Once the client and social worker have completed an assessment of the situation, they move on to formulating an action plan and entering into a formal or informal contract for implementing the plan. During the phase, the people and the organizations with whom the client and worker will work to achieve the goals are identified and actions to be taken for accomplishing the needed changes are agreed upon.
Planning is the bridge between assessment and intervention. It begins with (1) specifying goals the client hopes to achieve, then (2) identifying what changes need to be made to achieve those goals (3) selecting from among alternative change strategies the interventions most likely to reach the goals, (4) determining which actions will be taken with the client and the worker and (5) establishing timelines for completing those actions. Clients, and sometimes inexperience workers, may want to shortcut the planning activity. However, action without clear plan is a receipt for failure. In efforts to change complex systems such as organizations and communities, length of planning phase will often exceed the time required for the intervention itself.
Effective planning places a special demand on the creativity of the social worker and the willingness of the client to consider the alternative courses of action. Each possible option must be evaluated in an effort to predict helpful and harmful on the clients and others, to identify the resources required, and to estimate the time for carrying it out. The worker must also determine the most appropriate practice frameworks—perspective, theories and models—that might be used to guide the process. Recognizing that some methods of securing change maybe unethical, the Code of Ethics should be considered at this point, as it is an important screen or filter when planning intervention strategies Finally, to the extent possible, the worker should base the planning decisions on hard facts and objective evidence that was collected during the data collection and assessment phase.
Once a plan has been developed, it is important for the worker and clients to develop a contract (i.e an agreement between the worker and the client that spells out the activities to be conducted by each, along with a timetable for action during the intervention phase). A contract can be written, oral, or even an implied agreement, although the more specific the contract, the more likely it is to prevent misunderstandings. A written contract, in particular, is useful because it provides an explicitness that helps clarify points of agreement and disagreement between the worker and the client; it serves as a basis for demonstrating accountability to both the client and the agency; and it can be an effective tool in facilitating the transfer of cases to another worker, should that become necessary.
The language and format of contracts may vary, but the content is essentially the same whether working at the individual, family, group, organization, or community level. At a minimum, a contract should delineate the following:
- Problems of concerns to be addressed
- Goals and objectives of the intervention
- Activities the client will undertake
- Tasks performed by the worker
- Expected duration of the intervention (in weeks or months)
- Schedule of time and place for interviews or committee meetings
- Identification of other persons, agencies, or organizations expected to contribute to the change process
Recognizing that even the most carefully developed plan may need to be modified as the intervention evolves, the worker and client must be open to revising the contract.
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