How do we make our service accessible to everyone?

Gill Whalley.  February 2021.

Like lots of people across the world right now I am having a go at homeschooling. I have felt totally out of my depth, trying to understand information that is brand new to me, confusing yet so important to my child.

It has got me reflecting on how parents under assessments must feel when they are placed in the position of ‘not understanding’ and being faced with reports that are confusing, inaccurate, long, and have lots of terminologies yet are massively important. As an assessor, I will read and try to make sense of reports, key documents, and past assessments. Despite having academic qualifications, and an understanding of the topics it still takes me time to unpick information. I feel a great deal of empathy for parents that are trying to engage in their assessment but are genuinely overwhelmed by the whole process and because of this, perform poorly in their assessment.  Perhaps reaching back to old coping strategies; anger, fear, avoidance and demonstrating an inability to change.

At Amber Family, we work hard to make our reports, teaching sessions, and feedback understandable to all our parents. But is this a true reality of social work? Given that Local Authority workers have a set format for reports, limited time and now even less time for face-to-face explanations. I have seen the fear in the face of a parent that is presented with a Local Authority report that is confusing, wordy, and inaccessible to them.

Changing the way we present reports, feedback and information; may appear to be time-consuming, daunting and yet another task to complete. However, we should never forget that all social workers are duty-bound to adhere to all the professional standards for example:

Value each person as an individual, recognising their strengths and abilities.

Actively listen to understand people, using a range of appropriate communication methods to build relationships.

Practise in ways that demonstrate empathy, perseverance, authority, professional confidence and capability, working with people to enable full participation in discussions and decision-making.

At Amber Family, we uphold our responsibility to work in partnership with a parent to ensure they can engage fully in their assessment. We have developed a range of resources that can meet an individual learning style. These don’t have to be complicated changes and I believe they can be introduced to all social work regardless of administration constraints. We talk about how parents like feedback at the start, so we have a basis to work towards. We use bullet points to break down lengthy texts and create a clear message, we agree on clear expectations, and we use ‘to-do’ lists and visual planners.

It’s not just parents with a learning need that require uncomplicated, clear information; it’s all of us….. take it from a mum that has said “Siri what is a fronted adverbial??” several times already this week! I think what I’m trying to get across is we all need information that is clear, accessible, and someone at the end of the phone who can reassure us and explain things.  Something that may seem really easy to one person is really confusing to another, as practitioners we are familiar with social care, parenting, and safeguarding but the people we work with are not; we all need to be patient, take our time, and consider each other when communicating through paperwork.