Becoming Agile in Local Authority Children's Safeguarding Social Work Services: Examining Organisational and Individual Change in Public Sector Work.

Since 2010, agile approaches have been implemented increasingly enthusiastically by local authorities and the NHS in the UK. 'Agile' means approaches that are designed to enable simpler, more flexible organisational systems and working practices, which respond more directly to the needs of people using services. Changes include moving services online and providing employees with laptop computers or smart phones so they can work more remotely and flexibly. Agile approaches are seen as helping services to be more adaptable and workers to be more resilient in the face of complex, shifting requirements. Another key driver is that they allow services to be delivered more cheaply in the context of continuing public sector austerity.

In children's safeguarding social work, agile approaches have led to new working practices such as hot-desking, home-based working and increased communication between colleagues via digital information systems. Hot-desking, in particular, has received significant attention in the social work press and some academic commentators have suggested agile approaches leave social workers more isolated. The few studies conducted so far have suggested differences between service leaders' expectations of agile approaches and social workers' practices on the ground. These studies found service leaders expected agile approaches to lead to financial savings, enhance social workers' communication, and offer greater flexibility for social workers to balance work and non-work commitments. Most social workers viewed them as offering greater flexibility about where and when they could carry out recording work, and how they could communicate with colleagues and service users. However, these ways of working also raised questions about how to keep users' personal information secure in public and non-work spaces, and changing forms of communication with colleagues and service users.

Further research is needed into agile working practices and their implications for services' effectiveness, and users' and social workers' experiences. This project aims to:

1 Document and analyse service leaders', social workers', supervisors' and service users' accounts of agile approaches, the practices and relationships they entail and their intended outcomes
2 Identify the knowledge and beliefs about children's safeguarding social work on which these accounts rely;
3 document and analyse the range of social workers', supervisors' and service users' practices, relationships and experiences when engaged in agile working, and identify the factors influencing them;
4 examine how these identified practices impact on social workers' and service users' communication and sense-making.

The project will involve research in three different local authorities, including observations of 100-130 instances of social work practice, and interviews with 40-60 participants about their views and experiences of agile approaches. The project will lead to detailed case studies of the three authorities and approximately 20 social workers' practice, and evidence about the implications of agile approaches in children's safeguarding social work and in public sector services more widely. It will produce the following resources:

1 for practitioners: practice guides considering communication, working relationships, supervision, data security and self-care when working in agile contexts; tools which enable practitioners to reflect on their experiences of agile working and identify its implications;
2 for practice leaders and policy makers: evidence about best practice in implementing agile approaches, case studies demonstrating the positive and negative implications of different approaches and practices, and how these can be effectively managed;
3 for social work educators: teaching resources to enable learning about agile approaches, working practices and their implications for service users and social workers.

Planned Impact
The findings will benefit the following research users in particular:
Leaders in local authority children's social care services, in particular Directors of Children's and Adults' Services and Principal Social Workers, who make key decisions about what kinds of agile approaches should be implemented.
Practitioners in children's safeguarding, social care services more broadly and public sector services generally, who are likely to work in the context of agile approaches.
National policy makers focused on social work and public sector services as a whole. These include the Chief Social Workers (Children and Families, Adults), Social Work England as the new professional body, and NHS Digital, which deals with digital engagement in health and social care, including social work.
Professional organisations such as BASW (British Association of Social Workers), which are concerned about the impacts of agile approaches on practitioners' wellbeing and ability to do their work.
Academic researchers interested in social work, the sociology of work, organisation studies, and science and technology studies.
Social work educators and students. Social work students are likely to encounter agile approaches once they qualify; they are also increasingly required to engage in agile practices during their study, which has implications for their learning and supervision.
Social work services, practitioners, policy makers and researchers internationally. Agile approaches and digital technologies are being applied in public sector social work in many different countries.
Service users are expected to benefit, through more reflexive engagements with agile approaches and practices in social work.

How will they benefit?
Currently, limited data exist about the implementation of agile approaches in the public sector, their effects on ground-level practices, practitioners' and service users' experiences, what approaches are more conducive to good practice or how practitioners can maintain resilience.

The project will provide granular data about agile approaches implemented in three different sites, and approximately 40 practitioners and service users in these contexts. Using this data, the project will develop knowledge about the range of approaches and practices, and their different implications for communication, working relationships, sense-making, service users' experiences, practitioners' experiences of their work and its impact on non-work lives. The project will produce practice guidance for practitioners and service leaders, and a broad range of data for local and national policy makers, which will enable better decision making about how to engage with agile approaches in social work and public sector work more generally. Leaders in local authority children's services, and public sector services more generally, will be able to draw on the project's insights to make more informed decisions about how to engage with agile approaches, and defend the wisdom of such decisions in the context of stretched resources. Professional organisations such as BASW will be able to offer practice guidance for practitioners and services. Individual practitioners will be able to use the resources provided to evaluate different agile approaches, consider how to practise in these contexts, and reflect on the impacts of agile approaches on their own practices and experiences. The project's findings will benefits policy makers in diverse ways, for instance by providing insight into the effects of agile approaches on social workers' engagement with informal supervision (a particular concern for Chief Social Workers) and social workers' engagement with digital technology and confidence about sharing information (a particular concern for NHS Digital). Social work educators will benefit from access to educational resources for use on qualifying and CPD programmes, about the potential impacts of agile approaches and how to negotiate these in practice.