5 Critically analysing a practice scenario
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.
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
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)?
Discussion
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?
Discussion
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?
Discussion
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?
Discussion
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.