Building Collaboration with Child Protection and Domestic and Family Violence Sectors: Trialling a Living Lab Approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Wendt ◽  
Carmela Bastian ◽  
Michelle Jones
Keyword(s):  
Family Violence ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Cultural Safety ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Living Lab ◽  
Competing Priorities ◽  
Future Work

Abstract Collaboration across child protection and domestic and family violence (DFV) sectors have long been sought despite the competing priorities found in these practice fields. This article describes a research partnership that aimed to explore the competing priorities by focusing on how workers interact across child protection and DFV specialist agencies. Using a Living Lab Approach, enabled twelve focus groups with child protection and DFV social workers (n = 100). Thematic analysis was conducted, and it was found that diverse understandings of DFV created tensions when trying to form collaborations. These tensions were often amplified when other intersecting issues were present in family lives such as drug and alcohol and mental health problems. Understandings of Aboriginal cultural safety, and religious and culture impacts for cultural and linguistically diverse families were unintentionally sidelined. However, practitioners also formed common understandings of opportunities to progress and sustain collaboration across the sectors. The Living Lab Approach facilitated the development of a policy and practice guide for child protection to support future work. This has implications for social work practice because the Living Lab Approach enabled a call for a consistent approach to DFV that should be gender sensitive, trauma informed and culturally safe, and collaboration at practitioner, team and organisational levels.

Social Work Practice Outcomes

2014 ◽  
pp. 166-185
Author(s):  
Colin Pritchard ◽  
Richard Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Psychosocial Development ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Child Homicide ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Beneficial Impact

The key issue in all human services is outcome. The authors report on a series of four mixed methods research studies to conclude that good social work can bring about positive measurable differences to inform policy and practice. The first focuses on how effective Western nations have been in reducing Child Abuse Related Deaths (CARD); the second explores a three-year controlled study of a school-based social work service to reduce truancy, delinquency, and school exclusion; the third examines outcomes of “Looked After Children” (LAC); the forth re-evaluates a decade of child homicide assailants to provide evidence of the importance of the child protection-psychiatric interface in benefiting mentally ill parents and improving the psychosocial development and protection of their children. These studies show that social work has a measurable beneficial impact upon the lives of those who had been served and that social work can be cost-effective, that is, self-funding, over time.

scholarly journals A multitheoretical perspective for addressing domestic and family violence: Supporting fathers to parent without harm

2021 ◽  
pp. 146801732110285
Author(s):  
Emma Gatfield ◽  
Patrick O’Leary ◽  
Silke Meyer ◽  
Kathleen Baird
Keyword(s):  
Family Violence ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Complex Needs ◽  
Intact Families ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
And Behavior

Summary Domestic and family violence remains a significant challenge to family wellbeing. The risk of serious harm from domestic and family violence is disproportionally carried by women and children, yet often the complex reality of family life means that many families have ongoing contact with their abusers. Responses to this problem are frequently siloed across child protection and specialist domestic violence services, leading to a lack of holistic intervention. More recently, there has been increased attention on addressing the role and behavior of abusive fathers, especially where fathers remain in families or have ongoing contact postseparation through coparenting. This paper offers a systemic approach for understanding and addressing such amilies. Findings An integrated theoretical framework is proposed, which draws together key tenets of feminism, family violence, and intersectional theories within a systems-oriented model. It frames families, inclusive of fathers, within their eco-social contexts, highlighting factors that exacerbate domestic and family violence, and those that increase family safety, which has strong applications for social work practice. Applications An integrated theoretical framework offers an approach for social workers for understanding domestic and family violence in a broad-based and holistic manner, and for developing coordinated family focused interventions while concurrently addressing related child welfare concerns and family safety. A range of considerations for case management of families are explored, which, while relevant to most intact families or those who have continuing contact with perpetrators, holds particular relevance for marginalized families that present with complex needs and experiences of disadvantage.

From ‘no further action’ to taking action: England’s shifting social work responses to extra-familial harm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlene Firmin ◽  
Jenny Lloyd ◽  
Joanne Walker ◽  
Rachael Owens
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Case File ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Protection Systems ◽  
Taking Action

In 2018, England’s safeguarding guidelines were amended to explicitly recognise a need for child protection responses to extra-familial harms. This article explores the feasibility of these amendments, using quantitative and qualitative analysis of case-file data, as well as reflective workshops, from five children’s social care services in England and Wales, in the context of wider policy and practice frameworks that guide the delivery of child protection systems and responses to harm beyond families. Green shoots of contextual social work practice were evident in the data set. However, variance within and across participating services raises questions about whether contextual social work responses to extra-familial harm are sustainable in child protection systems dominated by a focus on parental responsibility. Opportunities to use contextual responses to extra-familial harm as a gateway to reform individualised child protection practices more broadly are also discussed.

scholarly journals Pressure drop: Securitising and de-securitising safeguarding

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David McKendrick ◽  
Jo Finch
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Work Values ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Social Work Values ◽  
Critical Consideration

INTRODUCTION: This article explores how securitisation theory is mobilised in contemporary social work discourse, policy and practice. We draw on recent child protection research to support our claim that a new practice issue, described previously as securitised safeguarding, has emerged.APPROACH: We demonstrate its emergence using securitisation theory as a conceptual mode of analysis to describe how a securitised safeguarding response depicts particular families as an existential threat which, in turn, prompts a response characterised by forms of muscular liberalism.CONCLUSIONS: We argue that this emerging practice issue requires critical consideration and suggest it will have a significant impact on social work – one that is unlikely to be beneficial for the profession and, more importantly, families being worked with. By describing a process of de-securitisation, we offer an alternative and more nuanced approach that perceives families holistically, and mobilises a welfare safeguarding model. This more closely resembles traditional social work values of emancipation, liberation and empowerment within social work practice.

Social Work Practice Outcomes

2019 ◽  
pp. 501-521
Author(s):  
Colin Pritchard ◽  
Richard Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Psychosocial Development ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Child Homicide ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Beneficial Impact

The key issue in all human services is outcome. The authors report on a series of four mixed methods research studies to conclude that good social work can bring about positive measurable differences to inform policy and practice. The first focuses on how effective Western nations have been in reducing Child Abuse Related Deaths (CARD); the second explores a three-year controlled study of a school-based social work service to reduce truancy, delinquency, and school exclusion; the third examines outcomes of “Looked After Children” (LAC); the forth re-evaluates a decade of child homicide assailants to provide evidence of the importance of the child protection-psychiatric interface in benefiting mentally ill parents and improving the psychosocial development and protection of their children. These studies show that social work has a measurable beneficial impact upon the lives of those who had been served and that social work can be cost-effective, that is, self-funding, over time.

scholarly journals Questioning the uncritical acceptance of neuroscience in child and family policy and practice: A review of challenges to the current doxa

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Beddoe ◽  
Eileen Joy
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Child And Family Policy ◽  
State Interventions

 INTRODUCTION: Recent directions in child and family policy in many Anglophone countries, including Aotearoa New Zealand, are underpinned by the adoption of prevention science which is used to justify state interventions into the lives of families deemed vulnerable or troubled.METHODS: We conducted an examination of trends, firstly examining recent child welfare and protection policy. We discuss the science that underpins significant changes in policy and explore how this use of the available science dovetails with the dogma of the Western neoliberal agenda. FINDINGS: The invocation of science in the struggle to reduce child maltreatment may be reassuring to politicians, policy developers and practitioners alike but a critical analysis is largely missing in the discourse in Aotearoa New Zealand.CONCLUSIONS: Neuroscience is adopted largely uncritically in social policy in relation to child welfare and child protection. It can contribute to policy but other knowledge from social science findings about contextual factors in child maltreatment such as poverty, racism and class-based assumptions about parenting norms must not be ignored in social work practice. 

scholarly journals The Trouble With Fathers: The Impact of Time and Gendered-Thinking on Working Relationships Between Fathers and Social Workers in Child Protection Practice in England

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (16) ◽  
pp. 2288-2309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia Philip ◽  
John Clifton ◽  
Marian Brandon
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Time Perspectives ◽  
The Impact

The lives of families entering the child protection arena may be shaped by a range of troubles, including material deprivation, physical and mental health problems, and substance misuse or domestic abuse. Despite the interest in whole family approaches, the issue of how professionals fail to work effectively with fathers is long-standing and resistant to change. This article illustrates challenges in building working relationships with men, including the challenge of avoiding binary thinking in the assessment of fathers as “risk” or “resource.” Drawing on our qualitative longitudinal study of men’s experiences of child protection in England, we highlight how both organizational (clashing time perspectives) and cultural (gendered-thinking) factors can trouble the potential relationship between social workers and fathers. We argue for a more gender sensitive approach to social work practice, which can respond more fully and effectively to the experiences of fathers and mothers.

Policy and Professional Responses to Forced Marriage in Scotland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khatidja Chantler ◽  
Nughmana Mirza ◽  
Mhairi Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Forced Marriage ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Level Ii ◽  
Structural Competency ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
Professional Responses ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

Abstract This article draws from our mixed methods study of forced marriage (FM) in Scotland focusing on policy and practice responses to FM in Scotland using the concepts of candidacy and structural competency. Through an analysis of FM policy in six case-study areas, interviews with Child or Adult Protection Leads and twenty-one interviews with a range of welfare professionals, we discuss the conceptual, emotional and practical challenges of responding to FM. Despite a standard Scottish Government policy and statutory framework, the varied policy and professional responses to FM across local authorities demonstrate a need for practitioners to be fully cognisant of the ways in which structural inequalities play out in individual lives. The four key themes explored in this article are as follows: (i) patchy ownership of FM policy at a local level; (ii) ‘race anxiety’; (iii) event versus process-based understandings of FM and (iv) the challenges of protecting adults experiencing FM who have capacity. These themes are highly relevant to social work practice and offer a significant and original analysis of the ways in which structural, social and cultural factors shape practitioner understanding, response and support of victims of FM.

scholarly journals Containment: Exploring the concept of agency in children’s statutory encounters with social workers

Childhood ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Morrison ◽  
Viviene Cree ◽  
Gillian Ruch ◽  
Karen Michelle Winter ◽  
Mark Hadfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Children’S Agency

This article examines children’s agency in their interactions with social workers during statutory encounters in a child protection context. It draws from a UK-wide ethnographic study. It finds that much of social workers’ responses to children’s agency in this context are best understood as a form of ‘containment’. In doing so, it offers an original and significant contribution to the theoretical understanding of children’s agency, as well as its application in social work practice.

Recruiting and Engaging Men as Fathers in Social Work Practice

2014 ◽  
pp. 235-260
Author(s):  
Joseph Fleming ◽  
Andrew King ◽  
Tara Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Engaging Men ◽  
Current Knowledge Base

Evidence in the research literature suggests that men are usually not engaged by social workers, particularly in child welfare and child protection settings. Mothers also tend to become the focus of intervention, even when there is growing evidence that men can take an active and important role in a child's development in addition to providing support to the mother and family. Whilst there have been some promising developments in including men in social work practice internationally, there remains a gap in the research regarding the engagement of men as fathers in Australia. Given the growing relevance of the topic of fathers, the purpose of this chapter is to add to the current knowledge base, to support social work students and practitioners to engage with men in their role as fathers, and to offer an evidence-based practice model that may assist social workers in their work with men as fathers.

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