R ESEARCH METHOD : T HE CASE STUDY

The research took the form of an exploratory case study (Yin 1994; Gomm, Hammersley et al. 2000). A case study is suited to this research topic because of its exploratory aims and because of the complex and embedded nature of the phenomenon under study (Yin, 1994). The use of a case study approach is suited to the complex, situated dimensions of professional practice (Nicolini, Gherardi et al. 2003; Osmond and O'Connor 2004). The case study is of particular value in organisational analysis, generating ‘thick’ data (Geertz 1973). The research approach is to acquire an empathic experience of social settings and to consider behaviour in a social context, thereby uncovering underlying patterns and understanding the often unanticipated outcomes of change (Marshall & Rossman 1995). To explore the use of inscription to manage the complex, situated, embodied aspects of professional performance, requires an approach that can incorporate this degree of complexity. Stake (2000) for example suggests that this kind of empathic understanding is being more appropriate to knowledge about human activity.

This is an ‘illustrative case study’ (Dopson, 2003, p218) which although singular and specific in nature, is related to a broader phenomenon in such a way that the findings from this case can be related to wider issues, whether theoretical, practice or policy orientated. The aim is not to produce a representative or archetypal study, but one which explores the effect of broader issues on a concrete setting, thereby understanding not broad, abstract principles, but the effect of these principles on everyday practice. This case study could also be described as a critical case study (Flyvberg 2001). The circumstances of the study, the introduction of the SAF and the effect of the Child Protection Failure - lend it some claim to be of particular significance as an example of the general trends and concerns which dominate not only the debates in Social Work management, and more broadly in public sector management in the UK. Nicolini (2003) suggests that it is useful to observe practice at the time of a ‘rule-breaking event’ which disrupts normal routine and introduces ‘reflexive understanding’ amongst practitioners (p28). When some kind of change is being introduced, the disruption of habitual practice brings it out of the

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shadows of taken for granted unconscious action, and instead stimulates a conscious awareness of how work is achieved. This offers the opportunity for organisational members (and researchers) to reflect on and understand practice (Nicolini et al 2003; Zuboff 1988). In the case of the CFSW Service the introduction of the SAF and the effect of the Child Protection Failure both constituted a point of enforced change which disrupted accepted practices and caused practitioners to reflect on their work activity and the meaning they gave to that activity.

In line with good case study practice, the research combines a variety of data: qualitative interviews with a range of practitioners; review of official and policy documentation; extended periods of non-participant observation; examination of case file material and other case documentation (Gomez et al 2003; Yin 1994; Gomm, Hammersley et al. 2000). This ‘triangulation’ increases the depth of the data, but also increases the internal reliability of the data by examining phenomena from a number of different perspectives (Dopson, 2003; Waldron, 2004; Jones, 2004). A combination of prompted and unprompted interviewing techniques and an open-ended, flexible interview framework (Zuboff 1988, Marshall & Rossman 1995) allowed earlier responses from interviewees to be checked out with later interviewees, thereby exploring the significance and reliability of concepts drawn from practitioners. For example, concepts such as ‘tick-box Social Work’ and narrative ‘flow’, which are discussed later in the thesis, emerged unprompted in early interviews. I was then able to incorporate these concepts in later interviews, in order to check the significance of such terms for practitioners in general.

Any exploration of the effect of changes in policy or practice assumes a dynamic temporal aspect to the phenomena under study (Gomm et al, 2000). The in-depth interviewing approach of this case study provides an opportunity to investigate phenomena as ‘historically-laden’ and as such to introduce a quasi-longitudinal aspect to the data (Dopson, 2003).

The specific approach I took in this case study is informed by an ethnomethodological perspective, in line with ANT studies, in which the aim of the

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researcher is to enter into a social setting and through observation, inquiry and reflection, understand the ‘indigenous meanings’ of actions (Emerson, Fretz & Shaw 1995; Garfinkel 1969; Law 1994). ANT studies share an ethnomethodological focus on the observation of practices and the understanding of social ordering as the accomplishment of social members, and their everyday activities, which are themselves constructed as a response to the sense-making of actors (Garfinkel 1969). Thus, in the research setting, members’ accounts of their practice and their social and material environment are important data as well as the observation of what actors do. ANT incorporates a stronger constructivist perspective into ethnomethodology with its ontological symmetry in respect of the material and social dimensions of human activity i.e. both the material and human actors.

There was an attempt to incorporate ethnographic dimensions into the fieldwork, in order to increase the depth and richness of the data obtained (Becker 1986 & 1998; Van Maanen 1988). The method of doing this is through participant observation. The ethnographic perspective, with its focus on the observation of ‘natural’ behaviour, was an important dimension of research aimed at identifying and understanding the ‘taken-for-granted’ dimensions of practice, and the use of everyday technologies – in this case, inscribing practices.

This type of study although chosen as suitable to the focus of the research, was also designed to capitalise on my own experience and skills as a researcher and my training and experience as a person-centred15 counsellor. The capacity to create empathic, non-threatening relationships is important in stimulating deep reflection in participants during interviews and observation periods.

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Person-centred counselling is based on the work of Carl Rogers, who developed a style of counselling in the 1950s and 10690s which contrasted to the dominant psychoanalytical approach of Freud’s followers. Person- centred counselling is based on a non-directive approach, in which the counsellor facilitates the clients understanding, rather than giving his or her ‘expert’ analysis. It is based on three core qualities in the therapeutic relationship: empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence.

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The critical nature of the case study setting (Flyvberg 2001) added to the methodological challenges of the research. The Child Protection Failure, and the ensuing report, had placed the service under close and critical scrutiny. Anxieties were high amongst staff in the service, both in respect of being judged as individual practitioners and also in terms of a heightened fear of what could go wrong in the management and assessment of a CP case. The negotiation of access had to be taken carefully and gradually. This care informed the choice to negotiate access in two stages (see below) with the attendant risk that research access might only be granted for the first part of the study. The fieldwork itself had to be conducted sensitively in the light of the Child Protection Failure. Parts of the study took place in the Practice Team which had been responsible for the child who had died whilst subject to a CP registration. I was concerned to make it clear that the motivation for my research was not the Child Protection failure but the introduction of the SAE, in order to minimize any defensiveness or guardedness on the part of research participants. I also made it clear that my interest and my expertise was not as a social worker, but rather as a management scholar, researching more general managerial trends in public sector management, namely the use of standard documentation. The level of research access which I was given and the willing participation of the interview and observation subjects and the candidness of their responses were remarkable in view of recent events in the department. What was most striking was the willingness of participants to admit to the failings in their inscribing practices, i.e. their record-keeping and their report-writing, when this area of practice was targeted for criticism in the Child Protection report. To some extent, this could be understood as a self-protection strategy, in order to reveal the disparity between managerial versions of the procedural expectations of social work practice and the reality of front-line practice. Whatever the motivations, of the participants, the level of access and the depth and self-revealing nature of responses was gratifying for me as a researcher, considering the sensitivity of the research setting.

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The fieldwork was divided into three fieldwork periods: orientation; interviews; observation. The primary research was supplemented by the reading of official documentation produced by the CFSW service, the Scottish Executive and various Social Work bodies.

Stage 1: Orientation (October 2004 – January 2005)