Making social work more child-friendly

A Brighton & Hove City Council social worker is speaking at a national conference today about her research into making the foster care system more child-friendly.

Rebecca Watts has developed a ‘Me and My World’ approach to social work practice with children in foster care. 

Me and My World promotes social workers building relationships with children in care and knowing them well; supports children to be involved in decisions that affect them; and has introduced social work reports are written directly to the child. 

The ‘Me and My World’ approach also asks foster carers to write letters to the children in their care every six months to highlight ‘magic moments’ in their family life, as well as any worries and concerns, and how the foster carer has tried to help.

The research identifies the impact that the approach has had on practice in Brighton and Hove. 

Strengths and achievements

It found that writing reports to the child meant that social workers were more likely to write about the child’s strengths and achievements. It also helped children understand why they are in foster care and what is happening in their lives.  

It helped social workers use language that is more child friendly and made complex issues easier to understand. 

Rebecca said: “This is the first time that a council social work model of this kind has been researched.

“It encourages social workers to write in the first person, addressing the child directly. The children’s own voices and a range of their experiences are also captured in their records that are kept about them. 

“This should help children and young people who choose to read their records as adults.

“I’m really grateful for all the fantastic social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers and foster carers who have made it happen. 

Rebecca is speaking today at the Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference, hosted by Cardiff University. This is the UK’s only academic conference covering the whole of the social work field.

Rebecca has also had her research published in the ‘Practice: Social Work in Action’ journal and Children & Young People Now magazine.