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Co-designing techniques for your practice framework

Co-designing your social work framework encourages participation and sets clear expectations for everyone. Find out more about co-design techniques and how to use them.

Strong and Clear Social Work Framework

Research in Practice has created 5 core principles of co-design

  1. Practitioner involvement: engage practitioners from the outset to encourage a sense of ownership in the practice framework or model. Their insights will increase the likelihood of success. 
  2. Learning and development opportunities: offer induction programmes and ongoing learning opportunities to enhance practitioners’ confidence and the application of the practice model. 
  3. Organisational alignment: ensure everyone in the organisation understands the adopted model and approach taken to working with people. Managers and leaders should lead by example and champion the implementation of the model.
  4. Role of principal social workers: they play a pivotal role in developing, monitoring, and operationalising the practice model, and are able to provide valuable feedback and support in developing effective practice. 
  5. Reflective supervision: this is essential for supporting and developing the model, enabling practitioners to reflect on their practice, receive guidance, and identify areas for growth and improvement.

How co-design works

When developing a practice framework or model, or when planning any type of change, it is essential to secure the input of practitioners using co-design.

Involving practitioners with the time, capacity, temperament and motivation to contribute will be most effective.

Enabling individuals with diverse identities and perspectives to voice their opinions is particularly important.

Important aspects of co-design are:  

  • equality: recognising that the views of no single group or individual are more valuable than another and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to contribute their opinions, experiences and skills 
  • diversity: ensuring that the co-design process is as inclusive and diverse as possible. Special efforts may be needed to ensure the input of seldom-heard groups of employees 
  • accessibility: ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in a way that best suits them 

Co-design involves drawing on the knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences of people across all levels in the organisation. It can also be used to bring stakeholders together to shape future directions or enhance performance.

Central to this approach is the principle of respecting all perspectives and ensuring the quality of ideas. 

World Café

The World Café method will help generate creative ideas to manage problem areas and drive change. Individual people have valuable insights and the World Café method allows diverse perspectives and new ideas to emerge.

How to arrange the space

Create a Café-style atmosphere by arranging tables with paper tablecloths or Post-it notes for jotting down ideas and provide coloured pens.

Appoint a facilitator for each table to guide discussions and document findings. Participants rotate among tables, spending 15 to 20 at a time at each table (a round) and discuss an important issue before moving to the next table.

Steps for a productive World Café  

  1. Make sure the environment feels welcoming to learning. 
  2. Have four or five chairs at each table and make sure that people understand the aim of the exercise.
  3. Identify the broad themes that you want people to address and that each table has a list of questions that capture real-life concerns. 
  4. Table hosts should welcome each group, guide the first round and then summarise the contributions from previous rounds to each new group. 
  5. Ensure everyone has a chance to articulate their views either in writing or verbally.

Capture the ideas from the World Café

You could:

  • have a method for capturing the ideas and themes that emerge from the discussion rounds
  • allocate time at the end of your World Café session to synthesise these ideas and provide feedback to the group
  • read more detailed information on the World Café approach

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life exercise is used to help practitioners:

  • reconnect with their professional identity 
  • appreciate their values, strengths and resilience 
  • explore how these strengths can be used to overcome potential career challenges, or ‘storms’

The exercise may appear simple, but it can be a very powerful tool. It can take several hours to do well or be simplified if less time is available.

You will need flipchart paper, Post-it notes and brightly coloured felt-tip pens.

Aim of the exercise

The aim is to help people appreciate that understanding our individual and collective strengths can help us build a sense of individual, team and organisational resilience.

Instructions for making the Tree

Ask participants to draw a tree, representing themselves, their team, or their organisation. This can be done individually, in pairs or as a group activity. They should begin by drawing the roots of the tree, followed by the ground, trunk, branches, and leaves. Allocate about 10 minutes for each section.

Design the:

  • roots of the tree by asking what brought you into the work and who influenced and inspired you?
  • trunk of the tree by asking what are your skills and values and what drives you in what you do? 
  • branches of the tree by asking what are your hopes, dreams and wishes for your career, your service and your organisation.
  • leaves of the tree by asking what brings you energy in your work? Who and what helps keep you going when things get tough? 

Using feedback to generate learning

Ask participants to share and discuss their creations with the wider group. Encourage them to put their trees on the walls around the room, creating a ‘forest’ of trees. A forest is far more resilient to storms.

Storms and challenges ahead

Invite the group to think about the challenges or storms that are on the horizon by asking:

  • what storms and hazards does your organisation face? You might consider staffing capacity, changes in service demand or implementing new legislation or guidance 
  • how can we use our collective strengths, visualised by the trees, to weather the storms? Consider each separately, as they will need different solutions 
  • who and what helps us keep going when things get tough? What resources do we have internally, what can we access externally, how do we maintain resilience?

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The resources have been developed by Research in Practice in collaboration with DfE.
Published: 27 February 2025
Last updated: 27 February 2025
References

Connolly, M. (2007). Practice frameworks: Conceptual maps to guide interventions in child welfare. British Journal of Social Work, 37(5), 825–837.

Fogg, B. J. (2020). Tiny habits: Why starting small makes lasting change easier. Virgin Books.

Kinman, G. (2017, March 6). How can you combat change fatigue? HRZone.

Stanley, Y. (2019). Social care commentary: Using models of practice successfully. Ofsted Blog Article.