Social Work Practitioners and Practice Evaluation: How Are We Doing?

Abstract

Practice evaluation is an important component of evidence-based social work practice. Previous research in this area has concluded that even though social workers receive evaluation training, it remains under-utilized in practice. This study discusses the results of a survey of 134 social workers across different social work settings, positions, and level of preparation, examining incidence and type of evaluation activity, training received, and barriers related to implementing practice evaluation in the practice setting. Results report that the majority of social workers are not involved in evaluation activities beyond collecting basic statistics.

The impact of child and parental age on protective factors against child maltreatment

“…Many staff in prevention programmes are social workers. Despite receiving evaluation training during completion of their degrees, literature suggests most social workers engage in very limited evaluation activities (e.g., client satisfaction and descriptive reporting of services provided) and cite time as a barrier to more complex evaluation efforts (Baker, Stephens, & Hitchcock, ). In response to these limitations, most prevention agencies conduct simple analyses, such as comparing mean pretest and post‐test scores and combine all families—regardless of their unique family characteristics—in their analyses.…”

Learning about Practice from Practice: A Peer-based Methodology

“…Social work practitioner evaluation is an underutilised area of practice research (Baker, Stephens, & Hithcock, 2010). In their research of 134 social workers across different practice settings in North Carolina, they concluded that while the social workers who participated in their research had some practice evaluation training in their degree courses, they were not involved in evaluation work outside collecting basic statistics.…”

Teaching Note—Teaching Research Methods: Expanding Practice Evaluation Designs for Social Work Practice

“…More recently, a survey of social work practitioners conducted by Baker, Stephens, and Hitchcock (2010) found that although most social workers were trained in evaluation methodology as part of their educational program, very few were engaged in practice evaluation efforts beyond the collection of agency statistics. Finding more effective ways to facilitate the transfer of research knowledge and skills from the classroom to the field is an important issue for the social work profession because the demonstration of practice effectiveness is essential to both ethical service delivery and the ability to secure and retain funding.…”