A group of practitioners from the Transitions Team in Scottish Borders Council asked us if we could support them with a shift in writing culture. They’d made a start by writing some recordings in the second person (writing to rather than about individuals) but were looking for some theoretical grounding to make a strategic case for this change, and also some support to motivate staff. This was a great opportunity to build on our work on recording practice and reconnect with previous project partners to share their learning with the team in Borders.
This summary provides key learning points from an online session with a group of partners. Recordings of the presentations are also available.
Learning session, May 2025
The idea for this was to bring together some of the partners we’ve worked with before with experience of changing writing culture to share learning with the group in Borders. The focus was getting off the ground with specific areas of interest including:
- initial stages of making a change to recording
- how to motivate staff
- how to navigate different audiences involved in recording
The format of the session was short inputs and discussion. Presentations were made by:
- Ellen Berry, Senior Social Worker, Transitions Team, Scottish Borders Council
- Mim Smith, Principal Planning and Development Officer, Children’s Social Work, Aberdeen City Council
- Dave Close, Director, Hot Chocolate Trust, Dundee
- Wendy McSheffrey, Safe & Together Lead Officer, East Ayrshire Council
Ellen Berry, Scottish Borders Council
Ellen provided an overview of the rationale and origins of the idea. The Transitions Team supports children and young people who are or were looked after in care placements, unaccompanied asylum seeking children and youth justice.
This idea started when Ellen noticed the stark contrast in continuing care reviews between the style of writing, the style of the meeting and the quality of the discussion. The impersonal writing format didn’t convey the relationships built between practitioners and young people. After trying a different writing style in review meetings, the idea quickly grew in the team.
Ellen’s presentation
Mim Smith, Aberdeen City
Mim is the project manager for the Write Right About Me project. This is Aberdeen’s multi-agency improvement project supporting ways of writing differently about children, young people and adults so that their voices are more strongly heard, and they can exercise their rights in their records.
Mim shared key insights and learning points to support a shift in writing culture including:
- Look at your writing - is it doing what you think it is? What do you see, what do you not see? Does it contain what you think is there? Why is it written in the style it is? How does writing reflect pressures on staff?
- Think about what your drivers for change are. Stay focused on what you’re trying to achieve.
- To motivate staff, identity and acknowledge the process challenges. What processes or systems need to change to support staff to write in a different way? They might look different across teams and services involved in the change.
- Link change to current roles and responsibilities. This helps people to feel this is not in addition but part of their roles and responsibilities as they exist now. It’s doing something different rather than something extra.
- Identify small changes, let people have a go and try different writing styles out.
- Consider different contexts and challenges for different teams in terms of navigating different audiences. Start with what’s already written - how might you rewrite it?
- Share what you’re doing, share good practice and what’s working. Keep talking, especially when using different styles in different contexts. This can spark new ideas.
- Writing to and not about is a different voicing style (second person). It does do lots of things but it doesn’t do everything. You need to think about the context of your practice - what meaning is it conveying? Is that the meaning you’re trying to convey?
- Writing with not about helps create writing that children and young people are active participants in and the creation of their records. This also helps to address power imbalances.
- Recognise there are different writing styles, you might need to vary your style depending on the relational context between practitioner and the child / young person.
Mim’s presentation
Dave Close, Hot Chocolate Trust, Dundee
Dave’s presentation described the ethos underpinning the monitoring and evaluation at Hot Chocolate Trust. Their approach had its roots in storytelling, creative approaches and collaboration with young people. Monitoring and evaluation ask two simple but powerful questions: What’s happening? What does that mean? The approach and recording tool developed by Hot Chocolate Trust reflects the ‘relational reality’ of youth work and grounds evaluation in young people’s experiences.
Dave describes their journey in changing how they record and also the impact of being part of the Iriss Relationships Matter project in 2015.
Dave’s presentation
Wendy McSheffrey, East Ayrshire Council
Wendy describes being inspired by the approach taken at Hot Chocolate Trust which led to rethinking recording in East Ayrshire with children and families. They reflected on the clinical and deficit-based nature of case recording particularly in statutory child protection cases. They wanted to address the use of professional jargon and improve clarity.
The team adopted a letter-style of writing to children, particularly about how decisions had been made. This was for children too young to remember or understand but who might access their records in the future. Wendy also discussed the importance of balancing language and style while also producing ‘court proof notes’. Key learning points included honing down on an area of writing to address, focusing on drivers for change and buddying up new and more experienced staff when practicings new writing styles.
Wendy’s presentation
Further information from Mim Smith
Writing to, not about
This is a 2nd person voicing style that uses ‘you’ and ‘your’. It affects narrative elements such as tone, theme, and tension, but, most importantly, it affects the relationship between writer, reader, and child. It can make the writing personal, intimate, and unforgettable. We have examples of writing to the child that are all of these things but not always in a good way. It is important to be aware that it can shame and blame a child in the same way as other voicing styles, sometimes inadvertently, but sometimes deliberately. It is important to remember there is a significant power imbalance between you and the child.
What will this do?
- It will put the child at the forefront of the writer’s mind as they write.
- It will make the writing more personal between you and the child.
- It may impact, both positively and negatively, on the language choices you make,
- It may impact, both positively and negatively, the subjectivity of your writing.
Some examples:
“Nora is happy living with her aunt”
“You are happy living with your aunt”
“Currently, Magnus (4yrs) is still of an age where he is too young to hold much responsibility. However, it would be assumed that he should be toilet trained at this age, a self-care skill that he is yet to achieve.
“Currently, you are 4 years old and still of an age where you are too young to hold much responsibility. However, it would be assumed that you should be toilet trained at this age, a self-care skill that you have yet to achieve.”
“Ernie has not been held somewhere he trusts for long enough to reflect on his past and build better coping strategies, therefore whilst Ernie is saying he will not get involved in risk taking behaviour or drugs and alcohol, it seems likely that he will.”
“You have not been held somewhere you trust for long enough to reflect on your past and build better coping strategies, therefore whilst you say you will not get involved in risk taking behaviour or drugs and alcohol, it seems likely that you will.”
Other resources
Victoria Burton, Lisa Revell, Professional Curiosity in Child Protection: Thinking the Unthinkable in a Neo-Liberal World, The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 48, Issue 6, September 2018, Pages 1508–1523
Sunaina Attard, Daniela Mercieca & Duncan P. Mercieca (2016) Ethics in school psychologists report writing: acknowledging aporia, Ethics and Education, 11:1, 55-66, DOI:10.1080/17449642.2016.1145488
Sunaina Attard, Daniela Mercieca & Duncan P. Mercieca (2016) Educational psychologists’ report-writing: acts of justice?, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20:9,962-974, DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2016.1139194
Language of Care - Keeping the Promise
Writing to the child (Surrey County Council, 2024)
Writing directly to the child in case recording (Kent County Council, 2024)
Narrative recording as relational practice in social services: a case study from a Scottish carer support organisation, Emma Miller and Karen Barrie (2019)
Enabling Child-Centred Case Recording in Children's Social Work: The Voice of Practitioners, O’Keefe et al (2025)
