Answer

Analyzing and Making Decisions about a Case Scenario Using Social Work Knowledge and Principles

Brief Description of Case Study

The context of the agency focused on in this essay is connecting and uniting families together. The agency works with age 10 to 18th birthday and supports young people who have been in care for over 18 months to reconnect and return home to their families. The agency works in collaboration with other organisations to provide holistic support. This case study’s focus is a young person who evidentially has been undergoing a challenging time as a result of her mother’s death, and she needs consistency and love from the family members in her life. Having had a limited contact with her extended family members, the agency is trying to repair her relationship with her father. The agency employs child and family assessment tool reinforced by the framework of assessment for children in need. According to Rutter et al. (2017), framework is connoted by a triangle with promotion and safeguarding a child’s welfare being at the centre. The assessment concentrates upon three crucial interwoven variables: parenting capacity, children’s development needs, and environment and family factors (Munro, 2018). Additionally, the framework offers a logical way for recording, understanding, and analysing what is happening to the child within a community and home environment.

Assessment and Interventions

From the case study presented, it is evident that the young individual’s attachment with her relatives, including her father, was strained after she lost her mother. According to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, people go through five different stages of grief after losing their loved one: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (Rutter et al., 2015). From the Kübler-Ross’ theory, it is evident that after suffering the loss, the lady was undergoing the grief and loss cycle, thus affecting her relationship building with her father and her poor connection with the relatives. To better understand her case, assessment is necessary.

Assessment, according to Hervieux and Voltan (2019), is an on-going process that seeks to understand service users and their situations.  Assessment comprises of evaluation and decision-making with the aim of supporting service users in a manner that best fits their needs, implying that along with collecting and recording information, assessments are aimed at identifying sustainability and eligibility of services that are available (Närhi & Matthies, 2018). While there is no particular definition of assessment, Butler and Roberts (2004) argue that assessment is an investigative process entailing selection, organizing, categorizing, and synthesizing information with the aim of making educated decisions to initiate a necessary action. The need for assessments in the provided case is enshrined in government policies like the 1989 2004 Children Act –acts that warrant social workers have a responsibility of conducting assessments when they are safeguarding children from risks (Taylor, 2016). Thus, assessment is relevant to the case study since people who have attachment issues should be examined to know the underlying issues behind the poor attachment. Assessment is perceived differently. Professionals, on the one hand, may see assessments as a way of examining the connected systems that impact individuals’ lives. Conversely, stakeholders, like service users may see assessments as intrusive and invasive investigators (Taylor, 2014).

Among the ways social workers can promote holistic assessment of cases is through the use of social work assessment models. Social work models are templates that underpin theories concentrating upon how things should occur. Hine et al. (2018) suggest a five-stage assessment model that is based upon the notion that assessment is a kind of exploration. The phases include, data collection, preparation, applying expert knowledge (via evidence-based practices), making educated verdicts, and recommending decisions (Holt-Lunstad, 2018). Crucial in an assessment process is analysis – a process that entails employing mindful practices with the aim of gaining contextual understanding regarding service users (Mosier et al., 2015) model by arguing that despite the fact  that models can offer practical templates, assessments are non-linear processes and therefore various versions of perspectives and truths can be unpacked still owing to the intricate nature of social work. Nevertheless, Patterson et al. (2016) note that the greatest strength of Milner and O’Byrne’s (2015) model is that it puts a significance upon service users’ participation and sees service users as professionals of experience, therefore, buttressing the possibility of collaboration. Normally, assessment of a case is the initial point of direct association between service users and social workers, and is therefore, important opportunities for developing a rapport. Establishing a rapport is equally connected with partnership working since it is governed by principle of working collectively or together, demonstrating values that are reinforced in the 2010 Equality Act which puts a significance on ant-discriminative, anti-oppressive, as well as different partnership working (Taylor, 2016). The concept of partnership working, according to Närhi and Matthies (2018), involves mutually respectful exchanges and involvements along with a common shared sense of duty. Having a comprehensive understanding of the legal structure, buttressed by the spirit of working in partnership suggest that in the context of the scenario provided, partnership connotes determining the kind of relationship that social workers ought to have with service users (Munro, 2018). In this case study, employment of strengths based communication (like open-ended questions with a focus on what the social worker can do and what the service user should do) and body language assisted to empower a partnership working with the girl as argued by Taylor (2014). During the assessment, the agency took a careful attention of the child’s and her relatives’ body language so that they could gather non-verbalized information from the service users.

The agency in the scenario also employed child and family evaluation buttressed by a framework for assessing the needs of children. The framework is represented by a triangle, focusing on three fundamental interconnected variables (parenting capacity, development need of children, and environmental factors) (Hervieux & Voltan, 2019). The framework, according to Falzer (2018), provides a rational way of analyzing, recording, and understanding what is occurring to a child in their home environment and community. The benefit of employing the structure in the scenario at hand is that its format resulted in enhanced communication in the way parents and relatives of the child were involved (Hoffman & Klein, 2017). Nonetheless, Holt-Lunstad (2018) contends that enhanced communication between service users and their relatives and social workers is only realized in assessments of needs as opposed to risks. Shan and Yang (2017) also debate that the model is unbalanced should social workers do not usually give equal attention to all parties or sides of the triangle during an assessment. Despite the weaknesses associated with the framework, it makes sure that the impact of parenting conduct on a child is vividly covered since it takes into consideration various situations and circumstances. The model has the tendency of relying upon adults to give explanations of challenges in the family that is likely influence a child’s behavior. Thus, the agency comprehensively interviewed the father and the adult relatives of the girl to know why she was poorly attached to the father and the relatives. Nonetheless, the agency ensured that the girl was not marginalized or excluded by ensuring that interviews were child centred (Hine et al., 2018).  Similarly, care was taken to ensure that the girl’s father and relatives were part of the assessment and that they were in agreement with the plan that the agency developed towards rehabilitating the girl since if the adults were excluded from the restorative process of the child, they would be adamant to accept the assistance offered. Thus, anti-discriminatory measures were effectively employed during the assessment of the girl by taking care of the three components of the triangle.

Additionally, during the assessment, ecological approach to the assessment was also employed. The agency employed the ecological approach because the environmental perspective helps to identify risks and strengths in the prevailing situation or circumstance, possible interventions, and locate the people in the environment (Falzer, 2018). The girls’ current situation is the outcome of multi-varied factors and an understanding of and intervening the factors were regarded in association with various environmental levels (macrosystems, mesosystem, microsystem, and ecosystem).  The reason behind the employment of the ecological approach by the agency is that the same allows a holistic approach during an assessment process and helps in working in collaboration with the child’s father and relatives (Hoffman & Klein, 2017). Nevertheless, the disadvantage of an environmental approach is that some people may restrict interventions especially if the service users are involuntary ones. Generally, the environmental theory enabled the agency to conduct a systematic and comprehensive collection of assessment information to provide a comprehensive picture of what has been occurring to the young girl within the family environment and context.

Judgement and Decision Making

Judgment and decision making is a crucial component of the assessment process since the two are daily incorporated in courses of actions and social workers are usually placed in circumstances whereby actions are formulated based upon complex, multifaceted and usually contradictory information (Caffrey & Munro, 2017). Judgments, as Mosier et al. (2015) explain, are assessments of proof that lead to opinions regarding a given circumstance. While judgments entail taking into consideration alternative justifications, decision-making connotes a conscious selection of a reasonable course of action (Rousseau & Gunia, 2016). Linking to the provided scenario, as instance of judgment would be making a ruling of the possible reason why the young girl is withdrawn, poorly attached with her relatives, and why she is not connected to her father as would be expected between a father and his child. Contrarily, a decision-making example in the scenario would be a member of the agent taking actions that would help rebuild the attachment and relationship between the child and her father and relatives.

Judgment and decisions are not often actions owing to the fact that they can be swayed by individual values which are able to taint the capability of making expert verdicts (Caffrey & Munro, 2017). Patterson et al. (2016) add that personal values have the power of influencing or shaping perceptions and judgments, explaining the significance of being self-aware and conscious through disparagingly reflective practice which has the potential of assisting social workers to assess the effects of individual values. The evaluation of decision-making and judgment provides support to the debate that social workers lack precise science owing to how judgments can be swayed by multifaceted factors, like selective attention and life experiences (Taylor, 2014). This implies that in practice, decisions and judgments made can be swayed by an insentient bias which opposes social work values like anti-discriminative and anti-oppressive practice. In the case study, both the anti-discriminative and anti-oppressive practices were taken into consideration since they are contained in legislature, like the human Rights Act 1998, besides the fact that both of them are crucial principles of decision making and judgments (Horntvedt et al., 2018). The two concepts were also taken into consideration since they are based upon the principles of diversity and equality, ensuring that the child and her relatives and father were duly given a chance to voice their views regarding the child’s poor attachment. Neither the child nor the relatives were excluded from the assessment process of the child to all for partnership in defining a course of action for the child’s better future.

Hine et al. (2018) contend that decision-making and judgment using models is important since models guide social workers and other practitioners to adopt an ethical and structured validation behind intellectual though processes. Extant research has established that there is an increasing interest in psychological models of decision-making and judgment with most models pertaining either to intuitive or analytical approaches (Larsen et al., 2019). A number of models were used by the agency. One such is the Actuarial Prediction Model (APM) that concentrates upon measuring and understanding negative and positive effects of risks. In APM, statistical data regarding the characteristics of the young girl’s withdrawal and poor relationship.  In the case study, the agency mechanically processed the statistics that they gathered about why the young girl was possibly behaving like she was, resulting in probabilities empirically representing  determined relative frequencies (Fleming et al., 2018). Using a psychometric test scores, the agency was able to determine what the young girl would do if her condition was not attended based upon the relative frequencies of similar results among individuals, especially children, with similar test results (Gray, 2016). While the APM model was useful in making a decision and judgment regarding the girl, the model is characterized because of its managerialist approach during assessment. Chorzempa et al. (2019) explain that managerialism is the narrow range of factors that are concentrated upon in practice as a result of the increasingly inflexible nature of social work (Gray, 2016). Similarly, while the same was customized to the case of the young girl, it did not specify whether the girl would behave again withdrawn and have poor relationship with her relatives and father for that matter.

Along with the APM, the agency also employed the clinical model. The clinical model depends upon professional judgment and concentrates upon dynamic factors, like substance use and abuse, attitudes, and deteriorations in relationships (Carr et al., 2016). Using the clinical model, the agency was able to understand the dynamic factors that were associated with the poor attachment of the young girl, attitudes, as well as the deteriorations in her relationships with her relatives and sadly her father (Fleming et al., 2018).

In the employment of the models to make decisions and judgment, the agency employed critical thinking. According to Rutter and Brown (2011) critical thinking, by stressing upon communication, professional judgment, and critical reflection, helps in making good decisions about a situation. Similarly, the agency employed the naturalistic decision making (NDM). In NDM, the theoretical viewpoints have stressed how expert practitioners carry out cognitively functions in tackling real world conditions that are characterized by high stakes, uncertainty, organizational and team constraints (Shan & Yang, 2017; Hoffman & Klein, 2017). Using the NDM, the agency identified five functions in macro-cognition: problem identification, sense making, deciding, re-planning, and coordinating. Regardless of whether the effect in the case study would be positive or negative with regard to goal realization, the changes that were desired by the agency were explained to signal opportunities or needs of reframe how the circumstance was conceptualized and/or revise an ongoing plan (Falzer, 2018). NDM was useful in the case scenario since it stressed the human role, necessitating the involvement of the girl and her relatives.

Lastly, the agency also employed the street-level approach during decision making. According to street-level bureaucracy civil servants work having direct contact with members of the general public to perform and/or enforce actions needed by public policies and government’s laws in areas like social services, security, and safety (Nothdurfter &  Hermans, 2018). Using the approach, the agency interacted and communicated with the young girl and her relatives in random checkpoints to try understanding why the relationship between the girl and her relatives was strained, particularly after the demise of the mother (De Witte et al., 2016).

Evidence Based Practice

Among the ways of bettering objectivity in practice is by employing various sources of information, knowledge, and evidence-based practice (EBP). EBP refers to systematic integration of the best available expertise and evidence that offers a pool of knowledge for social workers, among other practitioners, to draw from (Rousseau & Gunia, 2016). In social work, EBP is used to encourage practitioners to make judgments and decisions that are justified and accountable by a wide range of knowledge base (Horntvedt et al., 2018). EBP, according to, heavily draws from theory and offers a structure for comprehending and clustering ideas, therefore, acting as a backbone for decision making and judgment (Larsen et al., 2019). This implies that EBP can be employed in evaluating work in service users, like in the case of the young girl, by motivating reflective assessment of how practices can be individualized. Chorzempa et al. (2019) also give a critical view of the EBP, arguing that EBP seeks to motivate the acknowledgement that logically triangulating various sources has the ability of strengthening the ability of individualized practice with service users, like the young person, and not to assert absolute confidence in  pre-existing sources of knowledge.

The need for EBP during the case study was based upon the Professional Capabilities Framework’s  (PCF) seventh domain, which states that it is crucial for service workers to be able to assess and integrate several sources of evidence and knowledge (De Witte et al., 2016). In the spirit of PCF7, the agency sought knowledge during the assessment  about the young girl and her relatives from the case’s service users, the practitioners’ practice knowledge, and practitioners’ career experience along with from legal, policy, organizational, and research-based knowledge (Nothdurfter &  Hermans, 2018). Among the factors that influence social workers’ decisions and judgments made is the amount of knowledge and time that a practitioner has undertaken analytical instead of intuitive thinking (Carr et al., 2016).  According to Fleming et al. (2018), analytical reasoning refers to a logical, conscious, and organized process where all elements of judgments and decisions are regarded keenly, implying that being analytical entails weighing up all available options objectively as informed by EBP.

Evaluation, Risk Management and Safeguarding

As aforementioned, assessment is done with the aim of formulating steps to safeguard service users through acknowledgement of abuse and risks. According to the systems theory, behavior is swayed by several factors that work jointly as a system, like social settings, friends, family, economical class, along with the home environment (Nothdurfter &  Hermans, 2018). The theory contends that the above mentioned factors along with others sway how people act and think, and thus examining these social structures to determine ways of correcting ineffective parts or adapting for elements that are missing that can impact positively an individual’s behavior. Using the theory, the agency explored what factors could have resulted in the young girl’s behaviours so that a corrective measure could aptly be designed.

Safeguarding refers to protecting a person’s right to live (Shan & Yang, 2017). Safeguarding is contained in the Care Act 2014 which spells out Local Authorities’ duties to acknowledge the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of service users (De Witte et al., 2016). Crucial component of safeguarding include abuse and harm. According to Gray (2016), harm can be life threatening or traumatic and has the potential of causing psychological or physical implications regardless of whether they have possibilities of recovering. Risk assessment, on the other hand, is an ongoing process of looking at factors that can cause harm so that with the use of a risk management plan, the probability of a harm occurring can be weighed. 

The crucial aspect of risk in withdrawn people, like the young girl, includes eloping from home and committing suicide. As such, the evaluation processes of the girl were geared towards ensuring that all possibilities of the girl disappearing from her relatives and/or committing suicide are reduced to (near) zero. The agency employed various behavior screening instruments to help them know the girl’s problems, while taking into consideration the Mental Capacity Act 2005 that aims at empowering service users who lack mental capacity by offering a flexible structure which puts service users’ needs at the centre of decision-making processes (Carr et al., 2016).

To conclude, it is clear that a number of processes during assessment and intervention (like safeguarding, risk management, and EBP), and decision-making and judgment overlap and comprises crucial components of social work practice. With the determination of adopting approach to the case study, the agency triangulated between various models and instruments. Nevertheless, it is worth admitting that assessments are intricate processes, thus, even with the many approaches that are available, putting service users, like the young girl, at the centre of the social work practice is the most efficient and effective way of attaining social justice.

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