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Conclusion

As we have shown, communication skills are important if we are to build meaningful relationships with services users, carers and others.

It is especially important that we are able to build these relationships as social practice moves towards more market-based and managerialist policies and practices.

These pose a number of challenges to practitioners in terms of our ability to create and maintain positive relationships. This is particularly true in those situations where managerial priorities based on the 'three E's', effectiveness, economy and efficiency, (Stepney 2000a: 2) have tended to confine social work practice within specified time boundaries and prescribed approaches to practice.

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Conclusion

Risking the relationship in order to protect individuals


At certain times, it may also be necessary to risk the relationship in order to protect the individuals concerned. A difficult situation that places relationships under threat can occur when social workers need to protect others. Here, the relationship may have to be surrendered in order to protect people from danger or harm. This is most likely to be the case in statutory contexts, when practitioners are called upon to use their legal powers and responsibilities.

This is most likely to happen in relation to:

  • Protecting children (child protection)
  • Protecting adults who are vulnerable due to severe mental illness or for other reasons, such as cognitive impairments that hinder people's capacity to understand
  • Protecting older people who may need residential care
  • Public protection through the criminal justice system, etc.

This relationship breakdown may be short-lived where there is a strong commitment to keep the relationship alive. However, this may call for considerable effort on the part of the practitioner.

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Conclusion

Working from our best self


Working from a place where we are disciplined, principled and rigorous in the attention we give to how we work and what we communicate, verbally and non verbally, has been conceptualised as working from our best self (Trevithick 2005; 63). This describes a determined commitment to provide the best possible service to another person, irrespective of what the person may have done, and being willing to engage in the work in ways that indicate a fundamental respect and concern for that individual. The discipline this involves means that it is not usually possible to work from our best self for long periods of time.

This emphasis on the relationship places considerable emphasis on how we provide services in practice situations.

It stresses the importance of a more emotionally-based and personalised approach to service delivery - as opposed to a more impersonal and distant type of approach.

Human qualities such as warmth, compassion and personal integrity are considered important attributes when communicating with people in a range of contexts.

These attributes can be particularly important when trying to gather information during the assessment process or when laying the foundation for future work.

Building a positive relationship is particularly important in work involving advocacy, caring for others and protecting people's rights.

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Conclusion

If you would like to learn more about Communication Skills, please visit SCIE's other e-learning resources on the SCIE web site (http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/elearning/index.asp).

You have now reached the end of this learning object. You may want to go back and re-visit sections as sometimes things only make sense second or third time round! You can also visit the References section now for ideas for extra reading/research.