Immersive 360 degree training gives social workers a front row seat to frontline

Social workers going into child protection are being given an insight into the most sensitive aspects of the job thanks to immersive training with Virtual Reality (VR) headsets.

The project, a partnership between the University of Birmingham and Sandwell Children's Trust allows those in training or in the first few years of the job, to experience challenging situations in a safe environment.

Using VR goggles, so they can watch in a 360 degree format, participants follow a social worker's 11 month engagement with a fictional family based on the daily experiences of real child protection workers.

Social worker Jemima Ali who works for Sandwell Children's Trust said: "I learn by seeing and doing so it was really helpful for me to actually see what practice is like through the headset.

"You get to feel all the emotions of the family, but you also process your own emotions yourself.

"So actually it did really help me to feel what it was like for that family and how to communicate with families, how to make them feel welcome and settled and build up a really strong relationship with them."

Two different scenarios are played out depending on how the social worker in the film responds to the situation.

Paul Wareham has been a social worker for 12 years and says it made him think more about how he comes across.

"The way the camera's positioned in the film, the father, the way he stands is quite intimidating and I've never really experienced that.

"It made me think more about how I can be perceived. I'm quite tall, quite a big lad soI changed my practice around how I introduce myself, how I stand. Maybe I'll try and sit down straightaway or quite quickly to try and minimise any fear.

"They're already going to be intimidated by the fact that they've got a social worker coming to the house, especially if it's something they've never experienced before."

Andrew Szczepanski is care experienced and has been a qualified social worker at Sandwell Children's Trust for two years. He said the films highlighted the importance of the body language and the tone in which you speak adding: "The films also allow you to understand that there are different people in the setting who you may need to treat differently. Not everyone is the same."

The project is based on research into what helps or hinders relationships between social workers and families.

Dr Tarsem Singh Cooner, Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Birmingham explained how he came up with the idea.

"One evening I was watching a television show and that showed people going down a zip line using 360 degree cameras to film and headsets to acclimatise them to to the fear of heights.

"And what we noticed in our research was that anxiety would sometimes make social workers freeze in terms of the work that they wanted to carry out.And so we thought, well, why couldn't we put our research on to these headsets.

"It provides you with the opportunity to experience something in a safe environment so when you go out you're prepared as best you can be to deal with that situation."

"Practically, what we're talking about is how a change in a tone of voice, your body language or how you approach a person can lead to a better outcome. How their reaction to you can impact on your reaction back to them and being aware of how to respond in a way that encourages good relationships."

Dr Carol Singleton, Principal Social worker at Sandwell Children's Trust said: "You're never quite sure what you're going into when you walk into into a family home and you're never quite sure how the family are going to react as well. It's enormously stressful and anxiety provoking to have a social worker knocking on your door.

"It's really important that we've got confident social workers who are able to make that connection and be able to talk to the families about some of the difficult stuff that's going on, but also importantly, talking to them about what they do well."

Vijay Patel, Head of Safeguarding at the Social Care Institute for Excellence, said: “I think the training videos are invaluable for newly qualified social workers and students, especially if they haven’t had a lot of experience with challenging behaviours, challenging language.

"It’s also a very good tool for experienced social workers, because we can always learn, and seeing somebody else might make you say, ‘oh hang on, I do that’, or ‘hang on, I should be doing that’. I think it can be helpful for any practitioner at any point in their career.”

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