Writing Analytical Assessments in Social Work

About this book

Writing assessments and reports is a core part of a social worker's role. Yet the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted), courts, and research all identify a lack of analytical rigour in social work reports. Many are overlong, descriptive reports where what is needed is the application of professional judgement, a clear analysis, and the ability to pull out causal relationships. Writing Analytical Assessments in Social Work is a guide to the principles of good writing and methodically shows you: how to structure the process of writing an assessment (researching, chronologizing, informed data-gathering, putting it all together), and how to get this done under time constraints. Written in an accessible way and packed with examples and case studies, this book is both practically-minded and constantly returning to first principles: reminding the reader what it is they are trying to achieve and teaching the reader how to write reports that can be read by families and judges alike. The reader will learn how to write high quality, useful and timely assessments without becoming mechanistic or managerial. It aims to kill the myth of a trade-off between efficiency and quality of work. (Series: Critical Skills for Social Work) [Subject: Social Work, Education]

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