Investing in the relationship: practitioners’ relationships with looked-after children and care leavers in Social Work Practices

Providing more consistent and continuous relationships for lookedafter

children and care leavers is a current preoccupation in social

work in light of many criticisms of the quality of such relationships.

Recommendations for more direct work have spurred new models of

service delivery in children’s services aimed at improving individual

outcomes. Independent Social Work Practices (SWPs), a new

organizational model piloted in some areas of England between 2009

and 2012, were established to enable social workers and other practitioners

to spend more time in direct work and thus to improve the

practitioner/child/young person relationship. This paper uses findings

from interviews with 169 children and young people across 11 local

authorities and 5 SWPs, undertaken as part of a 3-year national

matched control evaluation of pilot SWPs, to identify key elements of

good quality practitioner relationships with children or young people.

Focusing on children’s and young people’s perspectives and experiences,

the study demonstrates that more direct work and consistent

relationships are valued. The paper deploys Recognition Theory to

further understanding of effective practice as defined by children and

young people.