Underpinning knowledge

This programme is about demonstrating the leadership required for strengths-based working. It is important therefore that you have a good grounding of what is meant by strengths-based practice and the models that support it.

Defining strengths-based practice

No one definition of strengths-based practice has been adopted in health and social care but they all reflect common principles. The three definitions below highlight these common principles:

A social care perspective

A collaborative process between the person supported by services and those supporting them, allowing them to work together to determine an outcome that draws on the person’s strengths and assets. As such, it concerns itself principally with the quality of the relationship that develops between those providing support and those being supported, as well as the elements that the person seeking support brings to the process. Working in a collaborative way promotes the opportunity for individuals to be co-producers of services and support rather than solely consumers of those services. (SCIE, 2015)

A social work perspective

Strengths-based practice is goal orientated, based on a systematic assessment of strengths, views people’s environment as rich in resources, deploys explicit methods to engage with the individual’s and their environment’s strengths, encourages hope through relationships, and involves meaningful choices for children and families. (Rapp et al 2006)

An occupational therapist perspective

To ensure that people ‘live the life they want’, practitioners in health and care, people in receipt of services, and their carers, must work together to embrace risk-taking to achieve positive outcomes. In addition, services must move away from an approach that focuses on needs and problems to one that works with people to establish the strengths and assets that they bring to achieve positive change in their lives. (RCOT 2019)

Lisa Gannon, from Bradford City Council, shares her perspective on strengths-based practice and the contribution of occupational therapy.

A nursing perspective

Strengths-based practice is an approach to care in which eight core values guide action, thereby promoting empowerment, self-efficacy, and hope. In caring for patients and families, the professional focuses on their inner and outer strengths — that is, on what patients and families do that best helps them deal with problems and minimise deficits. (Gottlieb, 2014)

See senior staff at Doncaster Children’s Services Trust talk about strengths-based approaches to social work.

Further resources

• Strengths-based approach – Practice framework and handbook (Department of Health and Social Care, 2019)
• Strengths-based approaches (SCIE)
• Developing strengths-based practice (Research in Practice, 2019)

References

• Gottlieb, L. N. (2014). CE: strengths-based nursing. The American Journal of Nursing, 114(8), 24-32.
• Rapp, C. A., Saleebey, D., & Sullivan, W. P. (2006). The future of strengths-based social work. Advances in social work: Special issue on the futures of social work, 6(1), 79-90.
• SCIE (2015) Care Act guidance on Strengths-based approaches