'We're Not the Enemy'

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  'We're Not the Enemy'. Exploring the relationships between social care practitioners, service users, community care lawyers and the law.

• IRAS ID

  216166

• Contact name

  Caroline J Miles

• Contact email

  cm15804@bristol.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Bristol

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  SPOL RK7823, Sponsor's funding reference

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 7 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Law is inseparable from social care practice (Braye and Preston-Shoot, 1997: 343). Legal literacy is considered an essential part of social work training (Preston-Shoot et al., 2012). There is however, little, if any, research into the complex interplay between social care and legal knowledge and application, and how that impacts on service users.
  It is particularly relevant to develop this area of research in the wake of the 2014 Care Act. To date, formal litigation around the Care Act has been sparse, with only one case reaching completion in the High Court in the 13 months since its commencement (SG (a protected party by her litigation friend the Official Solicitor) v LB Haringey 2015), suggesting that disputes that are arising are settled by negotiation. The extent to which practitioners are conscious of the crucial ‘underpinning’ and directive role of legislation and guidance in informing their day to day work therefore still seems to be unclear and is the subject of this project.

  The aim is to identify potentially fruitful areas for interdisciplinary research between social care and legal professionals.

  The objectives are to carry out a scoping exercise and literature review, to find out:

  1.What kind of legal knowledge and expertise is useful for social care practitioners and in social work training?

  2.How can social care and legal professionals work together more productively?

  3.What views do social care clients have about their legal rights?

  4.How has the Care Act influenced the legal requirements of social care practitioners and the rights of their clients?

  Braye, S. and Preston-Shoot, M. (1997) Practising Social Work Law, Basingstoke, Macmillan.
  Preston-Shoot, M. et al. (2012) Perceptions of readiness for legally literate practice. Social Work Education 31(8): 1071-89.

• REC name

  Social Care REC

• REC reference

  16/IEC08/0040

• Date of REC Opinion

  4 Apr 2017

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion