Good communication, both oral and written, is at the heart of best practice in social work. Communication skills are essential for establishing effective and respectful relationships with service users, and are also essential for assessments, decision making and joint working with colleagues and other professionals.
The purpose of the review was to identify key good practice messages to assist social work educators in developing frameworks for teaching communication skills on social work qualifying courses. However, an absence of evaluated practice has made it impossible to recommend a framework for teaching communication skills. As a result, this review identifies areas where further research is required to underpin good practice.