Get involved with the Social Work Research Podcast

I set up the Social Work Research Podcast earlier this year not really knowing if anyone would listen to it. But it turns out that I shouldn’t have been worried.

The 11 episodes published to date have received over a thousand listens so far in total. While it will never trouble the podcast charts, it is great that social workers are interested in listening to conversations with social work researchers about studies they have conducted.

The format is an in-depth discussion with a researcher about a specific paper they have published. A link to the full-text paper is provided on the episode webpage so that listeners can read the research for themselves. The aim is to make research more accessible for students and practitioners, supporting both learning and continuing professional development.

So far we have covered a range of topics of relevance to social work, including domestic abuse, compulsory detentions, parenting, supporting decision-making and home visits, for example. The episodes have also discussed a range of research methods such as qualitative studies, cohort studies and randomised controlled trials. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to some great researchers along the way, who have willingly given up their time to speak to me. And there is a lot more to come.

Working group

I set up the podcast to spark conversations and thinking about the role of research in social work practice. I think it is beginning to achieve this. In particular, it has prompted a mental health social worker in London, Robbie Fraser, to get in touch and offer to work with me on developing the podcast.

We are considering releasing mini episodes in between the main episodes every fortnight, with a looser format but still focused on connecting research and practice in social work. We would like to create a small working group to inform this process and bring a diversity of perspectives to bear on developing the podcast for future listeners.

Open to anyone with an interest in social work, including experts by experience, practitioners, managers, policy-makers and researchers, this working group would be a very low level commitment and provide an opportunity to comment on existing as well as emerging research that could shape social work practice. Working group members will have a role in suggesting which studies to focus on in the main episodes and will have the opportunity to comment on research in the mini episodes.

Please note that the podcast does not generate an income so there will be no remuneration available for members of the working group.

We have set up an email address for the podcast: swresearchpodcast@gmail.com. Please contact us using this email address for further information or to register interest by 19th November 2021.

We also have plans to set up Twitter and Instagram accounts for the podcast, so please look out for these. In the meantime, the podcast is available on Amazon, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Spotify or via the podcast webpage.