Written agreements are a common part of social work practice.
However, in Ofsted inspections, serious case reviews and peer reviews over the past year their use has been brought into question.
Inspectors have said they place an emphasis on victims to manage their own safety in domestic abuse cases, while an LGA peer review found one council was over using them.
We want to hear social workers’ thoughts on these agreements. How are they being used? Are they being used well? Do you think they help safeguard children and families? What are your experiences of using these agreements?
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Written agreements are not means to ensure safety, they are designed to encourage families to cooperate and to make managers and social workers not think about responding creatively in case work and creates avoidance to make difficult decisions. When I was a newly qualified social worker I was encouraged to always go out with a written agreement, now experienced, I ask what purpose will it serve and how will it be monitored. We then begin to think.
In my experience, Written Agreements are worthless. They are not specific. They lack clarity. They don’t state what the consequences are for breaches. They are so ‘open’ that anything can be deemed grounds to say a breach has occurred and proceedings initiated.
(For example ‘X to supervise Y’s contact’; when asked to define ‘supervise’ no response; then suddenly ‘Not standing over person Y is classed as ‘failure to follow Working/Written Agreement.’)
In my years of experience, they are written specifically to set parents up to fail.
I have never seen one that places expectations of what the LA will do to cooperate and build a positive relationship with the parents.