The results reported on here relate to how social workers
responded to ‘vignettes’ prior to receiving training. Vignettes of
simulated situations were used as prompts, asking social workers
for their responses. Vignettes have been used in a number of studies
within social work to explore participants’ responses to hypothetical
situations. However, to date research has tended to concentrate on
ethical issues (Wilks, 2004) or on comparing responses across
professional groups or between professionals in different countries
(for instance Wilson and While, 1998; Hetherington et al., 1997).