Practice Theories

Practice theories are the theories constructed by practitioners about their practice (Thompson, 2000). These are different from the other theories we use because they are professional rather than academic. However, they are just as important for our research and consultancy work as the other theories we use.

It is important to distinguish practice theories from assumptions and stereotypes. Some practice theories may be based on, or closely related to, assumptions and stereotypes: these can often be spotted by the explicit or implicit use of the words 'always' and 'never'. For example:

• "Social workers never have time for people."
• "The housing department are always evicting drug users"
• "GPs don't understand our dual diagnosis clients."
• "It's easy for the voluntary sector to manage capacity problems because they can just recruit more volunteers."

We would not discount these kinds of theories out of hand, but as they present such a one-sided view, we would look for more evidence to confirm, deny or amend them.

We find that practice theories that are more considered and multi-faceted are more useful in improving practice. Examples could include:

• "The social workers in this borough have very heavy caseloads at the moment because there are a number of vacancies in the office and they can't get enough agency workers. They're really struggling to give enough time to their clients."
• "The housing department is getting a lot of pressure to evict known drug users from a group of vocal tenants. The department has an excellent floating support team who help any vulnerable people to maintain their tenancies and encourage them to seek help for other problems, but the vocal tenants have the support of the local media, so it's very difficult for the department."
• "GPs find it difficult to help our dual diagnosis clients because their needs are so complex and time-consuming. They do what they can, but the clients get most of their support from the CPNs, which is more appropriate really."
• "Any voluntary sector agency has the option of trying to recruit more volunteers if they're facing capacity problems. However, recruiting, training and managing volunteers uses a significant amount of capacity in itself, and it is not always possible to recruit volunteers at will.'"