“It depends.” A contextual exploration of how child protection social workers respond to parental substance use

Heanue, Kim (2024) “It depends.” A contextual exploration of how child protection social workers respond to parental substance use. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

Social workers interact with people who use substances on a regular basis. The need for them to have the skills to identify, assess and provide appropriate interventions for people who use substances is well documented. In child protection social work practice, research suggests that parental substance use (PSU) is a factor in a significant proportion of cases. Despite this, there is a lack of consistency in substance use education for social workers at pre-qualifying and post-qualifying levels. Where it does exist, it seems to be inadequate given that many social workers report significant gaps in their knowledge and a lack of preparedness to work with these issues. This research explored how social workers respond to PSU in child protection social work practice. It sought to understand how social workers in this setting assess PSU, how they understand the impact that it has on children and how they use this information to make assessments about the care of children. It explored what skills and knowledge social workers employ to respond to PSU and how social workers work in partnership with specialist substance use agencies. Using the principles of constructivist grounded theory, this qualitative study has obtained first-hand accounts from social workers in child protection settings about their experiences of working with PSU. The thesis will present data from 16 in-depth interviews which were analysed using a constructivist approach to grounded theory analysis. The coding process led to the emergence of five theoretical codes: (1) work experience determines knowledge and confidence to respond to PSU (2) PSU is understood through knowledge gained from training and experience (3) understanding of role and responsibility determines practice responses (4) practice responses to PSU are determined by practitioner skills and knowledge (5) working with PSU is complex and practitioners face professional and personal challenges in this area of work. These theoretical codes are discussed as themes in the findings. A discussion of the findings includes an original model of the contextual construction of risk by social workers when responding to PSU. The model sets out the subjectivities that impact on social workers’ practice and how these subjectivities determine the ways they understand and assess the risks associated with PSU, while acknowledging the systemic and structural restrictions within which they practice. By offering new in-depth accounts about the way that child protection social workers conceptualise PSU, this research demonstrates the importance of understanding individual practices and the impact that these can have on outcomes for families. Finally, the thesis offers recommendations about the ways in which child protection social workers’ perceptions of risk can be deconstructed and bias can be fully examined by social workers and their supervisors to ensure that practice is genuinely reflective.