Home visits are a key method in social care but little is known about how they are conducted. This study analyses transcripts of audio-recordings of visits made by social care workers to their clients and contributes to an understanding of how such interactions are performed.
Attention was paid to how the agenda for home visits was set through topic shifting, asking questions, interrupting and telling stories. This allowed the visits to be compared with a number of theoretical models of assessment. Variations in how workers asked questions and responded to clients’ stories suggested that they had some discretion to act as street-level bureaucrats.
BaldockJPriorD (1981) Social workers talking to clients: A study of verbal behaviour. British Journal of Social Work11(1): 19–38.
2.
BaldockJUngersonC (1996) Becoming a consumer of care: Developing a sociological account of the ‘new community care’. In: EdgellSHetheringtonKWardeA (eds) Consumption Matters, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 11–35.
3.
BaruchG (1981) Moral tales: Parents’ stories of encounters with the health professions. Sociology of Health and Illness3(3): 275–295.
Bury M (1991) The sociology of chronic illness: A review of research and prospects. Sociology of Health and Illness 13(4): 451–468.
6.
CampionPLangdonM (2004) Achieving multiple topic shifts in primary care medical consultations: A conversation analysis study in UK general practice. Sociology of Health and Illness26(1): 81–101.
7.
CareyM (2003) Anatomy of a care manager. Work, Employment and Society17: 121–135.
8.
DerberC (2000) The Pursuit of Attention, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9.
EllisK (2007) Direct payments and social work practice: The significance of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ in determining eligibility. British Journal of Social Work37: 405–422.
10.
EllisKDavisARummeryK (1999) Needs assessment, street-level bureaucracy and the new community care. Social Policy and Administration33(3): 262–280.
11.
EvansT (2012) Organisational rules and discretion in adult social work. British Journal of Social Work, 1–20. (accessed 7 March 2012).
12.
GormanHPostleK (2003) Transforming Community Care: A Distorted Vision, Birmingham: Venture Press.
Heritage J and Raymond G (2012) Navigating epistemic landscapes: Acquiescence, agency and resistance in responses to polar questions. Forthcoming in J-P de Ruiter (ed.) Questions: Formal Functional and Interactional Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Published online at: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/heritage/Site/Publications_files/NAVIGATING.pdf (accessed June 2011).
16.
HoweD (1991) Knowledge, power and the shape of social work practice. In: DaviesM (ed) The Sociology of Social Work, London: Routledge, pp. 202–220.
17.
JokinenAJuhilaKPösöT (1999) Constructing Social Work Practices, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.
18.
LipskyM (1980) Street Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of Individuals in Public Services, New York: Russell Sage.
19.
MalinowskiB (1923) The problem of meaning in primitive languages. In: OgdenCRichardsI (eds) The Meaning of Meaning, London, UK: Routledge, pp. 451–510.
20.
MorganM (2008) The doctor patient relationship. In: ScamblerG (ed) Sociology as Applied to Medicine, 6th edn. Edinburgh: Saunders/Elsavier, pp. 55–70.
21.
OakeshottM (1975) On Human Conduct, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
22.
PithouseA (1998) Social Work: The Social Organisation of an Invisible Trade, revised 2nd edn. Avebury: Gower.
23.
RichardsS (2000) Bridging the divide: Elders and the assessment process. British Journal of Social Work30: 37–49.
24.
RoterDStewartMPutnamSLipkinMStilesWInuiT (1997) Communication patterns of primary care physicians. Journal of the American Medical Association277(4): 350–356.
25.
Ruusuvuori J (2000) Control in the Medical Consultation: Practices of Giving and Receiving the Reason for the Visit in Primary Healthcare. Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 16. Available at: http://acta.uta.fi/pdf/951-44-4755-7.pdf (accessed August 2004).
SchegloffE (1993) Reflections on quantification in the study of conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction26(1): 99–128.
28.
SchegloffE (2007) Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation AnalysisVol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
29.
SilvermanD (1997) Discourses of Counselling: HIV Counselling as Social Interaction, London, UK: SAGE Publications.
30.
SmaleGTusonGBandanaADarvillGDomoneyLSainsburyE (1993) Empowerment, Assessment, Care Management and the Skilled Worker, London: SSI (Social Services Inspectorate), HMSO.
31.
StanleyS (1991) Studying talk in probation interviews. In: DaviesM (ed) The Sociology of Social Work, London, UK: Routledge, pp. 123–146.
32.
StewartMRoterD (1989) Communicating with Medical Patients, London, UK: SAGE Publications.
33.
StrathernM (1991) Partial Connections, Savage, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
34.
TannenD (2001) The relativity of linguistic strategies: Rethinking power and solidarity in gender and dominance. In: WetherellMTaylorSYatesS (eds) Discourse Theory and Practice, London, UK: SAGE Publications, pp. 150–166.
35.
The College of Social Work (TCSW) (2012) Professional Capability Framework – Domain 7 Intervention. Available at: http://www.collegeofsocialwork.org/pcf.aspx (accessed January 2013).
36.
WooffittR (2005) Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis: A Comparative and Critical Introduction, London, UK: SAGE Publications.
