Multi-perspective casework in support planning

Hausarbeit , 2008 , 16 Seiten , Note: 1,0

Soziale Arbeit / Sozialarbeit

Professional social work in its various forms addresses the diverse, complex relationships between people and their environment. It represents a whole network of values, theories and practice (cf. IFSW) and is as diverse as the lifeworld of people themselves. With the book "Sozialpädagogisches Können. Ein Lehrbuch zur multiperspektivischen Fallarbeit" (Social Pedagogical Skills: A Textbook on Multi-Perspective Casework), first published in 1993, Burkhard Müller intends to show that the diversity of social work can be ordered in a relatively clear pattern. He calls this pattern multi-perspective casework.

Whether this method succeeds in structuring the complexity of social pedagogical action through the case-related processing of the levels and phases named by Müller and making them transparent for the person acting is the central question of this paper.

The case perspectives and the work phases of multi-perspective approaches are to be explained in the paper. The extent to which this is a method that takes into account the complex conditions of social work as well as the specific legal requirements of the Child and Youth Welfare Act will be shown using the example of support planning. Finally, a conclusion and an assessment of the effectiveness of this model as a method of social work will follow.

Table of contents

Introduction

1. Aid planning in the Child and Youth Welfare Act

2. Multi-perspective casework
2.1 Dimensions of case work – case of, case for, case with
2.2 Socio-educational anamnesis
2.3 Socio-educational diagnosis
2.4 Socio-educational intervention
2.5 Socio-pedagogical evaluation

3. Multi-perspective casework in support planning

4. Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix:

Introduction

Professional social work in its various forms addresses the diverse, complex relationships between people and their environment. It represents a whole network of values, theories and practice (cf. IFSW) and is as diverse as the living environment of the people themselves.

With the 1993 first presented book "Sozialpädagogisches Können. A textbook on multi-perspective casework", Burkhard Müller intends to show that the diversity of social work can be arranged in a relatively clear pattern. He calls this pattern multiperspectival case work.

Whether this method succeeds in structuring and making transparent the complexity of socio-pedagogical action for the actor through the case-related reappraisal of the levels and phases named by Müller is the guiding question of this term paper.

In the work, the case perspectives and the work phases of multi-perspective approach are to be explained. The extent to which this is a method that takes into account both the complex operating conditions of social work and the specific legal requirements of the Child and Youth Welfare Act will be demonstrated using the example of aid planning.

Finally, a conclusion and assessment of the effectiveness of this model as a method of social work follows.

1. Aid planning in the Child and Youth Welfare Act

With the introduction of the Child and Youth Welfare Act on 1 January 1991, "a change of perspective of youth welfare from the intervention administration to the social service authority was established. The KJHG has the task of promoting the development of children, adolescents and the creation of positive living conditions for children and their families in the sense of a life-world-oriented youth welfare." (Neuberger 2004, p. 10). One of the most important tasks of youth welfare is thus the "help for education"¹ (§§ 27 to 41 SGB VIII) (cf. Müller 2008, p.77). The legal basis for granting longer-term "aids to education" is the assistance plan procedure according to § 36.²

With this procedure according to § 36, essential standards for the granting and design of educational assistance are laid down by law (cf. Neuberger 2004, p.10).

"It regulates the way to the creation of a "tailor-made" assistance plan for the individual case, the decision-making, the design and the review of a help." (ibid.).

According to § 36.1, the support planning begins with an informative consultation even before the decision on the use of educational help. The aim of this counselling is to provide the persons entitled to care and the child or adolescent affected by the need for help with factual information about possible forms of help and transparency regarding possible "consequences of the help for the development of the child, everyday life and their family relationships (...)" (Neuberger 2004, p.12). "The informative consultation is intended to prepare a joint discussion and enable the addressees to decide for themselves." (ibid.). If the entitled persons are determined to make use of an expected longer-term assistance in accordance with § 27 SGB VIII, the assistance plan procedure is initiated by the responsible specialist of the General Social Service of the Youth Welfare Office. The administrative procedure begins with the submission of the application. This includes the examination of the conditions and preparation of the aid decision, the determination of the educational needs, the selection of the assistance and necessary services to be granted as well as a legal formal decision (cf. ibid.).

As can be seen in particular in § 36,2 of the SGB VIII, the law uses to determinate legal terms such as "advise", "necessary services", "suitable and necessary help" or "educational need" with regard to the planning of assistance (cf. Müller 2008, p.78). The concrete and case-related content-related filling of these indeterminate legal terms is left by the legislation to the professionals of social work by " Technical Recognition, decision-making and action (...)"(ibid.). The law also stipulates that decisions on the expected longer-term assistance should only be made in cooperation with several specialists. In this way, it is to be avoided that decisions about "suitable and necessary help" are not only subject to the perception and arbitrariness of a single specialist, but that the professional quality of the decision-making process is ensured by collegial team consulting (cf. bmfsfj 1999, quoted in: Schwartz o.D., p.5). However, the participation competence of those affected and entitled to care for persons must not be restricted, but should be supported and developed. Thus, the persons concerned themselves are significantly involved in the design of the assistance and in the appropriate interpretation of the content of the indeterminate legal terms (cf. Schwartz o. D., p. 5).

If a consensus has been reached between the addressees, the specialists and possibly others involved in the implementation of the aid has led to a decision on the form and design of the aid, this decision, once taken, requires a regular review by the ASD and must – if necessary – be revised (cf. ibid.).

Aid planning is a legal requirement for all help for education (cf. Müller 2008, p. 78). Its task is to organize and structure a help measure in partial steps, to document it and to make it transparent for those affected (see Schwartz o.D., p. 6). Through negotiation processes between addressees and specialists, a joint case decision is to be made. In the event of an action, it must be possible to verify in court whether the standards laid down in § 36.2 have been technically acted and decided (cf. Müller 2008, p. 79).

2. Multi-perspective casework

"Socio-pedagogical casuistry is a certain mode of activity. It considers and attempts to understand to what extent the contents of an individual case are important for a well-founded decision with prospects." (Hörster 2002, p.549).

In social work, casuistry, the case-related work, already occurred in its beginnings at the beginning of the 20th century – Mary Richmond and Alice Salomon already knew the case work (see University of Siegen o. D., p.1). According to Hörster, the method book "Social Diagnosis", published by Richmond in 1917, made it clear how much socio-pedagogical understanding and the participation of the addressees were related to each other (cf. Hörster 2002, p.549). "In this border area between professional understanding and participation of the addressees, socio-pedagogical casuistry also moved in the period after the Second World War, (...)" (ibid.). After 1945, accompanied by the expansion of the welfare state and the "efforts to professionalize(...)" (ibid.) it experienced a clear upswing in Germany and became increasingly relatively independent within socio-pedagogical methodology (cf. Hörster 2002, p.550f.) - methodologists increasingly developed "a casuistry in the form of so-called teaching cases." (Hürtgen-Busch o. D., p. 1). Thus casuistry in social work is a "case discussion", in which 1) cases are presented and discussed with regard to diagnostic assessment 2) intervention concepts are discussed on the basis of cases and 3) selected problems are discussed and compared on the basis of case presentations." (ibid.).

Müller, too, ties in with the term he coined of multi-perspective case work to casuistry and thus to the tradition of casework (case-by-case assistance), but does not mean by individual case the individual person as the addressee of socio-pedagogical action, "but rather the individual situation, (...) or even the individual review of a complex practical experience (...)" (Müller 2008, p.13), and dispenses with the presentation of exemplary teaching cases in favor of "student case material" (cf. ibid.). Other than e.g. Casework is about a university didactic company of casuistry that does not proceed prescriptively (with teaching examples, procedural rules, phase models, etc.), but reconstructively. He asks himself how it is possible to strengthen one's own learning experiences (of students), as well as to develop a scheme of orientation knowledge and thus to make one's own experiences classifiable (cf. Hürtgen-Busch o. D., p. 2).

[...]

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¹ Excerpt from SGB VIII, § 27 (Aids to education): see Annex

² Excerpt from SGB VIII, § 36 (participation, assistance plan): see annex

• Hochschule: Universität Kassel
• Veranstaltung: Einführung in die Methoden Sozialer Arbeit
• Note: 1,0
• Autor: Christiane Low (Autor:in)
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2008
• Seiten: 16
• Katalognummer: V1154723
• ISBN (eBook): 9783346543868
• Sprache: Englisch
• Schlagworte: social work, Burkhard Müller, multi-perspective casework