Improving the accuracy of social work judgements: a proof-of-concept study of a training programme

Wilkins, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2780-0385 2024. Improving the accuracy of social work judgements: a proof-of-concept study of a training programme. Child & Family Social Work 10.1111/cfs.13146

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Child and family social workers routinely make professional judgements involving significant legal and moral questions (e.g. whether a child has been abused) and more ‘everyday’ issues (e.g. will the child be re-referred again if we close the case now?) Yet the world is capricious, and we rarely know with certainty what is going to happen in future or the likely impact of our different choices. Given the consequences of their judgements and decisions, it is imperative that social workers are provided with the best possible support. This paper reports a proof-of-concept study of a set of interventions to improve the judgemental accuracy of social workers: (i) a survey to identify respondents with above-average existing abilities, (ii) training sessions on cognitive debiasing and (iii) structured group working and (iv) three methods for aggregating individual judgements. Findings indicate that it is possible to measure the accuracy of social work judgements in relation to case-study materials and retrospective questions, while the feedback about the training was largely positive. Any future studies should aim to recruit a more diverse set of respondents, test judgemental accuracy in relation to prospective judgements and explore what types of questions would be most helpful for real-world decision-making.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1356-7500
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 January 2024
Date of Acceptance:	13 January 2024
Last Modified:	21 Feb 2024 09:59
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/165504

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item