Strengths-based Approaches-Perspectives from Practitioners

The social care system is characterised by significant local experimentation, which has led in recent years to various ways of personalising support, increasing opportunities for prevention, developing community capacity and building on individuals' strengths to support independence and reduce the need for long-term care. One such development is strengths-based approaches. Despite its popularity, relatively little is known about strengths-based approaches in adult social work and social care. An online survey was completed by thirty-two respondents and a sub-sample of ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with social work and social care professionals involved in organising, managing, delivering or commissioning strengths-based approaches. The majority were social workers. A range of perceived positive outcomes were reported as well as challenges related to adopting strengths-based approaches in practice. Overall, survey respondents and interviewees were optimistic about strengths-based approaches. Findings from this study improve our understanding of how these are currently being applied in the adult social work arena in England; how these are being implemented locally and how these are impacting on practice. Despite its popularity, relatively little is known about strengths-based approaches in adult social work. In order to explore how strengths-based models and approaches are developed and implemented in social work and social care in England, and how these models are impacting practice, a two-stage project was conducted between December 2020 and October 2021. An online survey was completed by thirty-two respondents and a sub-sample of ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with social work and social care professionals involved in organising, managing, delivering or commissioning strengths-based approaches. The majority of participants were social workers. A range of positive outcomes were reported including improved reported well-being and satisfaction for people accessing services and enriched interactions (greater empathy, trust, better rapport), particularly for social workers. Challenges included incompatibility of systems and organisational structures; workload pressures and a depleted workforce; limited resources and applying the model at crisis point. The principles and values associated with adopting a strengths-based approach appear consistent with providing high-quality social work. The challenge for researchers-and to some extent practitioners-is how to meaningfully capture the nuanced impact of such a multi-dimensional approach. The challenge for policy is how to operationalise and replicate the benefits.