Enabling Child‐Centred Case Recording in Children's Social Work: The Voice of Practitioners

ABSTRACT Maintaining case records is an essential and necessary component of children's social work practice. Research and child abuse enquiries internationally have highlighted the need for child‐centred and participatory approaches to case recording, yet consistently highlight significant deficiencies in child‐centred case recording. This paper presents findings from a mixed‐method study that sought to explore practitioners' experiences of child‐centred case recording and identify new and innovative solutions to enabling this. Data were collected through focus groups and surveys with social work practitioners who worked in child protection and child looked after (CLA) contexts in two local authorities (LAs) in the north of England. The findings suggest practitioners have developed creative ways to help achieve child‐centred recording in challenging circumstances, which could be built upon and more consistently applied across organizations, based on the foundations of relationship‐based, ethical and humane practice.