Social work education and practice - Planning for the future

In planning for the future, schools of social work need good-quality information about current and future anticipated changes which affect the nature of social work practice. A wide variety of methods are available to conduct "futures studies" to assist schools with this planning. This article reviews the international literature on futures studies in social work and concludes that a high-quality study requires substantial funding, the meaningful participation of multiple constituencies, and the use of multiple methods for data collection and action planning.