In this document, we provide the methodological background for the Safety atWork project. This document combines several project deliverables as defined inthe overall project plan: validation techniques and methods (D5.1.1), performanceindicators for safety at work (D5.1.2), personal protection equipment methods(D2.1.2), situational awareness methods (D3.1.2), and persuasive technology methods(D4.1.2).
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Social work is a profession that is very much part of and contributes to an ever changing and evolving society. It is therefore essential that social work is able to respond to the diverse and dynamic demands that it may encounter in that society and in the future. The critique of social work is, however, present and growing. The profession can no longer deny or ignore the need to legitimize its value and effectiveness. In this article, a research project – entitled Procivi – aimed at developing a method of legitimizing social work is presented. The method developed in Procivi proposes a way of legitimizing social work through the development of reflective professionals. The method teaches professionals to take a research frame of mind towards their own practice and helps them develop a vocabulary to describe their work to different audiences. The paper discusses whether and how this method forms a viable way of legitimizing social work and as such could be an alternative for the growing demand for social work based on scientific evidence (evidencebased practice, EBP).
Substantial structural changes have recently taken place in the Dutch social workterrain. Now the local governments have autonomous responsibility for the self-sufficiency and social inclusion of the elderly and the disabled people. This ‘transformation’ requires remodelling social services and hence investigation of its effects: practice-oriented research. Due to the binary character of the Dutch higher education system this kind of research almost exclusively takes place at universities of applied sciences whose research tradition only goes about a decade back. In order to preserve the values of the Dutch care system, that always sought to protect the vulnerable citizens, it is important that the practice-oriented research into the social domain is well-executed and that its results are directly translated in the curricula of the professional education. This calls for a targeted impulse to expanse the research activities at the universities of applied sciences, a closer cooperation with the research universities and direct connections with (local) care providers
