We are campaigning to reverse the current trend which sees children and families social workers spending just 20 per cent of their time in direct contact with families. Our survey has revealed that BASW England members feel more of their time should be spent building relationships with families and with less of their time on administrative and process driven activities.
A survey of BASW England’s members revealed that social workers are frustrated that they are spending too much time on administration tasks, instead of direct relationship-based work with children and families.
Therapeutic, reflective, relationship-based practice is the best way for social workers to bring effective and positive change to vulnerable children and families.
We are redefining what good social work looks like and the 80-20 Campaign is our opportunity to create effective change by putting relationships in practice at the heart of what we do.
Get involved
We are now open to expressions of interest from providers of Social Work including local authorities, organisations and individuals who are happy to share models of best practice that increases the direct time Social Workers spend with children and families. We would also like to hear from individuals and organisations who want to improve the service they deliver to those on the receiving end of services.
Please email BASW England for more information.
Work done in the campaign so far
- A survey of BASW England members was carried out in 2018. See the full report via Resources.
- We have met and consulted with stakeholders including local authorities to identify and champion best models of practice.
- A stakeholder group has been set up
- Find the recent information and notes from the stakeholder meeting via Resources.
- Our Children and Families Practice, Policy and Education Group has hosted the Communicating and Engaging with Children Webinar giving examples of good models of practice in action.
- BASW England 80-20 Conference in Partnership with the University of Sussex’s Talking and Listening to Children KITBAG Campaign
- See more about the KITBAG in this video or via the Talking and Listening for Children website.
- Find the resources and learning materials from the conference via our Resource page.
- BASW England’s 80-20 Campaign conference review
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For more information on the KITBAG contact Gillian Ruch (Professor of Social Work, University of Sussex).
80-20 in the press
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BASW 80-20's Call for interest - Models of best practice in Children's Social Care
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BASW urges technology overhaul to free up time for children's social workers
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BASW member speaks to BBC Radio Merseyside about how the pandemic has affected social work
See more on BASW England 80-20 Campaign's latest news and resources.
Useful resources
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Top Tips for remote working in children's social work
BASW England’s 80-20 campaign is all about time. Social workers tell us that 80% of their time is spent on administrative tasks and not enough time (just 20%) is spent on direct relationship based social work and reflective practice. We have created this remote working guide for social workers.The guide has been inspired by children and families social workers across the country who moved to remote and virtual working during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. During this time, professionals adapted practice in a matter of days to fit in with social distancing requirements. This often meant direct work was taking place via digital platforms. We expect there will be different ways of working in the future, such as hybrid working. This resource highlights useful top tips for remote and virtual working. We hope you find the guide helpful. - BASW guide: Recording in Children’s Social Work
We have created this good recording guide for social workers. Created by BASW England the “top-tips” guide identifies how to record in a way which is reflective and children and families focussed. The guide also outlines how social workers can be more succinct in their recording. We would like to thank all the members of the 80-20 steering group, partners and people with lived experience who have contributed to this guide
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guide: Therapeutic interventions after abuse and neglect
A quick guide for practitioners and managers supporting children, young people and families. - Talking and Listening to Children website
A range of specialist books, articles, websites and tools that can be used to facilitate communication with children. - Mutual Expectations - A Charter for parents and local authority children’s services
A Charter by the Family Rights Group. This Charter aims to promote effective, mutually respectful partnership working between practitioners and families when children are subject to statutory intervention. - Stepping Up, Stepping Down Report
This report presents the empirical research carried out with families as part of the Your Family, Your Voice Alliance, a national initiative that seeks to change approaches to highly vulnerable families and to develop humane evidence-informed policies and practices. - Stability Index 2018
The Children’s Commissioner’s 2018 Stability Index. - Care Crisis Review
- A survey by Community Care shows 60% of social workers have their ability to do their jobs disrupted by their case management systems every week
- BASWTalk – Ep 13 Family Court Proceedings
- BASWTalk – Ep 11 Case recordings: a child’s story with Lisa Pascoe (Ofsted)
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80-20 Campaign webinar series - Relationship-based practice: working with children and families
Queries
If you have any queries about the campaign please email BASW England. For queries about the KITBAG campaign please email Gillian Ruch (Professor of Social Work, University of Sussex).
