is provided to enable novice social workers to apply this approach effectively.
Citation
White, C., Bell, J., & Revell, L. (in press). Signs of Safety and the Paradox of Simplicity: Insights from Research with Social Work Students. Practice: Social Work in Action, https://doi.org/10.1080/09503153.2022.2045009
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Feb 13, 2022 |
Online Publication Date | Mar 3, 2022 |
Deposit Date | Feb 14, 2022 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 4, 2022 |
Journal | Practice: Social Work in Action |
Print ISSN | 0950-3153 |
Electronic ISSN | 1742-4909 |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/09503153.2022.2045009 |
Keywords | Signs of Safety; Child protection; Social work education |
Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3926941 |
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Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
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