The project has now ended although we are still finishing off the last few journal articles. So far we have published five but there a further four in various stages of completion. Today we have uploaded a summary of our findings, which is very short and accessible for busy practitioners.
The overall picture from these cohort and panel studies is that families and children who had some contact with social workers had worse outcomes than those who did not. We found this even when we compared families and children with social work contact to apparently similar individuals who did not receive social work contact.
We need to take great care when interpreting these findings. They do not necessarily mean that social work contact is ineffective or even harmful. Even though the studies we used contain a wealth of information on individuals and families, they are based on self-report and they tell us relatively little about the nature, quality, amount or reasons for social work contact. They also do not cover everything, in particular only one study includes information on severe adversities, such as family violence or harm to children. It is plausible that poorer outcomes for those that had social work contact merely reflects their high levels of vulnerability that were not captured by the studies used.
Social work is specifically targeted at vulnerable individuals and families. So it is not surprising that social work users would have poorer outcomes. However the question remains as to whether social work contact and support can improve these outcomes over time. In our study we did not find evidence that improvements in mental health and wellbeing were greater for children and families with social work contact than for those without. However, we need better longitudinal data on social work interventions to explore this further.
The overall picture from these cohort and panel studies is that families and children who had some contact with social workers had worse outcomes than those who did not. We found this even when we compared families and children with social work contact to apparently similar individuals who did not receive social work contact.
We need to take great care when interpreting these findings. They do not necessarily mean that social work contact is ineffective or even harmful. Even though the studies we used contain a wealth of information on individuals and families, they are based on self-report and they tell us relatively little about the nature, quality, amount or reasons for social work contact. They also do not cover everything, in particular only one study includes information on severe adversities, such as family violence or harm to children. It is plausible that poorer outcomes for those that had social work contact merely reflects their high levels of vulnerability that were not captured by the studies used.
Social work is specifically targeted at vulnerable individuals and families. So it is not surprising that social work users would have poorer outcomes. However the question remains as to whether social work contact and support can improve these outcomes over time. In our study we did not find evidence that improvements in mental health and wellbeing were greater for children and families with social work contact than for those without. However, we need better longitudinal data on social work interventions to explore this further.