Social Workers' Leadership for Positive School Climates via Data-informed Planning and Decision Making

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Hopson ◽  
H. Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Data Informed

Purchasing Power and Self-Determination: Social Worker Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bailey ◽  
Debbie Plath ◽  
Alankaar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Purchasing Power ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Management Approaches

Abstract The international policy trend towards personalised budgets, which is designed to offer people with disabilities purchasing power to choose services that suit them, is exemplified in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This article examines how the ‘purchasing power’ afforded to service users through individualised budgets impacts on social work practice and the choice and self-determination of NDIS service users. Social workers’ views were sought on the alignment between the NDIS principles of choice and control and social work principles of participation and self-determination and how their social work practice has changed in order to facilitate client access to supports through NDIS budgets and meaningful participation in decision-making. A survey was completed by forty-five social workers, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five of these participants. The findings identify how social workers have responded to the shortfalls of the NDIS by the following: interpreting information for clients; assisting service users to navigate complex service provision systems; supporting clients through goal setting, decision-making and implementation of action plans; and adopting case management approaches. The incorporation of social work services into the NDIS service model is proposed in order to facilitate meaningful choice and self-determination associated with purchasing power.

Decision Making in Child and Family Social Work

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Diaz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
Selling Point ◽  
New Research

This book presents new research on the extent to which parents and children participate in decision making when childcare social workers are involved and it considers two key meetings in depth: child protection conferences and child in care reviews. There is currently a great deal of interest in how social workers can work more effectively with families and in particular give children a voice. There is also considerable public and media interest in the child protection system, in particular relating to how children are safeguarded by social workers. This book will argue that unless we listen to (and act upon whenever possible) the views of children it is very difficult to safeguard and offer them an effective service. The unique selling point of the book will be that it is based on original solid empirical research following interviews with multiple stakeholders across two local authorities in England including children (n=75), parents (n=52), social workers (n=11, independent reviewing officers (n=8) and senior managers (n=7). This book will consider how 10 years of austerity has impacted on the child protection system and it will have a particular focus on how current practice leads to children and parents often feeling oppressed and excluded in decision making about their lives. The book promises to be authoritative and informed on issues on the ground and very relevant to both policy and practice.

Procedurally fair? Fairly procedural?: … ethics, fairness and welfare practice

1999 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip A. Swain
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
Professional Codes ◽  
Professional Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Procedural Ethics

This paper examines the principles of procedural fairness and their application to welfare practice. The paper considers whether social workers ought to measure the adequacy of their practice, not just against those requirements ususally set out in the professional Codes of Ethics, but also against the procedural fairness expectations of decision-making more usually the province of courts and like bodies. The paper concludes that these expectations are not only in keeping with the Code of Ethics, but that competent practice demands no less of practitioners.

The Future of Decision Making in Child Welfare Practice: The Development of an Explicit Criteria Model for Decision Making

1985 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Meddin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Child Abuse ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Placement Decision ◽  
Decision Making Model ◽  
Explicit Criteria

AbstractThe paper examines the impact that a decision making model can have on child placement decisions. Using a pre and post test design with three different conditions, the research investigated the ability to increase the consistency of the placement decision by the use of a decision making model that includes explicit criteria.The study found that consistency of decision making was enhanced by the provision of the decision making model and that consistency could be further enhanced by the provision of training in the model. Implications for training of new workers and reduction of worker stress and burnout are discussed.The incident of child abuse and neglect continues to rise. The National Centre on Child Abuse and Neglect estimates that approximately one million children will be abused or neglected this year in the United States. In the State of Illinois alone, during fiscal year 1981 nearly 80,000 reports of abuse or neglect were received. Almost 50% of those reports were found to be actual cases of abuse or neglect.Whether the incident in Australia of child abuse and neglect is increasing or not is difficult to assess, since currently there is no standardised way of collecting data. However, from all indicators a similar increase is indeed occurring. Boss in his book, “On the Side of the Child”, reports that the number of cases seen by the Western Australian Department of Community Welfare has steadily increased. This is corroborated by statistics compiled by that State’s Advisory and Consultative Committee in Child Abuse (ACCCA). Their Statistical Information Report for July-December 1983 indicates an 86% increase in reports of sexual abuse and 12.5% increase in physical abuse. In Queensland the number of child abuse and/or neglect case investigations went from 1 095 in 1981 to 1 631 in 1982 – an increase of more than one third. In Tasmania between 1980 to 1982 the number of reports increased by nearly one-third, from 228-302. The Montrose Child Protection and Family Crisis Unit of the Department of Youth and Community Services in New South Wales report similar increases.On almost a daily basis, social workers are called upon to make far reaching decisions that have the potential to be a life consequential both for the child who is the victim of abuse and/or neglect and that child’s family. Because these decisions, especially the placement decision, have such great ramifications, social workers should be expected to make decisions with great care, consideration and consistency. This may be due, in part because agencies have been slow to explicate, empirically validate, and systematically apply decision making criteria that assist workers in making case decisions.While research indicates that criteria do exist and are used by child welfare workers, the research also indicates that they are not used in any systematic fashion. The result is that idiosyncratic decisions are invited and the potential spectre of gross inequities in the delivery of social services exists. Unless asystematic, consensually based decision making model is used that explicates both the decisions that need to be made along with a specific set of criteria for making these decisions, it is impossible for the child welfare agency to guarantee a minimum level of service delivery.

Pandemic promises: Interrogating espoused data‐informed decision‐making

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (187-188) ◽  
pp. 43-54
Author(s):  
James D. Breslin ◽  
Tara Lawson‐Harris ◽  
Beck Hawkins ◽  
Becki Elkins
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Informed Decision ◽  
Informed Decision Making ◽  
Data Informed

scholarly journals Social workers’ views about children’s and parents’ competence in child protection decision-making

2020 ◽  
pp. 146801732094063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Korpinen ◽  
Tarja Pösö
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
The Social ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
Professional Ethos ◽  
Controversial Nature

Summary Competence is an essential part of any decision-making process. In child protection, it is challenged by the controversial nature of child removals and the vulnerable situations which children and parents experience therein. This article examines how and on what grounds social workers view parents and children to be competent to give their informed view in care order proceedings and what they do if doubts about competence arise. The analysis is based on 30 interviews with social workers in Finland. Findings The professional ethos and ethics of social work were embedded in the social workers’ descriptions of children’s and parents’ competence. The social workers were confident that the parents and children (of certain age) were competent to give their informed view about whether to consent to the care order proposal and the proposed substitute home. When they spoke about competence ascribed with hesitation, they described the vulnerability of service users, as well as their attitudes and withdrawal from contact. In the cases, social workers emphasized a strength-based view of children and parents and aimed to ‘talk more’ with them and to ‘give them more time’ to support their right to give an informed view. Applications Social vulnerability and competence should be explored reflectively in relation to decision-making in child protection. A better understanding of their interrelation makes social workers more competent to support the service users’ right to be included in decision-making. Critical awareness is needed to recognize when ‘more talk’ is not enough to realize children’s and parents’ rights.

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