TY - JOUR
T1 - Reflective group interventions with social workers: a scoping review
AU - Gregory, Mark
AU - Cook, Laura
AU - Yussif, Ibn Abdallah
AU - Porter, Bryony
N1 - Funding information: This work was funded (in part) by a grant from NNUH Research Capability Funding. This study/project is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration East of England (NIHR ARC EoE) at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
PY - 2025/2/14
Y1 - 2025/2/14
N2 - Social work is a rewarding yet highly demanding profession and how social workers can successfully be supported to manage the emotional and practical demands of the role is an area of increasing interest, particularly due to ongoing challenges with recruitment and retention in the social work workforce. Reflective group interventions – such as group supervision and reflective case discussion groups – are commonly used to support social workers, however comparatively little is known about the effectiveness of such interventions or the outcomes of providing them to social workers. This article is based on a scoping review of existing empirical research on reflective group interventions with social workers. Twenty-seven studies were included as part of the review. Four outcomes were identified: personal and professional development, working with service users, retention, and cost effectiveness. Challenges in embedding interventions into practice were also identified. The evidence-base for the effectiveness of reflective group interventions is relatively weak, with most studies being small-scale, localised, and exploratory in nature. Based on findings from the review, this article proposes a logic model for prospective inputs, outputs, and outcomes of group interventions and recommends further research to support the development of effective group interventions for social workers.
AB - Social work is a rewarding yet highly demanding profession and how social workers can successfully be supported to manage the emotional and practical demands of the role is an area of increasing interest, particularly due to ongoing challenges with recruitment and retention in the social work workforce. Reflective group interventions – such as group supervision and reflective case discussion groups – are commonly used to support social workers, however comparatively little is known about the effectiveness of such interventions or the outcomes of providing them to social workers. This article is based on a scoping review of existing empirical research on reflective group interventions with social workers. Twenty-seven studies were included as part of the review. Four outcomes were identified: personal and professional development, working with service users, retention, and cost effectiveness. Challenges in embedding interventions into practice were also identified. The evidence-base for the effectiveness of reflective group interventions is relatively weak, with most studies being small-scale, localised, and exploratory in nature. Based on findings from the review, this article proposes a logic model for prospective inputs, outputs, and outcomes of group interventions and recommends further research to support the development of effective group interventions for social workers.
U2 - 10.1093/bjsw/bcaf029
DO - 10.1093/bjsw/bcaf029
M3 - Article
SN - 0045-3102
JO - The British Journal of Social Work
JF - The British Journal of Social Work
ER -