Shadowing task – Home visit

Social Worker – (SW)
Service User – (SU) Foster parent X – Foster Children Twin B – Boy and Twin G – Girl.
My shadowing experience was with Sheffield City Council’s Foster and Adoption service. My observation is of a foster carer review.
The nature of appointment was a monthly review; the SU had been experiencing problems with foster children and contacted the SW to say that they were struggling to cope. SW arranged respite periods once a month to help the SU manage with the stress and the review was mainly to check how the implementation of respite was going. The SW was also taking the opportunity with the service user to assess the development and welfare of the children as the SU had applied to be the permanent carer; however the SW had issues relating to a lack of father figure after a comment was made by one of the children.
In regards to the latter, I was able to begin to understand the situation and consider the possible responses of the SU. The main thought I had was that the service user was going to say that they had plenty of male figures within the family unit that can support and be role models for the children especially Twin B.
I was a little nervous leading up to meeting the SU as it was a new experience and I did not know what to expect. My thoughts were; what was the SU going to be like? Are they going to be nice or hostile? How clean is the house? Are the children going to be present? Does the SU have any pets? Etc.
My actions were to remain calm and to try to mirror the SW’s professionalism and confidence as I felt that this would not only put myself, but also the SU at ease.
When we arrived at the SU’s home the SW greeted the SU with a warm friendly smile, said the SU’s name and introduced myself. This approach felt both professional and personal as the SW made the SU feel at ease and genuinely appeared pleased to see SU again. For Social Workers, non-verbal communication is important and smiling is acknowledged as an extremely effective way of establishing rapport, particularly on first meeting. In most cases a warm smile will usually elicit a smile in response and with it a sense of connection (Young, 2004).
We sat by a round table in the SU’s Bohemian style kitchen which was clean and organised and had the SU’s artwork on the wall which was pointed out by the SW. The SU offered us a cup of tea as the SW got out her notes.
For Social Workers, making and keeping records is an essential part of providing care or services (HCPC, 2012). SW demonstrated this as she had reviewed the case prior to arriving and prepared questions accordingly to allow her to assess how things had developed since their last meeting. The questions were direct but presented in an informal and thoughtful way that also seemed to put the SU at ease. I was impressed with the SW’s approach as the nature of the questions were quite personal, as some seemed to be assessing the SU’s parental capacity, but was presented in a way that didn’t seem intrusive. As good communication skills, particularly listening and interviewing skills, lie at the heart of effective Social Work practice (Trevithick, 2005), I found it valuable to see these skills put in practice.
A central focus of the enquiry was also upon the development and wellbeing of the children. This enabled the SW to assess not only the physical and emotional development of the children but also the parental capacity of SU on how they are meeting the children’s welfare and developmental needs and how they are handling stressful situations. This I feel was important as Banks (2012) suggests that when considering an individual’s welfare or wellbeing, professionals and service users must to work together in order to determine what course of action is beneficial or least harmful.
SW asked the SU how she was doing since the respite weekends were introduced. At this point the SU seemed to change in her demeanour, breathing a sigh of relief and emphatically