Embedding strengths-based practice: Frontline Briefing (2019)

‘Strengths-based practice’ has been defined as:

The Care Act 2014 guidance refers explicitly to strengths-based approaches, by requiring local authorities to:

Consider the person’s own strengths and capabilities, and what support might be available from their wider support network or within the community to help. (Department of Health and Social Care, 2018)

Strengths-based approaches also fit well with core social work values, such as promoting the rights to participation and self-determination. BASW’s Code of Ethics states that:

Social workers should focus on the strengths of all individuals, groups and communities and thus promote their empowerment. (BASW, 2014)

This publication complements Research in Practice Strategic Briefing on Developing strengths-based working (Ford, 2019), which focuses on:

• The policy and legal context for strengths-based approaches and their development.
• Different models of strengths-based practice.
• Approaches to evaluating their success.

This briefing, which is aimed at frontline social care practitioners and their managers:

• Proposes and explains seven key principles of strengths-based approaches in social care, and the evidence base supporting them.
• Presents a series of practical tools to support strengths-based practice, focusing on communication skills.
• Considers some of the challenges to strengths-based practice as experienced by practitioners, with practical recommendations for practitioners, teams and managers on how they can embed the approach sustainably.