Contemporary Practitioner Experiences of Relational Social Work: The Case of Child Welfare

ABSTRACT Relationships are core to effective social work and provide the glue that binds diverse aspects of practice. Relational practice has come under threat in an era of managerialism, yet at the same time, it is undergoing a revitalisation in social work discourse. For practitioners on the ground, this can create something of a dilemma, because while their discipline steers them towards building relationships in their practice, their efforts are often unsupported by their organisations, which potentially adds to their workload. This paper presents Australian research that was designed to explore how social work practitioners in the child welfare field experienced the emotional labour involved in building and maintaining relationships in organisational environments characterised by economic and technical rationalism. In-depth interviews were used to explore how participants managed their feelings and the findings revealed how they had to “dig deep” into personal and professional resources to connect and converse with clients and colleagues in a meaningful way. When considered through a gendered lens, this issue raises questions about the ethics of workload distribution for relational work in a profession that is predominantly female. IMPLICATIONS The process of building relationships can be undermined by organisational environments that are heavily influenced by managerial principles and this can potentially threaten the ethos of relational practice. Practitioners need to sustain critical reflection on the value of relationships in order to maintain focus on them. Considering this issue through a gendered lens raises questions about the ethics of care afforded to practitioners.