K355_1 Exploring critical social work practice About this free course This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course K355 Critical thinking in social work practice: www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/details/k355 . This version of the content may include video, images and interactive content that may not be optimised for your device. You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free learning from The Open University – www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/exploring-critical-social-work-practice/content-section-0 There you’ll also be able to track your progress via your activity record, which you can use to demonstrate your learning.

First published 2026. Unless otherwise stated, copyright © 2026 The Open University, all rights reserved. Intellectual property Unless otherwise stated, this resource is released under the terms of the Creative Commons Licence v4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en. Within that The Open University interprets this licence in the following way: www.open.edu/openlearn/about-openlearn/frequently-asked-questions-on-openlearn. Copyright and rights falling outside the terms of the Creative Commons Licence are retained or controlled by The Open University. Please read the full text before using any of the content. We believe the primary barrier to accessing high-quality educational experiences is cost, which is why we aim to publish as much free content as possible under an open licence. If it proves difficult to release content under our preferred Creative Commons licence (e.g. because we can’t afford or gain the clearances or find suitable alternatives), we will still release the materials for free under a personal end-user licence. This is because the learning experience will always be the same high quality offering and that should always be seen as positive – even if at times the licensing is different to Creative Commons. When using the content you must attribute us (The Open University) (the OU) and any identified author in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Licence. The Acknowledgements section is used to list, amongst other things, third party (Proprietary), licensed content which is not subject to Creative Commons licensing. Proprietary content must be used (retained) intact and in context to the content at all times. The Acknowledgements section is also used to bring to your attention any other Special Restrictions which may apply to the content. For example there may be times when the Creative Commons Non-Commercial Sharealike licence does not apply to any of the content even if owned by us (The Open University). In these instances, unless stated otherwise, the content may be used for personal and non-commercial use. We have also identified as Proprietary other material included in the content which is not subject to Creative Commons Licence. These are OU logos, trading names and may extend to certain photographic and video images and sound recordings and any other material as may be brought to your attention. Unauthorised use of any of the content may constitute a breach of the terms and conditions and/or intellectual property laws. We reserve the right to alter, amend or bring to an end any terms and conditions provided here without notice. All rights falling outside the terms of the Creative Commons licence are retained or controlled by The Open University. Head of Intellectual Property, The Open University This free course introduces what is meant by critical social work practice, and its activities will help you to develop the kinds of skills you need as a social work student, or as a qualified social worker. Becoming a critical practitioner is an ongoing process rather than an end point. It is often done in conjunction with others, for example in supervision, through collaboration with people with lived experience and alongside other social work and interprofessional colleagues. In this course, you will look at a theoretical model that explains what it means to be a critical practitioner.

Critical social work practice involves taking time to reflect, read and question before taking ethical action. A photograph of a person sat on a sofa with a laptop and open book.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course K355 Critical thinking in social work practice. Sensitive or emotionally challenging content Material in this course covers issues related to alcohol misuse, domestic abuse and violence that some people might find distressing. After studying this course, you should be able to: identify, evaluate and synthesise information from a wide range of relevant sources (including research evidence, perspectives from lived experience and contributions from other professionals and disciplines) to inform reflection, assessment and decision-making in practice appraise the impact of injustice, oppression, inequality, discrimination and exclusion in different contexts and consider how to promote equality and inclusion critically reflect on personal and others’ practice, views and contexts and work collaboratively to enhance outcomes for people who use services and their carers critically engage with the ethical basis of social work and the underpinning values of social work practice. As explained in the introduction, this course supports you in developing your knowledge and skills as a critical social work practitioner and will enhance your ability to work effectively with different kinds of complexities.

Critical practice involves thinking about things in different ways A neon sign with the words ‘Think about things differently’. The word ‘differently’ is upside down and backwards to emphasise the word ‘differently’.

If you have previous experience in social work, you will understand the importance of reflective learning, and you will already have faced challenging practice experiences. Critical practice offers a framework for taking this further, encouraging you to think about your own assumptions and those of others, to question and evaluate different approaches, and to look at how power and discrimination affect the social work role and the experiences of those you will work with. Above all, critical practice will help you to develop effective working relationships with people using services. When thinking about critical practice, it is important to emphasise that it is not about criticising. It’s helpful instead to think of it as critiquing – that is exploring and analysing from different viewpoints. This entails thinking deeply and asking questions of yourself and others. Critical practice also means looking carefully at how this thoughtful engagement with ideas connects with action; social work must go beyond just thinking and questioning. Thinking AND action Barnett’s (1997) model strongly resonates with the social work professions’ emphasis on values and ethics, reflection in practice and working with uncertainty and risk. You will think about the links between critical practice and action throughout this course, starting with Figure 1 where you can see that action is one of the elements of Barnett’s model of critical practice. Critical action recognises power inequalities and structured disadvantage seeking to work across differences towards empowerment by using a solid skills base.  Critical analysis recognises multiple perspectives in which knowledge, evidence, policies and practice are critically evaluated. Being able to take action in this sense is supported by a reflexive stance to practice, another element of critical practice noted in Figure 1. There are different ways of understanding reflexivity, but in this context it can be defined as a questioning approach to social work (D’Cruz et al., 2007). Practitioners taking this approach do not assume that social work knowledge can be simply applied to practice. Instead, assumptions about knowledge, power, practice and role of self are scrutinised and explored (D’Cruz et al., 2007), and this informs action. This idea is arguably especially important in a context of rapid social change, when new approaches to solving problems are needed. For example, as Hodgson and Watts (2017, p. 231) argue, social workers may be ‘considered reflexive in the sense that they are part of the condition of social change themselves and because they work in institutions and organisations confronting the sharp end of rapid change’. Despite the changing and complex context for practice, Barnett’s simple model shown in Figure 1 can be used to explore some of the dimensions for critical practice. Barnett’s model of critical practice is one that has stood the test of time and learners often find this a helpful way to understand its different dimensions. The model is set out in Figure 1 and you will see that it presents critical practice as the place where critical reflexivity, critical action and critical analysis come together.

Figure 1 Barnett’s three domains of critical practice (Source: Barnett, 1997, adapted in Glaister, 2008, p. 13) A graphic of three overlapping circles. The intersection of all three is labelled ‘Critical practice’. The top, pink circle is labelled ‘Critical action’ and contains three bullet points. The first reads ‘Sound skills base used with awareness of context’; the second reads ‘Operating to challenge structural disadvantage; and the final one says ‘Working with difference towards empowerment’. The blue circle, to the bottom right, is labelled ‘Critical analysis’ and contains three bullet points. The first reads ‘Evaluation of knowledge, theories, policies and practice’; the second reads ‘Recognition of multiple perspectives’; and the final one says ‘Different levels of analysis’. The yellow circle, to the bottom left, is labelled ‘Critical reflexivity’ and contains three bullet points. The first reads ‘Engaged self’; the second reads ‘Negotiated understanding and interventions’; and the final one says ‘Questioning personal assumptions and values’.

In the following section, you will explore Barnett’s model in more depth, enabling you to reflect on how it can be used in social work practice.

Barnett’s model in Figure 1 suggests some ways that may be relevant for developing your own practice. The three overlapping domains can be interpreted in different ways and some examples are provided in the following interactive. Click on each tab to find out more. Activity 1 encourages you to consider where you see your own practice in relation to Barnett’s model so that you can potentially identify any learning and development needs. Activity 1 Reflecting on your own critical practice Allow about 35 minutes Answer the following questions. Which aspects of critical practice are already familiar to you? Barnett’s model emphasises negotiation and supporting empowerment. Do you think people using services and carers are aware of this aspect of the social work role? Are there aspects of Barnett’s model that could be improved or updated? Barnett argues that critical practice will combine your analysis of situations, your actions as a social worker, and your awareness and use of self in a process of continuous negotiation with people using services. Some of this may be familiar to you from previous social work practice. People asking for help from or using social work services will have different perceptions of your role. As well as the positive experiences many people have of social work, others understand that the profession has considerable legal powers and, at times, social workers may be expected to act as gatekeepers to the resources people need. They may also have views and feelings about previous involvement with social workers. It can be helpful to explore with people using services how they see your role; an open discussion about this is one way to support empowerment, whatever the context of your practice. Some members of the Social Work team at The Open University thought that Barnett’s model could have been more explicit about critical action. One such member told us:… ‘working with difference’ towards empowerment feels a bit vague and I think it would be better if specific forms of discrimination were referred to. For example, social workers could think about what action they could take to make services more welcoming, or how to improve parents’ participation in meetings about their children. This would make what is meant by critical action a bit clearer. However, the model is a good reminder that critical practice is a process with different dimensions. You have now looked at some definitions and applications of critical practice which are widely applicable in social work.

The engagement of people using services in social work has changed over the years. Terminology has evolved and so has the role of people with lived experience. In Activity 2 you will hear from Peter and Raj, who are members of the team that produced this OpenLearn course.

Becoming a critical practitioner is often done with help from others An image of a circle of hands clasping one another against a backdrop of a clear, blue sky. The circular formation of hands depicts teamwork, support, strength and unity for synergy.

As people with lived experience of social work, their discussion touches on different features of critical practice. You will note that much of what is said by Peter and Raj links with Barnett’s domain of critical action. They talk about challenging the power of social workers and social work academics, and you might want to note some of these points down as you listen. Try to take a critical approach yourself as you listen to the discussion, thinking about what is said with a questioning and evaluating stance. Activity 2 Learning from and evaluating the views of people who use social work services Allow about 1 hour Part 1 Listen to Audio 1. Audio 1 Raj Mehta and Peter Latchford on critical practice RAJ MEHTA: For me, I think almost really decades now since the seventies when I first, you know, came across having to use a social services care and at the point of diagnosis is when I first became aware of the social service. Changes since the seventies have been considerable, but I feel that they still have a way to go. PETER LATCHFORD: Yeah, I suppose I would say that, um, when I first got involved as a – in, um, patient public involvement, I think that it was very much about being, um, drafted in for a session of work, um, a particular topic, um, a particular, um, lecture perhaps and then that would be that and then we would do another one on something dissimilar probably. Um, and I think now that there’s much more, um, there’s been a move towards a much greater involvement of patients and carers and I think for me that has been a really big positive, um, so that we are now much more involved in the nuts and bolts of, um, academic life, academic courses and student learning so that we have more of an input. RAJ MEHTA: The terms ‘service user’, ‘expert by experience’ have also evolved and I think I have seen it referred in different contexts by different kind of, um, services. So, you know, I have seen care provided and people seen as customers or clients, which I find interesting. Similarly, you know, in some contexts, the service user or expert by experience have been seen as service participant and I think that sort of reflects the evolution of how the service user and the social work or social work profession kind of works together to achieve a kind of outcome that’s appropriate for the person. So, but I think that, really, it is quite interesting – those terms have got such a different, you know, connotations and different kind of meaning for people. You know, ‘service users’, for me, is the appropriate term or ‘expert by experience’, I think, for me, it’s a service user. ‘Service participant’ kind of takes it a slightly in a different direction. It says ‘I am part of this providing the care. I think I am a recipient of the care, not the provider.’ But I – you know, and so, I sometimes kind of have this, you know, um, disconnect with those kinds of terms. PETER LATCHFORD: Yes, I think that, um, in terms of receiving care, I think it was very much a question of, um, here was the social worker, here was the client or whatever the terminology was and the social worker would say something along the lines of ‘These are the services; these are the things that we can offer, and this is what I think we should do,’ and there was very little input, I think, from the service user. Um, it was sort of ‘Yeah, OK, then, let’s do that,’ whereas I think there has definitely been a movement forward in terms of, um, some kind of more of a partnership, um, which has been a real challenge, I think, um, for the social work profession. It’s about giving up power and knowledge and, um, handing it over to the service user and carer. So, I think it’s been a – it’s being – a big shift. Yet again, I would say it is going along in the right direction, but it’s challenging. RAJ MEHTA: Peter, looking through these modules that we’ve both been doing, I think, for me, what it does is from a service user’s point of view, there is an acknowledgement on the importance of having service users in the – in doing everything you do as a social worker. But also, it brings – it actually highlights the importance of having experts by experience in the academic learning. So, I think the module’s been brought up to date with some of the concepts around equality, diversity, inclusion, all of those issues; but also, it has also really recapped on the importance of expert by experience in an academic environment, so it is as important for students to learn from expert by experience as it is from, you know, reading and, um, understanding the theoretical perspectives. PETER LATCHFORD: I agree. I think it does help to move it away from a purely theoretical exercise because clearly that’s important, but also the practical skills that are required and the service user perspective and the empathy and those kinds of things are so important that I think that needs to be weaved through the whole of – well, the whole of – the course, really, but in this particular module, I think, yeah, always brings it back then to, um, what the job is all about, really, which in the end, is all about people and dealing with difficult situations. And sometimes, I think, as a service user, we can just look at the text or – and we can just say – it suddenly just hits us in the face and say, ‘No, that’s – that’s – really doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t sound like that’s the way that we want to go in terms of our interaction and, um, the relationship that we want to have with service users and carers’. So, I think from that perspective, it just keeps it sort of front and centre the whole time. Part 2 After listening to Audio 1, consider the following questions: Raj and Peter refer to different ways in which people using social work services are described. Which do you prefer and why? As discussed in Audio 1, critical practice is about addressing power and challenging the status quo. To what extent do you think the evolution of terms to describe people using social work services has shifted power away from social workers? If so, how, and why has this happened? What do you think Raj means when he says he feels disconnected from the term ‘service participant’? Peter highlights how the involvement of people with lived experience can promote more positive relationships. What have you learned from your interactions with people who use services and carers? Where do you think you could improve your skills as you approach qualified social worker status? What might be some of the barriers to collaborative working with people with lived experience? Remember that there is no right answer when talking about your own past experience. Terminology is always evolving, and an important part of critical practice involves thinking about meanings of language for everyone involved. There are likely to be different views about the impact language has had on changing the power social workers have. It’s likely that many of you will have identified that while language is important, other factors in society have a huge influence on social workers’ authority and the ability of people using services to challenge it. Challenging the different kinds of barriers to collaborative working aligns particularly with the idea of ‘critical action’ in Barnett’s model. You have now thought critically about the ideas expressed in Audio 1 by Raj and Peter. Power and authority was an important theme of their discussion. Additionally, Raj and Peter talked about how different ideas and terminology have become more, or less, important over time. This section looks at how ideas are shared and debated in practice settings and how structures in organisations relate to different kinds of power and authority.

Practice settings can shape collaborative ways of working A social worker and a woman sitting together at a kitchen table. The social worker is showing the woman a piece of paper and pointing to something on it.

Activity 3 Discussing structures and power in practice Allow about 1 hour This activity invites you to think about how some features of critical practice relate to your own practice setting. Where and how are different ideas about practice shared? This might include new research or changes to legislation and policy, and how these impact on social work. Thinking back to Audio 1 and the perceptions of the profession shared, how do you think the services provided in social care are seen by people using them? To what extent are people using services involved in shaping service provision? What structures are in place to promote this involvement? What processes exist for identifying and addressing discrimination in the workplace? Each social work setting is different, although there are likely to be some shared practices between similar agencies. For example, organisations may have self-organised or specific interest groups for staff, as well as processes by which these collective issues can feed into trade unions. Unions can then take up issues of discrimination at a structural level. You might find that new research evidence or other developments are discussed in team meetings or that other ways exist for disseminating new ideas. You will probably find a range of opinions about involving people with lived experience. You could evaluate the extent to which: involvement is seen as a continuous process and how feedback is responded to by the organisation people who use services and carers are involved in the development and provision of services in general. This will also inform your understanding of how services are viewed by the people using them. By now, you will be reflecting on how to take a critical stance towards any information you find out. The next section looks in more detail at how to involve people with lived experiences. Open University social work academics collaborate with advisory groups from each nation of the UK, comprising of people with lived experience, to ensure that a broad range of voices and perspectives inform teaching materials and the broader curriculum. Representatives from these advisory groups have been integral to the development and design of this unit, helping to ensure that the content is not only relevant and inclusive, but that it is also grounded in real-world experiences.

Engaging with lived experience of social work is essential The words ‘nothing about us without us’ in bright colours.

As Raj and Peter identified in Audio 1, it is not only terminology that has evolved over many years, but also the roles and remit of people with lived experience of social work. They talked about some of the ways they, and others, have become increasingly involved in social work education. Involving people with lived experience can give prominence to elements of knowledge that are not always visible in academic publications and these insights can highlight how social work practice is experienced in everyday life. Hearing directly from people who have interacted with services can challenge assumptions and encourage students to reflect on how their actions as future social workers may affect the people they support. Activity 4 Involving people with lived experience in social work education Allow about 20 minutes People who have lived experience of social work services can play an important role in shaping how future social workers learn. In this activity you will think about how their perspectives can be included in the development of social work education. Think about the ways in which people with lived experience might contribute to the different stages of developing and delivering a social work course or module – e.g. planning content, writing learning materials and activities, designing assessments and evaluating the content. Note down some of the ways people with loved experience of social work could meaningfully be involved in this. As you do this, you could also consider the following questions: What knowledge or insight might they bring? How might their involvement influence what students learn? What would meaningful involvement look like in practice? People with lived experience of social work can be meaningfully involved in social work education by ... You may have identified a range of ways that people with lived experience of social work can contribute to social work education. When developing the content for this course people with lived experience were involved in several ways, including: Shaping content: Their perspectives helped inform the development of key topics and learning materials so that the content reflected the realities of interacting with social work services. Content creation: Some people with lived experience wrote sections for this course, while others created audio or visual materials for students to engage with. Providing critical feedback: Draft materials were reviewed and discussed within the team, which included people with lived experience of social work. This created opportunities to reflect critically on language choices, assumptions, representations of experience and principles of anti-oppressive practice. Ensuring diverse perspectives: The team included people with lived experience from across the four nations of the UK. Individuals brought different forms of experience, helping ensure the content reflected a broad range of perspectives. This approach aimed to support co-production, where knowledge from lived experience is valued alongside professional and academic expertise. To learn more about co-production in social work education, please visit the following website: Co-production: challenges and opportunities for the Higher Education curriculum. Now you have explored the importance of recognising lived experience as a valuable form of knowledge, the next section invites you to reflect on some practice scenarios. These will help you to consider how you can bring together the domains proposed in Barnett’s model in your role as a critical practitioner. You may already be familiar with the temptation to seek or provide solutions, attempting to ‘solve’ the situations people bring to you as a social worker. Sometimes it is difficult to avoid doing this when presented with referrals or scenarios. They may appear straightforward, but looking below the surface and thinking about different perspectives shows that this is far from the case.

Preparing to critically analyse a practice scenario A cartoon image of a lightbulb with a yellow cloud behind it and lines radiating from it suggesting a bright idea.

In Activity 5, you will be asked to adopt a critical stance towards the information provided in whichever scenario you choose. Rather than, for example, thinking about services that could help or additional financial support (important though these might be), you are asked to focus on a few specific questions that connect with some features of Barnett’s model and exemplify the ‘critical’ in critical practice. For the next activity, you are asked to select one of two scenarios and to answer the questions that follow. Content note Please be aware that Activity 5 discusses sensitive issues such as alcohol misuse, domestic abuse and violence. If you are likely to find this challenging, please consider carefully how you might engage with it. Activity 5 Social work referrals and scenarios: taking a critical stance Allow about 1 hour Choose one of the practice scenarios below to analyse.

Scenario 1 Jake, aged 11, was born with spina bifida and is a wheelchair user. He finds it tricky because no other child uses a wheelchair and, living rurally, the terrain makes it challenging to get outside on wheels. He lives with his grandmother, Hope, on an island in Scotland. Jake needs to attend regular hospital appointments at the children’s hospital on the mainland, but this is becoming more challenging. Hope has arthritis and finds it difficult to manage financially on a pension, with rising fuel and other costs. Hope has asked for an assessment to help support Jake to attend a local youth group and private swimming lessons.

Scenario 2 Amina and Ali are care experienced, first-time parents. They are looking forward to welcoming their first baby, but at their 20-week scan, they found out that the baby has a serious heart condition. Neither has any extended family and they live in a small apartment that is damp and mouldy. The midwife has made a referral to social work after an assessment has shown that, consistent with Amina’s self-reporting, Amina is feeling quite depressed. As a teenager she struggled with her mental health, and she had support from the adolescent mental health team for some years. Amina also disclosed to the midwife that she and Ali are having arguments about money and sometimes he drinks quite a lot of alcohol. Now answer the following questions about the scenario you selected. 1. Critical analysis demands the recognition of multiple perspectives. Can you provide at least two additional perspectives on the information provided (e.g. the point of view of different family members or professionals, or different ways of viewing the scenario)? A member of the Social Work team at the OU highlighted that both scenarios present information focusing on an individual perspective. Scenario 2 is most obviously written from the midwife’s point of view, while the first scenario seems to concentrate on Hope’s perspective. It would be important to find out more from everyone involved in both scenarios. For example, you would want to speak directly to Jake to find out whether the youth group and swimming lessons are activities he wants to take part in himself. In Scenario 2, it would be necessary to find out directly from Ali how he sees the situation. Other professionals are likely to be involved in both scenarios and will therefore be able to provide additional perspectives on how to provide effective support. 2. Thinking now about critical reflexivity, social workers inevitably carry their personal experiences and beliefs into their work. What personal assumptions and values were you aware of when reading the scenario? Issues such as alcohol misuse and disability (as mentioned in the scenarios) may resonate with your own experiences, beliefs and assumptions. One team member commented: When I read about Ali’s drinking, I immediately started to think about domestic violence, but I am very aware that this is because of my own past experience. I need to check myself about this and not jump to conclusions. It’s always good to be aware of the possible implications of alcohol use, but in this case, we need to find out a lot more. Another member of the team responded to Scenario 1 by sharing this perspective: As a disabled person, I had to put up with family members, teachers and social workers deciding everything for me. I felt tempted to assume that this is what Hope is doing. I always need to be careful to disentangle my own experiences from what’s really going on. 3. It is important not to take all the information provided to social workers at face value. What else would you want to find out about the scenario you have selected? There is a lot of information missing in the scenarios, such as ethnicity and cultural background, and any additional sources of support already in place. Other professionals could be involved and might know the families already. It’s not clear from the scenario how Hope’s arthritis affects her and whether it is a fluctuating condition; similarly, spina bifida affects people in different ways, so the label is insufficient to describe Jake’s situation. Barnett’s model of critical practice encourages social workers to look at multiple kinds of structural disadvantage and how these intersect with one another. Here, for example, Hope is an older woman, struggling on a low income, who is also a carer for a disabled child. However, Hope clearly has strengths and resources – this perspective also needs to be taken into account. 4. What kinds of structural disadvantage could be relevant to your chosen scenario? How might you address these in practice? Poverty appears to be a relevant aspect of structural disadvantage in Scenario 1, as finances are mentioned. So, you would probably want to think specifically about rural poverty and its implications. Disability discrimination is another kind of structural disadvantage: Jake is described as facing barriers to taking part in society. As ethnicity is not referred to in either scenario, you don’t know whether racial discrimination is a feature. Amina and Ali are care experienced parents. While this might suggest multiple disadvantages, it is important to find out from the couple whether, for example, they are living on a very low income, rather than stereotyping and jumping to conclusions. This activity looked at challenging assumptions and thinking carefully about the context you are working in. For people in Wales, the social work professional regulator specifies that you should think about and address the implications of the Welsh context. This means going beyond simply describing the environment, and instead actively considering what this means for people using services and service provision. What are the differences between rural and urban areas? What have you found out about health needs and demographic information? Are Welsh-speaking social workers available? All of this will impact on social work practice and these factors (including language and interpreting requirements) should be considered across all four nations of the UK, because they add different perspectives to your work and may inform the critical action required to challenge disadvantage. Activity 5 also encouraged you to think about multiple perspectives on your chosen scenario, which is a key aspect of Barnett’s domain of critical analysis. Questioning your practice as a social worker is not about focusing just on what you need to do better. It also requires reflecting on what went well and how you can learn from different interventions. The next activity looks at critical reflection in more depth.

Ways of developing your practice A drawing of a zig zagging arrow travelling upwards with the words ‘continuous improvement’ above it.

In Activity 6, you will listen to two audios. Janet Howard (a social work manager) and Sophie Terrill (a newly qualified social worker) talk about the importance of setting aside time for reflection. Activity 6 Critical reflection: enhancing your practice Allow about 45 minutes Listen to Audios 2 and 3, making a note of any advice you find helpful as well as listening out for Janet and Sophie’s perspectives on supervision. Audio 2 Janet Howard on reflection in practice JANET HOWARD: It’s really important to use reflective frameworks in practice. One of my favourites is KOLB, the experiential learning cycle, where you think about what has happened, you reflect on it, you think through new ideas, and then you put those ideas into action, and obviously that then builds up professional knowledge and wisdom, and goes full cycle. Reflective logs are critical to practice. It’s really important you take time to think about your experiences and to build on those, and also a strong commitment to reflective supervision both by yourself and your manager. Audio 3 Sophie Terrill on frameworks SOPHIE TERRILL: The frameworks that I probably use more often than not as a newly qualified social worker to help me reflect on my practice, have been something I’ve learnt within the last year actually, within my assessed and supported year of practice and they draw on an approach called ‘Action Learning Sets’. It’s a type of group supervision, so it’s drawing on the people around you, but the one I particularly like is the sharing of a problem. It could be a case problem, it could be a balance – of a work–life balance – or something outside of your work and it prompts others to ask the what, when, how questions. You then have a period to reflect upon the things posed to you and you have to provide feedback, back. So, the Action Learning Sets have been really helpful for me over the last year, especially as I’ve been faced by new experiences and challenges of moving from one service group to another. I also really like incorporating aspects of cognitive behavioural therapy into the approaches that I use in reflection. I find it really helpful in drawing on past experiences and considering how that will impact future decisions or how I might be reacting to a situation right now. Thinking specifically about what Sophie says, how do you think the kind of group supervision she describes helps to develop critical practice? Sophie talks about a kind of group supervision where she presents a scenario and colleagues ask different questions to promote shared reflection. She then feeds back to her colleagues. Sophie describes how she is expected to talk about how her feelings and past experiences impact on her approach to the work discussed and, as such, develops her critical reflexivity and Janet refers to reflective frameworks and critical reflection. This activity presented some examples from practice, adding to your knowledge and understanding of the importance of effective supervision.

An important aspect of critical practice is the ability to elicit, receive and act on feedback from people using services. Getting feedback about your practice as a social worker can be approached as a tick-box exercise or it can enhance critical practice by providing information that you can learn from. In the next activity, Raj and Peter offer some further ideas about ways of eliciting meaningful feedback. Activity 7 Building rapport and trust Allow about 1 hour Part 1 Listen to the discussion in Audio 4. You will probably want to play it more than once and you might want to make some brief notes on what Raj and Peter say about feedback as a process. Audio 4 Raj Mehta and Peter Latchford discuss feedback RAJ MEHTA: Peter, can we talk a little bit more about feedback? I was thinking about how, as an early social worker who has just qualified, and having to get into some of the good practices of providing and understanding the feedback. For me, I think the most important thing is that if they have that honest, and have built that real, open and truly trusting relationship, I think it will be very, very simple to understand how things are going between the social worker and the users. And I say that because I think, you know, you should then say to them, each other, that this isn’t working or that’s not working without having to really actually have any fear of any reprisals or any – because, you know, as a service user, you don’t actually sometimes disclose everything when you don’t have a complete trust in somebody. And that’s not just social work. I think, to me, to some extent that’s human nature, and until you have a full trust you are not going to disclose all your needs in this context. So, I think the first thing to do is to ensure that between you, you have that true relationship, and if you do have that, then those complexity of needs – whether that is of whatever nature – really is understood between the two of you. PETER LATCHFORD: Sometimes that feedback is not going to come out in necessarily in very well-articulated … It might come out quite emotionally and people can be upset, they’re difficult situations, and I think that’s when the social worker can try and unpick that and find out what’s going on, what the difficulty is, why is the service user upset about that or angry. And that will be, that can be, a kind of focal point for getting feedback. Even though it may not sound like it, that would be good feedback – to know how differently you might be approaching a situation, how you might be approaching a service user in a different way. So, I think it’s really – feedback can come in all sorts of ways and sometimes I think we’re a bit blinkered about it, you know, sort of, social workers are likely to give you a form and say, you know, ‘What did you think of me as a social worker?’ You know, tick box here kind of thing, and, you know, people sometimes are not used to doing those kind of things, so we’ve got to be encouraging social workers, I think, to be very creative about how they seek it and how – and to be open, to be open to it and not be defensive, because at the end of it, what social workers are really about is to get the best outcome for their clients. RAJ MEHTA: No, I agree. And, I think just going back to how do you unpick really complex conversation, or some – or your user is sort of, you know, beginning to tell you needs that are very complex, and I think the key skills there has to be: really observe, talk and listen. But not only that, and then write down – writing skills is going to be so important. So, in a sense, what I’m saying is not just non-verbal but verbal communication along with written communication is going to be the absolute must. And I think if you become really good at that, particularly the written conversation, because these notes are not just going to be for you, for users; those notes are going to be read by other people and they have to be meaningful for them. And has to reflect and has to be understood and agreed by the user, because if you write it in a language that’s not either accessible or useable or readable by the person, it’s meaningless. PETER LATCHFORD: It’s another way – it’s another kind of feedback mechanism in a way for me. It’s about, you know, if a social worker has a conversation with me and I start to say some things, it’s really helpful for me, for the social worker, then to say something like ‘So, Peter, do I understand you to say that …’ or something like that, which then enables me to either say, ‘Actually, no, I didn’t quite mean that,’ or ‘Yeah, that’s absolutely right.’ And I think that can be either in verbal communication or written. And, yes, if somebody produces, you know, an official kind of report and I don’t understand it, then there’s something wrong, I think, and it needs to be, as you’re saying, in plain English and accurate because after all, if it’s not accurate, that’s going to affect the type of service that’s provided. RAJ MEHTA: Yeah, absolutely. And just, you know, thinking a little bit more on feedback, I think it’s having these kinds of exchanges, you know, you have that complex conversation or conversations and then you have these written down. Quite often if you don’t, it is so clear to me that people walk away from these kinds of conversations with different messages and if it’s not written down and actually exchanged between the two people involved, you know, you could have completely different understanding. So, I think it is so important there is a feedback mechanism to just make sure, not only that as you rightly said, did I understand this? Can I clarify? Have I captured it? All of those kinds of things, but played back to make sure that the user really understands what you are saying, is accurate and reflects what they are saying. So, I agree, and that’s part of the feedback loop is to really give the user that, and I think you can then ask the users: ‘Are we on the track to achieving?’ You know, ‘Can we – how is this relationship …?’ You know, ‘Am I doing – is my performance to your expectations?’, this kind of conversation, as opposed to what I’ve seen is, you know, quite often the social worker will say, or their supervisors might send you, kind of what I call, a survey note or feedback. But it is a feedback. And so, will you mark this person? Where do you mark them one to ten? Is it a good performance, not so good? That, to me, is not as meaningful. I think that’s more a survey. For me, a meaningful feedback is really having a conversation or a written feedback, which says, ‘I really benefited because x, y, z.’. PETER LATCHFORD: I think there possibly are barriers that need to be overcome when people are … when social workers are looking for feedback. I think there are barriers that can be met. One I think is probably that you don’t want maybe social – service users – don’t want to upset the social worker because, you know, there is an issue about, they are the kind of gatekeepers to services, so therefore you don’t want to mess it up in any way. I think that’s definitely an issue that needs to be overcome, it’s obviously, as I have said before, defensiveness on the social worker’s part sometimes. And sometimes, maybe it’s quite an aspiration. It’s quite a high expectation that sometimes people are not used to giving detailed feedback to people, you know, people feel uncomfortable, they don’t want to be unpopular, and those kind of things can all really impact people’s ability or desire to give somebody else some meaningful feedback. And again, the feedback needs to be meaningful. I mean, I’ve seen feedback, you know, ‘How was the service? And somebody’s put ‘OK’ or ‘Yeah, it was alright.’ You know, and you think, well, that’s not really helpful at all and when those kind of things are said, I think it’s a skill of the social worker then to be able to try and bring that out, to draw out: ‘Well, you know, you said, “OK,” but, you know, can you tell me a bit more? What did you like about it? Were your goals met? Did you get the outcomes you hoped for? What was my approach like?’ You know, lots of different questions, I think, that can be offered in difficult, you know, in what are difficult circumstances, very often. RAJ MEHTA: It’s amazing, really, when you really reflect back, you know, when I look back and see some of the kind of ways this feedback, and in fact, actually it goes really back to the conversation. You know, how did you actually get those issues that are really difficult to understand or even disclose? And, you know, as you just mentioned, there are some barriers. How do you overcome those barriers? And I think, actually, it goes right back up top, initially, what kind of rapport do you have with this person? And if you have not started on a good foot and, for me, building that rapport with your user is just such a basic but vitally important step in really building that relationship trust and honest, all the things that we talked about. PETER LATCHFORD: Very often that initial meeting people is the crucial thing because people are quite cute and will very often make, not always right, but they’ll make judgements and assumptions about a social worker, very, very, very quickly. RAJ MEHTA: Interestingly enough, you know, Peter, it has reminded me of something I came across in my different kind of understanding of users and preparing to … building a rapport, and it’s this thing called ‘five Ps’. You know, I remembered this, it is: preparing prevents poor performance. You know, and it reminds me of that because I think building rapport is about back to understanding your users and if you understand, you can have those conversations in a meaningful way. Because if you go and talk to somebody with impairment, you have no idea, you are never even going to, you know, as somebody with either, say, sensory impairment of hearing loss or sight loss, and sight loss – there is no way you’re going to have eye contact with that person. So, how are you going to build that rapport? So, you know, in situations like that, you need to have some awareness of, you know, for this person, I need to have a way of communicating with touch. There’s no harm, you know, in tapping their shoulder and say this is what I’m talking about. So, I mean that really comes back again, you know, the whole thing about building rapport leads onto, you know, some of those barriers of difficulties of getting the user to open up, to disclosing really difficult needs. And I think it also then brings us back to, you know, how you make those assessments and decisions as to what those needs are. How you balance those against all those competing demands. And, you know, above all, I think it brings us back to, really, why it is important to have those key communication skills, for me. I think it’s that written skills and having that feedback loop – so important. And what that then says to me is how do you know, between you, that you have achieved your goals? And, for me, I think the only way you do that is to jointly appraise and say, ‘Did we get what we started to do?’ But you don’t do that at the end; you do that as you progress, because if you leave it until the end, it’s too late. PETER LATCHFORD: Yeah, I agree. And, I mean, I think it feels to me quite straightforward to say: ‘Well, you know, this is the situation that we were discussing when we first met. These were some of your needs and are we meeting some of those now? Are we moving forward with those and what else can we do?’ So, we can appraise and feedback during the process rather than, as you say, leaving it till the end when it’s too late, so you can, you know: ‘How are we doing? This is where we want to go. You know, are we going in the right direction? Do we need to change direction? Are there things we can do differently?’ Part 2 Then answer the following questions: Peter and Raj emphasise that building rapport is essential to asking for and receiving meaningful feedback. What is your understanding of building rapport and what skills do you need to develop this? Raj refers to ‘full trust’. Is this always achievable? If not, how can you build rapport? Peter and Raj argue that feedback is an ongoing process. If you approach feedback in this way, how will you record it? What challenges do you envisage in relation to seeking feedback from people using services? What help do you need from your supervisor and tutor to develop this? Sometimes feedback is presented as anger, distress or other emotions that might be difficult to work with. What support do you need in these kinds of situations? What do you need to work on yourself? The conversation between Peter and Raj raises several issues relevant to critical practice. Your own notes will probably have further underlined how critical practice requires self-reflection and self-awareness. By approaching interactions with curiosity, openness and a willingness to question assumptions, social workers can create spaces in which individuals feel heard, respected and genuinely involved in decision-making. Critical reflection enables practitioners to interpret feedback meaningfully as part of a collaborative process that strengthens person-centred practice.

This free course introduced approaches to critical social work practice. You explored how social work interventions can be improved by critical practice, focusing particularly on how to involve people with lived experience in meaningful ways. Barnett’s model (Figure 1) was presented as a helpful way of thinking about its relevance for social work. In particular, the model addresses many of the complexities of social work practice, including those you will be expected to work with in your final practice placement. Social work is about relationships. It is often done in conjunction with others: in supervision, through collaboration with people with lived experience, and with other social work and interprofessional colleagues. As you have seen, becoming a critical practitioner is not an end point, but is rather an ongoing process involving reflection and action. This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course K355 Critical thinking in social work practice. D’Cruz, H., Gillingham, P. and Melendez, S. (2007) ‘Reflexivity, its meanings and relevance for social work: a critical review of the literature’, The British journal of social work, 37(1), pp. 73–90. Ferguson, G. (2022) The importance of workplace learning for social workers. Insight 67. Available at: https://www.iriss.org.uk/resources/insights/importance-workplace-learning-social-workers (Accessed: 3 February 2026). Glaister, A. (2008) ‘Introducing critical practice’, in S. Fraser and S. Matthews (eds) The critical practitioner in social work and health care. SAGE Publications, pp. 8–26. Hodgson, D. and Watts, L. (2017) Key concepts and theory in social work. Bloomsbury Publishing. Pearl, R., Williams, H., Williams, L., Brown, K., Brown, B., Hollington, L., Gruffydd, M., Jones, R., Yorke, S. and Statham, G. (2018) ‘Service user and carer feedback: simply pass/fail or a genuine learning tool?’, Social Work Education, 37(5), pp. 553–564. Slasberg, C. and Beresford, P. (2022) ‘The mixed and misleading messages within adult social care – implications for the social work role to assess need and plan support’, Journal of Social Work Practice, 36(4), pp. 427–439. This free course was written by the K355 course team. Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence. The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this free course: Course image: Photo by Pixabay / Pexels Introduction: Gülsah Aydogan / Pexels Section 1: Ivan Bertolazzi / Pexels; Figure 1: Adapted from Barnett et al. (1997) Higher Education, Open University Press. Section 2: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock Section 3: shironosov / iStock / Getty Images Plus Section 4: Shutterstock AI Section 5: Svetlana Ivanova / iStock / Getty Images Plus Section 6: Tashatuvango / | Dreamstime Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. Don't miss out If reading this text has inspired you to learn more, you may be interested in joining the millions of people who discover our free learning resources and qualifications by visiting The Open University – www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses.

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