Changing expectations: the impact of ‘child protection’ on Irish social work

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Family support and child protection approaches. Historicising perspectives on contemporary discourses of social work

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 286-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tessa Verhallen ◽  
Christopher J Hall ◽  
Stef Slembrouck
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Family Support ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Single Mother ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Work Outcomes ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

This paper examines the impact of two prevailing and seemingly opposed ideologies in child welfare in Western societies over the last century (‘family support’ and ‘child protection’) on social work practice. It scrutinises social work practice in two cases of Dutch-Curaçaoan single-mother families experiencing multiple problems. An ethnographic approach was chosen to study the two families in depth. It shows that, although the cases share many characteristics and circumstances, the social work outcomes diverge. This suggests there is a thin dividing line between support and protection. We argue that the interrelationships between the two base categories and social work practice can be better understood through a historicizing conceptualization of discourses. We suggest that an ethnographic enquiry is suitable for grasping the processual dimensions of social work practice with families as it leads to a more in-depth understanding of, paraphrasing Foucault: the historical interweaving of relations of discourse, of power, of everyday life and of truth.

Children Living with Domestic Violence

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Mullender
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Child Care ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Safety Planning ◽  
Child Survivors ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
The Impact

Until very recently social work and other child care agencies in Britain have paid little, if any, attention to the impact of domestic violence on children. Audrey Mullender — a pioneer of research in this field — argues the need for a radical improvement in agencies' response to domestic violence, based on a general raising of sensitivity and awareness at both worker and agency level. Among the specific areas for development suggested are an emphasis on safety planning with women and children, the need for better links between women's services such as Women's Aid, and child care and child protection agencies, and the promotion of positive and healing work with child survivors of living with abuse.

scholarly journals Stripping the Wallpaper of Practice: Empowering Social Workers to Tackle Poverty

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire McCartan ◽  
Aine Morrison ◽  
Lisa Bunting ◽  
Gavin Davidson ◽  
Jackie McIlroy
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Welfare Spending ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Practice Framework ◽  
The Impact

The relationship between deprivation and health and educational inequalities has been well evidenced in the literature. Recent UK research has now established a similar social gradient in child welfare interventions (Bywaters et al. 2018) with children living in the most deprived areas in the UK facing a much higher chance of being placed on the child protection register or in out-of-home care. There is an emerging narrative that poverty has become the wallpaper of practice, “too big to tackle and too familiar to notice” (Morris et al. 2018) and invisible amid lack of public support and political will to increase welfare spending. This paper will examine poverty-related inequalities and how these affect families. It will discuss the importance of recognising that poverty is a social justice issue and a core task for social work and outline the range of supports that may be available for families to help lift them out of poverty. Finally, it will describe the development of a new practice framework for social work in Northern Ireland that challenges social workers to embed anti-poverty approaches in their practice. The framework emphasises that poverty is a social justice issue, seeks to provide practical support and guidance to re-focus attention, debate, and action on poverty in times of global economic uncertainty and give social workers the tools to make it central to their practice once again. It reinforces the need for social workers to understand and acknowledge the impact of poverty, and to advocate for and support those most in need. It aims to challenge and empower professionals to tackle poverty and inequality as an aspect of ethical and effective practice.

scholarly journals “A murky business”: A phenomenological ontology of risk in child protection social work

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Smeeton
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Theoretical Examination ◽  
The World ◽  
Natural Home ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

This paper is based upon ongoing theoretical work by the author. A growing number of academics are starting to problematise social work within a risk paradigm by highlighting the impact this has on how service user's experiences are atomised into units of risk, rather than having their needs understood as members of families and communities. This paper seeks to develop this discussion by offering a theoretical examination of risk from a phenomenological perspective by unpacking some of the underlying constructions of risk. Using Heidegger’s work this paper attempts to first of all undertake an ontology of risk and then to examine its usefulness in the UK child protection context. The author argues that working within a risk paradigm obscures rather than clarifies understanding. The approach is rooted in an argument that “phenomenology” is the natural home of social work which is interested in the lived experiences of people within their environments or “being-in-the-world”.

scholarly journals Baby brain: Neuroscience, policy-making and child protection

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Critchley
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
The Impact

This paper is concerned with the co-opting of neuroscientific findings into social work practice with infants at risk of harm. The value of neuroscience to our understanding of infants and infant care remains contested. For ‘infant mental health’ proponents, neuroscientific findings have become a powerful tool in arguing for the importance of nurture and care in the early years. However, critical perspectives question the selective use of neuroscientific evidence, and the impact that the ‘first three years’ agenda has actually had on families. In social work, much of our involvement with very young children is centred around risk. It is also concentrated on children born into families and communities experiencing multiple disadvantages. The emphasis on the vulnerability of infants and very young children has changed child protection social work in significant ways. Many of the children subject to child care and protection measures are very young, or not yet born. This paper draws upon findings from a study which followed families through the process of pre-birth child protection assessment. It is argued that it is necessary to engage critically with the ‘first three years’ narrative that has become dominant in Scottish policy making and the impact this has had on child protection practice and the lives of families. The paper argues for a broader interpretation of ACEs focused on community and public health across the life course.

scholarly journals Disruptions, distractions, and discoveries: Doctoral students’ reflections on a pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 147332502097334
Author(s):  
Chinyere Y Eigege ◽  
Priscilla P Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Research Agendas ◽  
Work Education ◽  
The Impact

This paper describes the reflections of two social work PhD students based on their personal and professional experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. The students describe their positionality and use that to expound on the impact of the pandemic on their lives. They reflect on the disruptions to their social work education and research priorities including transitioning to online learning and modifications to research agendas. They then discuss ongoing distractions such as worries about getting sick, mental health concerns, and financial constraints. They share their discoveries about glaring disparities in coronavirus infection and death rates, the need to adjust research agendas in response to current events, and the urgency for qualitative research strategies to add meaning to the numbers being reported. In addition, the authors describe shared experiences and intersections they discovered while writing this essay. Finally, recommendations for practice include recommitting to social work values to help surmount the ongoing waves of this pandemic; reimagining social work education so that disparities and injustice intersect with every subject taught and graduates become experts at leading social change; and harnessing the untapped potential of qualitative research to drive real, systemic change.

scholarly journals An ethic of care? Academic administration and pandemic policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 632-638
Author(s):  
Stephanie A Bryson
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Ethic Of Care ◽  
The Political ◽  
Academic Administration ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Impact

This reflexive essay examines the adoption of an intentional ‘ethic of care’ by social work administrators in a large social work school located in the Pacific Northwest. An ethic of care foregrounds networks of human interdependence that collapse the public/private divide. Moreover, rooted in the political theory of recognition, a care ethic responds to crisis by attending to individuals’ uniqueness and ‘whole particularity.’ Foremost, it rejects indifference. Through the personal recollections of one academic administrator, the impact of rejecting indifference in spring term 2020 is described. The essay concludes by linking the rejection of indifference to the national political landscape.

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