When families interact with children’s social services, what separates a good experience from a poor one? And how does the way social workers communicate with families affect their experience? These are questions that matters deeply to thousands of children and families across Wales and beyond – and now, for the first time, those who’ve lived through these experiences are getting to judge for themselves by listening to real examples of social work.
Researchers at CASCADE are halfway through collecting data for an innovative study that’s turning traditional research on its head. Instead of academics deciding what constitutes good social work, they’re asking parents who’ve worked with social services, care-experienced people, and frontline social workers themselves. By comparing how these groups think about practice, researchers hope to uncover common ground and important differences in how quality is perceived.
The project uses an approach called “comparative judgment” – borrowed from education research but never before applied to social work. Participants listen to pairs of anonymised recordings and decide which is a better example of social work practice, explaining their reasoning. It’s simple, yet the results are sophisticated. The findings will be measured against an established framework called Social Work and Interviewing Motivationally (SWIM), developed through over 800 observations in England. This comparison will help validate the new approach while potentially revealing insights that traditional methods might miss.
The project involves two phases. First, the team collected recordings from Welsh local authorities. These recordings were then anonymised – all identifying details removed and voices digitally altered to protect privacy. In the second phase, these anonymised recordings have become the foundation for comparative judgment. Each recording gets evaluated multiple times by different assessors, creating a highly reliable ranking system that reveals not just which practices seem best, but also what people identify as best about them.
The ultimate goal isn’t only academic understanding, but practical change. The project aims to develop training materials and guidance rooted in real examples of practice that families themselves have identified as effective. Over 30 participants have already taken part, visiting our offices in Cardiff University’s Spark/Sbarc building to take part in workshops.
Dr. Rebecca Jones, a member of the research team has shared “Working on this project has really renewed my enthusiasm for innovative research involving people with lived experience – particularly with parents, who face so much stigma and who have so much insight and expertise to offer. Having the opportunity to discuss real examples of practice with people who have lived this themselves has refined and challenged my own pre-existing ideas about good practice”.