2.3 Using CAPS with social work documents
You have considered how to use CAPS to think about the Context, Audience, Purpose and Self in some written tasks, and now you will consider it in relation to document types.
Activity 5 Applying CAPS to social work documents
The following activity asks you to apply CAPS to what you have learnt about the three key social work documents of case notes, assessments and emails. For each one make some notes on how you think CAPS would apply to each if you were writing these documents.
Case note |
Assessment report |
Emails |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Context |
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Audience |
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Purpose |
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Self |
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
Answer
| Case note | Assessment report | Emails | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Context | Case notes are intended to be daily, contemporaneous records (kept in real time) and are agency requirements | Often statutory requirements or completed following agency policy. The can be one off or reviews or previous assessments. | Diverse contexts depending on the purpose, but an important part of multi-agency working. |
| Audience | No explicitly stated audience/reader (except where emails are copied in as case note). Other social workers and the local authority are the implied readers. | Often not explicitly stated and varies according to specific type of assessment- service user (e.g. assessment of need), courts, local authority. | Named individuals. |
| Purpose | To record actions, events, interactions and correspondence relating to a specific individual. | To present an evidence based evaluation of the needs of and risks to specific individuals which constitute an argument for specific services and care. | To communicate with social worker colleagues, other professionals, clients and other involved parties about actions, requests, concerns. |
| Self | As the writer you are often the person responsible for the case | You could be the main author, bringing together contributions from other people, or a contributor if you are not the main case workers | Communication from you in your specific role. This may vary depending on who the email is to |
In the next section you will explore how the style of writing in different social work documents might vary.