Learning from practice dilemmas in the human services: the case of children's contact centres

Abstract

Work in human service organisations is value laden and involves transactions with people whose responses cannot be foreseen. This contributes to the unpredictable and indeterminate nature of practice. It is argued here that enacting values in this complex context requires workers to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity. I suggest that analysis of practice dilemmas is one way to support practitioners in managing uncertainty and improving services. This paper illustrates the utility of the notion of practice dilemmas via analysis of the work of practitioners in children's contact centres. A core value of practice in this setting, as in other settings where children are clients, is that the child's best interests are paramount. Analysis centres on how tensions involved in enacting this principle allow us access to practitioners' thinking around how to provide better direct services and to identify changes that may be worthwhile at agency and systems levels.