Teams Interrupted: Social Work Teams as Communities of Practice and Coping during COVID-19

If COVID has taught us anything … the biggest thing is how important that connection with each other is. (Social Work Team Manager)This chapter considers the functioning of social work teams during the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing research suggests that the team plays an important role in child and family social work. Informal conversations in the office act as a source of knowledge, supporting decision-making, and practice. Supportive relationships with colleagues also help social workers to manage the emotional challenges of child welfare. However, during the pandemic mandatory home-working, coupled with increasingly hybrid working practices, presented both challenges and opportunities for social workers’ connection with colleagues. Drawing on two research studies carried out by the authors, this chapter examines the impact of the pandemic on child and family social work teams in England. We introduce two concepts: Wenger's (1998) Communities of Practice and Korczynski's (2003) Communities of Coping as a theoretical framework for conceptualising the functioning of social work teams. We consider the legacy of COVID-19 for social work teams, offering recommendations for supporting effective teamwork in the increasingly hybrid, post-pandemic world.