Additional resources
The WiSPeR [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] website contains a wide range of resources aimed to support social workers, including those studying at university. You can explore the topics to continue to develop your knowledge and skills.
Writing Analysis in Social Care is an interactive learning resource which is freely available for any workers in the social work and social care field and relevant to all UK nations.
A summary of research into social workers’ writing is the focus of Rai, L., Ferguson, G. and Giddings, L. (2025) ‘Writing as social Work: thematic review of the literature’, The British Journal of Social Work, 55(1), pp. 25–44. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1093/ bjsw/ bcae124
BASW have produced Generative AI & Social Work Practice Guidance, which is available to members on their website.
The TACT Fostering website has a section on ‘Language that cares’, which includes a glossary compiled by children and young people of alternative phrases that they prefer social workers to use.
Your nation’s professional standards and codes of practice can also be reviewed for their expectations about writing. There are also specific policies and guidance documents which are relevant in different areas of practice. Some examples are listed below:
The Promise Progress Framework (COSLA, The Scottish Government and The Promise Scotland, 2024) is downloadable from their website, this is linked with the major Scottish policy and guidance following the Independent Care Review in 2017.
Keeping the promise (The Promise Scotland, 2025) contains links to the reports from Scotland’s Independent Care Review, 2017.
For students based in Wales, a section (00:49:34 onwards) of the Student Connect Webinar on ‘Recording and report writing in social work’ deals with writing specifically in accordance with the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.
The Scottish Government has information on developing chronologies as part of their Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) guidance.
Iriss, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services, has published the useful report Chronologies in Adult Support and Protection: moving from current to best.
The Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS) has produced guidance on Developing Practice for Care Records in Scotland.
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has a useful resource about social work recording.
Research in Practice has a practice tool for completing social work chronologies on their website.
Social Care Wales has created Friend not Foe: make recording personal and accessible, which is a guide to supporting meaningful, outcome-focused recording in social care.
The Healthcare Library of Northern Ireland has published a supplement on record keeping and note-taking.
Social worker Rebekah Pierre’s Open Letter to the Social Worker Who Wrote My Case Files was published by BASW as part of National Care Leavers Week 2022. (Please note that this resource has a Trigger Warning because it contains extracts of case notes some may find upsetting, with reference to child sexual exploitation and domestic abuse.)