What is relational practice and why is it important?
Dr Paul Prichard, Program Manager
This is the second article in the Reflections on relational practice blog series from the Centre's Education & Learning team. Read the first edition here.
Recently, one of my colleagues was visiting some collaborators interstate. She was asked the question ‘What is relational practice? I’ve heard the term but I don’t really know what it means’. In fact, my colleague reflected that it wasn’t that long ago since she’d come across the term herself. So we thought it might be useful to share a little insight into what relational practice is and why it matters.
Human services are relational services. They rely on relationships to achieve their outcomes. They are delivered by people for the benefit of other people. Respectful and helpful relationships between practitioners and the people they aim to support are fundamental to working together successfully and sustaining the relationship. Providing the best possible service requires not only ensuring staff possess technical or clinical expertise relevant to their roles, but that staff are relationally competent to help their clients to feel safe and supported in the relationships they have with service providers.
An emerging concept that brings focus to the relational component of professional work is referred to as relational practice.
Relational practice is the provision of services through the development and maintenance of a warm and responsive relationship. ‘Relational Practice is a way of working where establishing and maintaining a helpful interpersonal relationship is the priority.’ (Haigh & Benefield, 2020). Making relationships important helps to create the conditions for change.
When services and service providers engage in relational practice, we are likely to see that:
- families feel comfortable and safe and therefore sustain engagement with services
- families are engaged in decisions and future actions related to themselves and their families
- ongoing learning and skill development occurs for families through their shared work with practitioners.
The outcomes of relational practice for professional workers might include:
- increased satisfaction in their work
- ongoing learning and skill development through their shared work with those they support.
Just as technical or clinical expertise is critical in helping parents and their children in service contexts, relational expertise is equally important, especially in situations where professionals hope to sustain contact with families.
Relational practice starts from the premise that we are not all the same. What works for one person may not be effective for another. Therefore, a relational approach to beginning working with a child and their family will be respectful, show real interest and demonstrate authenticity. This is enabled by deep listening and modelling skills and qualities that help build trust, rapport and safety. Building trust, rapport and connection in relationships doesn’t just happen, especially for people who have experienced dismissive and judgemental behaviours from other professionals. Sometimes it takes time to help people relax into and feel safe in relationships.
A Relational Practice Framework
Although most professionals have received formal training in the technical aspects of their work, it is rare for professionals to have received training in relational practice. The interpersonal skills and qualities involved in being a relatable person are often assumed in professional settings. In reality, we are only as effective as what the families or colleagues we support see and perceive.
There are a number of helpful theories relating to relational practice. However, it can be hard for practitioners to implement these into their practice without a clear framework that’s used within the organisation to provide a foundation for supporting them. A practice framework – a conceptual map informed by theory, evidence and leading practice – can help guide one’s practice. It can incorporate evidence-based programs and initiatives, practitioner and client values, and evidence-based processes. It can also provide a touchstone to support professionals to sustain effective practices.
Development of a relational practice framework
The Centre for Community Child Health has been working with parents and practitioners in Australia to deliver relational practice training for many years. We are now working to develop a Relational Practice Framework (RPF) to help guide and support professional practice. The RPF will provide explicit guidance to practitioners on ‘how’ to build and sustain working relationships with individual parents, community members and colleagues by reflecting on core concepts, theories and evidence that inform effective relational practice. The framework will enable individual professionals, and their employing organisations, to maintain focus on the professional learning and supervisory needs of staff as they build their relational practice competencies. It will help them further develop their abilities to engage effectively with families to support each family’s individual needs, strengths, challenges and preferences. Ultimately, this should support improvements in practice, help sustain productive working relationships and will deliver better outcomes for the children and families we all seek to serve.
Parents depend on services to be accessible and available to help support them in the difficult task of parenting. Through our work with a range of stakeholders we have identified three core components of relational practice:
- What the relational practitioner brings (their qualities)
- What the relational practitioner does (their skills)
- What sits around the relational practitioner (their environment and supports).
These components will be described in detail through the RPF which will be available to services in Australia from late 2024 through a range of modules and accompanying resources.
If you’d like to be first to know when the Relational Practice Framework is available, fill out this survey and we will be in touch when we have further information.
Haigh, R., Benefield, N., The Development of a Relational Practice Movement. Chapter 19 of Relationships and Mental Health: Relational experience in distress and recovery (2023), Eds. Zoë Boden-Stuart & Michael Larkin. Palgrave MacMillian.