Making meaningful connections: using insights from social pedagogy in statutory child and family social work practice |
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| Authors: | Gillian Ruch Karen Winter Viv Cree Sophie Hallett Fiona Morrison Mark Hadfield |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Social Work and Social Care, School of Education and Social Work, Essex House, University of Sussex, Brighton;2. School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queens' University, Belfast;3. Social Work, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh;4. TLC Project Research Fellow, CASCADE Research Centre, School of Social Sciences, University of Cardiff, Cardiff;5. TLC Project Research Fellow Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh;6. Professor of Education, School of Social Sciences, University of Cardiff, Cardiff |
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| Abstract: | Reports into incidents of child death and serious injury have highlighted consistently concern about the capacity of social workers to communicate skilfully with children. Drawing on data collected as part of an Economic and Social Research Council funded UK‐wide research project exploring social workers' communicative practices with children, this paper explores how approaches informed by social pedagogy can assist social workers in connecting and communicating with with children. The qualitative research included data generated from 82 observations of social workers' everyday encounters with children. Social pedagogical concepts of ‘haltung’ (attitude), ‘head, heart and hands’ and ‘the common third’ are outlined as potentially helpful approaches for facilitating the intimacies of inter‐personal connections and enhancing social workers' capacity to establish and sustain meaningful communication and relationships with children in the face of austere social, political and organisational contexts. |
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| Keywords: | communication connection statutory child and family social work social pedagogy |
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