Space agency has lessons for social services

NASA’s method of investigating mistakes in space should be reproduced within social services departments.

Instead of blaming the astronauts, the space agency encourages open discussion of errors which are attributed to the whole system, delegates at the International Federation of Social Workers European Conference were told.

A blame culture within the UK has been accused of introducing risk-averse practice within social work departments.

At a seminar entitled ‘when it doesn’t work: working with failure in teams’, social workers were told the complexity of social care systems was “not dissimilar to putting a person on the moon”.

Dee Fraser from the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland said: “Space travel happens in a really complicated system. The system in the UK is very bureaucratic. It has a lot of process and procedures and there are a lot of people involved in delivering it.

“At NASA everybody owns up when they make a mistake. Astronauts are highly qualified people used to being successful but they are required to own up. They work in a culture that says it is okay to make mistakes.”

Ms Fraser said the focus was not on “who did it” but “what are the factors that led to this?”.

“NASA ask ‘curious questions’. They get together and put the problem in the middle and say ‘why did this happen? What can we do different? That conversation is not judging but curious.”

Social service departments could also learn from the lack of hierarchy within NASA’s management structure, said Ms Fraser.

“You may be a commander one year and in the communications team the next year.

“The theory is if you reduce the hierarchy by swapping the leadership that creates a culture that is more open and honest.”