An ongoing point of discussion with WiSP researchers, participant social workers and stakeholders has centred on ethics. What counts as ethical practice in research exploring social work writing? This seems an important question given the very strong emphasis in institutions on what we can think of as procedural ethics– the institutional-level requirements laid down by regulatory frameworks of research and ethics governance committees,  as compared with a weaker emphasis on practical ethics or ethics in practice, which refers to the many small and big decisions that take place at every stage of the research process.

Researchers and social workers involved in WiSP are currently drafting a paper attempting to outline some of the key aspects to ethics in practice, some of the challenges faced and  some of the negotiated decisions agreed.