Social Work - Theses
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ItemSocio-legal collaborations in Australia - models of service provision and the influence on practice( 2019)Interdisciplinary collaborations between legal and social services have emerged as a growing framework for assisting clients with high degrees of disadvantage, vulnerability and complexity. World-wide developments in the social determinants of health and access to justice have demonstrated the need for integrated approaches which break down professional silos and work with intertwined legal and social issues. The promotion of collaboration, however, has not generated a unique program or intervention structure, rather a wide diversity of forms has developed organically, be it with the common goal of assisting those in need in holistic and integrated ways. This study has mapped the nature of these collaborations across Australia, their forms and staff, and explored the influence collaborating professions are having on each other’s practice. While lawyers and social workers would seem to have a natural synergy for these programs, the study examined which professions are actually involved, how they went about collaboration and the professional practice being delivered, collective details of which have until this study remained limited. The study presented is a mixed methods project using online surveys and semi-structured interviews to explore these programs and the experiences of staff within them. Results suggest that social work practice and social workers take up a significant role in these interdisciplinary collaborations and are central to a model of effective collaboration between legal and social service professions. Social work was found to be not only the most common form of social service practice found in these collaborations but also one of the most influential upon other professions and professional practice including law. From these findings an evidence-based model of socio-legal collaborations was developed, alongside a socio-legal collaboration health check, translating the theoretical model into practical guidance for program reform and sector development. A call for social work leadership in these socio-legal settings is also made, with the results of the study demonstrating the need for social work to understand and promote their critical contribution to collaborations and to the other professional practices and client outcomes which result.