Engage: The potential for social media in social work practice
Joanne Westwood, one of the speakers at a recent Research in Practice ‘Social Media in Social Work’ conference, writes about social media and ideas for integrating it into social work practice.
Last week I spent 24 hours at an annual event for link officers with Research in Practice. The event was themed around social media in social work practice, hosted by Research in Practice Director Dez Holmes, and ably supported by a fantastic communications, research and policy team.
The presentation I gave to an attentive audience focused on the challenges to driving forward the social media engagement agenda in social work practice. There is good practice happening but very little research or evaluation to date, although this is slowly starting to change. NGO and other 3rd sector providers have been active users of social media, embracing the potential and opportunities it presents to tell a different social work story than those which our critics tell, and crucially, to deliver services.
Research undertaken by BDO (2012) suggests that Local Authorities are dipping their toe in the water and being cautious. I would support this approach. Do something small, evaluate it and develop it slowly once you have got it right. You will make mistakes, but you won’t be on your own, there is support and stacks of resources to help you. BASW, HCPC, IRISS, SSSC, etc… have all produced guidance and information about developing social media strategies.
In social work education we have started to integrate social media activities in our teaching, recognising that students are sophisticated users of technology and are really rising to the challenge of becoming digital citizens. These digitally literate future practitioners are eager to use their knowledge and skills to develop their professional practice. By engaging now with social media, practitioners can provide fertile ground for newly qualified social workers to flourish and deliver services creatively.
The small workshop session at the conference was well attended and participants were encouraged to talk about their ideas for developing social media activities in their authorities.
Some of the ideas coming out of discussion included:
- An app to gather feedback from families who have been in the child protection system.
- Establishing an online closed CPD group who can access Youtube training films.
- Using an app (MoMo) to encourage Looked After Children and Young people to participate in their reviews and in meetings about their future (pathway and transition plans).
- Developing a facebook/twitter channel to promote the work of the children and families service.
- Developing an online portal for young people so that they can access their plans and give feedback about the services they have received.
- Develop a social media resource to train and support foster carers on Safe Care practice.
- Use social media to recruit social workers and foster carers/adopters.
There was no shortage of ideas in the workshop and participants were keen to share them and saw this opportunity as the start of a dialogue about taking their ideas forward. They drew up actions to progress once back in their authorities and we talked about ways to continue the discussion via social media, so that we can continue to support the group and their ideas for practice. This includes plans for a ‘social media surgery’, currently in development. We will be using solution focused techniques to enable participants to address the challenges they face as they immerse their feet into the sea of social media.
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About the Author
Joanne Westwood is involved in social media projects and recently edited a book: Social media in social work, Critical Publishing. In September 2014 she joined the University of Stirling, School of Applied Social Science as a senior lecturer.
Joanne was writing for the Research in Practice blog who support the children’s sector to build capacity for evidence-informed practice.
To follow their blog, visit: https://www.rip.org.uk/news-and-views/blog/
