Boring Records?: Communication, Speech and Writing in Social Work

Boring Records? is a practical and eye-opening investigation into the central role of record keeping. The author highlights the importance of accurately compiled records in the work of professionals who are required to prepare written reports and files. Basing her ideas on research obtained within multidisciplinary child guidance clinics, Katie Prince: makes clear the complexity, but also the importance, of case recording; challenges the notion of record keeping as a mundane chore; places record keeping in the context of a network of communication. Using the first-hand impressions and comments of parents, children and clinical social workers, the author demonstrates the centrality of the work of record keeping for social work practitioners. This book is invaluable reading not only for social workers but also probation officers, teachers, healthcare professionals and sociologists and those who train, educate and manage in these fields.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements. Author's Note. Preface. 1. Spoken and Written Language: A Theoretical Framework. 2. A Context for Record Keeping in Child Care Social Work. 3. The Clinic Social Worker's Perspective. 4. The Client's View. 5. Towards a Way of Examining Both Theoretical and Practice Aspects of the Interactive Process in Case Recording. 6. Discussion of the Action Research (Theoretical Perspectives). 7. Description and Evaluation of the Experience of Open and Participative Recording Practice. Conclusion. Appendices. References. Index.

About the Author :
Katie Prince had extensive experience as a practitioner and manager in social work services for children and families. Formerly a manager of a child care team focusing upon child protection and special needs, she returned to manage a large team of social work-therapists in child and adolescent psychiatry before passing away in 2009.

Review :
Boring Records is a timely book. Social work practioners outside the UK can still find the book interesting. Those chapters which describe the clinical social worker's perspective and the client's view of social work records make provocative reading. Social workers will easily identify with the author's examples and will find her analysis of the social worker's and client's perspective of the social work records thought-provoking. I would recommend that social work agencies include the book as part of in-service training courses. The issues discussed are readily adaptable to those which are experienced by the social worker in an agency setting. In academia the book might be used by selecting those sections which are most suited to discussions on language, communication between social worker and client and ethical issues of information transfer in a social work setting. The book includes a meticulously researched and documented theoretical perspective which will help readers to understand, not only the importance of spoken and written language in the relationships between workers in multidisciplinary teams and between workers and clients, but also the historical and professional context in which the recording of child care cases takes place. This is a very thorough book and, perhaps as a consequence, is not a particularly 'easy read', but anyone making the effort to do so (and it is well worth the effort) will be rewarded by an improved understanding of one of the core activities of social work. In addition they will develop a much better understanding of the complexities of working in the child guidance setting. A provocative read well worth having in any departmental library or resource centre.' Rostrum 'A stimulating, even provocative, book - not a boring tome at all.