Martin is passionate about articulating what social work does and evidencing it, and how this will help solve the profession’s identity crisis: ‘Social workers are scared of scientifi c methodology being applied to social work practice; it seems distant from the lived reality of people. ‘I understand that, but you need to look at the value it can bring in terms of reliable evidence about what will happen if you do A rather than B. Embedded within scientifi c methodology should be a process of understanding how it works, not just whether it works and the outcomes.’ In his mind, social capital provides a useful
theoretical framework for understanding social work practice. To this end, Martin is leading a pilot, The Connecting People Study funded by the National Institute for Health Research, which will explore social capital interventions for young people recovering from psychosis. Social workers and service users will co-produce individual action plans. ‘It is not a case of care planning, it is goal setting; it is reframing practice,’ he says.
I loved being a practitioner but I decided that an academic career would help make
a difference to the profession which will consequently make a difference to people
His hope is that the agencies piloting the
intervention fi nd that the method resonates with them and makes sense: ‘The pilot has some of the elements of the old core values of social work, what I was doing when I was a social worker. That changed under care management but is coming back with personalisation. At its core is building social capital and this is about articulating how it might happen in reality.’ So what chance does Martin think the
profession has of solving its identity crisis? ‘With an independent college [The College of Social Work] to speak for us, the best chance it has ever had. But I don’t think we should rely on The College; we as a profession should take ownership of ourselves. We need to be guided by the strength of our own collective wisdom.’ SWM.