Harry Ferguson conducted research observing social workers during home visits and interactions with children and families. He shadowed 24 social workers on 87 visits. He observed that social workers have to navigate complex emotional and sensory experiences when visiting family homes, dealing with multiple tasks to create order. He found that in 15 of the 71 home visits, social workers were able to speak to children alone, often in bedrooms, but in 47 visits children were not seen alone, usually because they were under 5 years old. The up-close observations provided insights into social workers' communication styles, questioning techniques, use of empathy and authority. Body language and personal capacities like the ability to play also influenced interactions.

1. BASPCAN, 14 April, 2015
Symposium
Researching Child Protection Close
Upw
Harry Ferguson
Karen Winter et al
Juliet Koprowska et al
Charlotte Whittaker et al

2. (No) Research into face to face
CP practice
• Curious absence of research observations
• Participant observation studies in SW
offices (Helm, 2014; Broadhurst, et al, 2010; Dingwall
et al, 1983; Pithouse, 1998; Scourfield, 2003)
• Important findings re bureaucracy,
decision-making, language, gender
• But need to get right up close to practice
• Interactions, relational dynamics, helping.

3. Using ethnographic & mobile
methods to understand encounters
between social workers, children &
families
Harry Ferguson
Professor of Social Work
University of Nottingham
Harry.ferguson@nottingham.ac.uk
Twitter: @harr_ferguson
BASPCAN, 14 April, 2015

4. • 2008: began research
observations of
practice encounters
• Developed participant
observation /
shadowing method,
ethics procedure
• 2012-13: ESRC study

5. Research questions
• How do social workers perform child
protection face to face?
• Do they see children alone? If yes, where?
If not, why?
• How do SWs, children & parents relate?
• What is the lived experience of the work?
• What enables & constrains good practice?

6. Researching practice, close up
• Mobile methods: Shadowed practitioners
in the car, street, home visits, schools
• Interviewed on way there about their
approach, plan
• Observed & audio-recorded encounter
with children, parents, carers
• Interviewed SWs in car straight after
• Only done with consent.

7. Sample
• 2 L/As
• ‘Short’ & long-term social work teams
• Shadowed 24 social workers on 87
practice encounters
• 71 home visits
• 9 interviews with children in schools
• 7 office interviews.

8. Access & consent
• SWs asked selected parents if would
consent to researcher accompanying them
• Some refused
• But all who permitted initial visit consented
to researcher staying
• 70/71 parents on home visits gave
consent to audio-recording.

9. Driving interviews
• “I’m planning in my
own head and
thinking: right,
where do I start,
what do I say; will
the children be
there, won’t they,
you know …”

10. Walking interviews
• ((Dog barking))
• SW: I do hate visiting families with dogs. It’s
my biggest bugbear. Why does everybody
who’s got a dog think that people like them?
• HF: Yeah.
• ((Dog barking))
• SW: Oh.
• HF: I think this is the back door.
• SW: Yeah. ((Dogs barking loudly)) Can we
go round! ((More barking))

11. Inside the home / the world of
practice
• Or: What happens after this?

13. The complexity of practice
• Impact of house,
dogs, strangers,
smells, flux,
atmospheres (hostile,
warm, depressed …)
• Deep emotional,
sensory experience
• Multiple tasks
• Creating ‘order’ to
achieve goals highly
skilled activity.

14. How SW & CP are done:
Do SWs see children on their own?
• Parents only present 9
• Children seen on their own
in the home: 15
• Children not seen alone 47
71
• Common reason not seen alone, under 5.

15. Being mobile within the home
• Researcher needs to accompany workers
into families’ most intimate spaces
• Or will miss key aspects of practice
• 39 of the 71 home visits inspected
bedrooms & some kitchens
• 9/15 visits saw children alone in bedrooms
• Consent as a process, not a single event.

16. Talk
• SW: And do you ever worry when mum
drinks?
10 yr old: [Pause] About 20% I worry.
SW: Oh okay. And what’s that 20% then?
What makes you worried?
10 yr old: Well, she can be like OTT like
• Analysis of talk, questioning styles,
empathy, use of authority (Hall, et al
2014… ).

17. Body / actions
• Jenny sat on the single bed. She leaned towards
the children with an open stance, making eye
contact and responding to them in an animated
manner. The 10 yr old boy leaned back against
the bed, while his six-year-old sister stayed 3
feet further away and leaned back against the
wall. Jenny adjusted her language and style to
make it appropriate for the younger child. She
also paid attention to the children’s things—
DVDs, toys —and incorporated them in a playful
way into her communication.

18. Intimate Practice
• Identification of patterns in how close
practitioners get to children
• Use of touch – eg to bring comfort,
check on children’s well-being
• Capacity to play
• Personal capacities, use of self.

19. Observational methods
• Crucial evidence of what SWs do
• Actions, talk, impact of contexts (home)
• AND don’t do, and why - the irrational
• Reflexivity: feelings, atmospheres, the
senses as data (Pink, 2009)
• ‘Ethically important moments’ (Guillemin &
Gillam, 2004) inevitable.

20. • Cannot be resolved in advance
• Avoid anticipating rejection by ethics
committees (Dingwall, 2008)
• Trust researchers to be ethical
• Not just about serving academic’s needs
• Unearthing SUs experiences of services,
bad & good (Ashencaen Crabtree, 2012).

22. • Harry.ferguson@nottingham.ac.uk
• Twitter: @harr_ferguson