Andrew Whittaker, PhD, is Professor of Social Work Research at London South Bank University, England, where he is head of the Risk Resilience and Expert Decision Making (RRED) research group. His research on risk and decision making has ranged from ethnographic to randomised controlled trial research designs. Andrew recently completed a review of professional decision making for a child death inquiry in Queensland, Australia. He is the Convenor of the Decisions, Assessment and Risk Special Interest Group (DARSIG) of the European Social Work Research Association. DARSIG is the main European network for researchers in the field of assessment, risk and decision making in social work, with more than 80 members in over 20 countries. Andrew is Editor of the Journal of Social Work Practice.

Text helps to focus practitioners on the essential skills and activities underpining social work research

• IntroductionPlanning your researchUndertaking a literature reviewInterviewsFocus groupsQuestionnairesDocumentary analysisAnalysing your dataWriting up your dissertationConclusionGlossaryReferencesIndex