Understanding the social worker–family relationship through self‐determination theory: A realist synthesis of Signs of Safety

Signs of Safety (SofS) is a popular framework for child protection social work practice, used in more than 200 jurisdictions worldwide. Although workers tend to find SofS tools easy to use, skilled application of the approach is challenging, and research has found that SofS is often not implemented...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child & family social work 2022-08, Vol.27 (3), p.513-525
Main Authors: Caffrey, Louise, Browne, Freda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autonomy
Basic needs
Caseworker Approach
Child Abuse
child protection
Child Safety
Child welfare
Children
Family relations
Family Relationship
Family work relationship
Focus Groups
Literature reviews
Motivation
Needs
Professional practice
Protection
realist synthesis
Relatedness
Safety
Self determination
self‐determination theory
signs of safety
Social work
Social workers
Synthesis
Theory
Welfare state
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Signs of Safety (SofS) is a popular framework for child protection social work practice, used in more than 200 jurisdictions worldwide. Although workers tend to find SofS tools easy to use, skilled application of the approach is challenging, and research has found that SofS is often not implemented as intended. This study aimed to deepen and inform the explanation (initial theory) of what key SofS tools and processes are expected to achieve in the family–worker interaction and why. A realist synthesis was used, involving a realist review of literature and focus groups with 22 international SofS experts. Using self‐determination theory, we detail how SofS can be conceptualized as aiming to support families to experience ‘autonomous’ rather than ‘controlled’ motivation by supporting basic human needs for ‘autonomy’ (feeling a sense of volition), ‘competence’ (feeling effective) and ‘relatedness’ (feeling cared for). This explanation can be used for training and evaluation purposes to better explain and test how SofS expects to engage families in the child protection process. More broadly, we suggest that self‐determination theory may contribute a mechanistic explanation of effective social work practice more generally and that this hypothesis should be empirically investigated.
ISSN:1356-7500
1365-2206
DOI:10.1111/cfs.12903