ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the more or less contemporary discussion of the reasons given for recording in social work. It shows how far the aims of recording are achieved and discusses some of the major difficulties that have to be overcome. Records in social work, as in other occupations, tend to fall into two main categories. Firstly, brief identifying particulars are recorded to form the basis of a broad statistical description of the work of the agency. The second kind of record kept by social agencies is the account of transactions with particular clients. The new social service departments are considering how to produce a record that can be used for the amalgamated children’s, health and welfare services. In settings clients receiving casework or groupwork help have derived direct benefit from the social worker’s ability to ‘play back’ at the end of an interview or group meeting the main themes and problems that had emerged.
