In whose best interests?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Val Gillies ◽  
Rosalind Edwards ◽  
Nicola Horsley
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Education Services ◽  
Stakeholder Groups ◽  
Economic Rationale ◽  
Children’S Services

This chapter analyses the intricate network of interests and their agendas that characterise social policy provision generally, focusing down on social investment in children's services and the early intervention field. In particular, the chapter looks at three key stakeholder groups with interests in early intervention: business, politicians and professionals, and their interlinked alliances and partnerships. It examines how corporate money, power, and influence have pervaded various children's services, from child protection work to family and early intervention initiatives to education services. This occurs through ‘philanthrocapitalism’ — an amalgam of an economic rationale of early intervention coupled with moral notions of social philanthropy.

Delivering change for children

2020 ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Carl Purcell
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Youth Services ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
School Autonomy ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Children’S Services

This chapter discusses the implementation of Labour’s ‘Change for Children’ programme following the passage of the Children Act 2004 during Blair’s final years as Prime Minister. Under the new structural arrangements every English local authority was required to merge education and children’s social care services to create a single children’s services department under the leadership of a Director of Children’s Services. However, it is argued that tensions between No 10 and the Treasury over social policy and public service reform in this period served to constrain the implementation of the new arrangements. Firstly, Blair’s prioritisation of greater school autonomy pulled against the focus on the integration of children’s services and accountability to children’s services and children’s trusts. Secondly, Blair’s perspective on youth services and the prioritisation of policies to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, ran counter to the principle of early intervention and the provision of positive activities for young people under the ECM framework.

Gender, The Labour Market, The Workplace and Policy in Children's Services: Parent, staff and student attitudes

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lyons ◽  
Andrea Quinn ◽  
Jennifer Sumsion
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Recruitment Strategies ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Stakeholder Groups ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
Teacher Education Students

This paper reports the attitudes of parents, staff and teacher education students towards the employment of men in the children's services ‘industry’. The attitudinal survey questions were grouped around four distinct issues: gender roles, labour market behaviour, workplace behaviour and policy. Surprisingly, all three stakeholder groups surveyed expressed similar views on the four issues. While the results suggest that attitudes are not an impediment to increasing the number of male workers, they also suggest recruitment strategies need to be cognisant of both the potential advantages and disadvantages of a more gender-balanced workforce. The findings question policies based on the need to have male ‘role models’ in children's services.

The Politics of Children's Services Reform

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Purcell
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
National Level ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Family Service ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
Local Agencies ◽  
Welfare Agencies

Comparative research has identified two broad types of child welfare system. In child protection systems the principal remit of welfare agencies is to identify and respond to actual or potential incidences of child abuse or maltreatment. In contrast family service systems are characterised by a stronger spirit of partnership between the state and families and an emphasis on working to prevent the need for coercive state intervention. This book examines the development of children’s services reform in England over recent decades to explain a shift from family service polices towards a narrower child protection approach. Successive waves of reform in England have invariably been framed as responses to high-profile child abuse inquires and media generated scandal including the cases of Victoria Climbié and Baby P. However, this book challenges the idea that it is the apparent failings of local agencies, including child and family social workers, that drive successive waves of reform. Instead, it turns the spotlight on the process of policy-making at the national level, and highlights the role played by party political leaders and senior government ministers in driving reform. The book is informed by 45 interviews with key decision-makers including ministers, senior civil servants, children’s charity leaders, local authority directors and social work researchers.

Putting children's services in their place: A call for universal children's services to prevent child abuse and neglect in Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail Winkworth
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Early Intervention ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Childhood Intervention ◽  
Children’S Services

This paper discusses the need for a national early childhood intervention policy in Australia, including a universal approach to children's services as a platform for the prevention of child abuse and neglect, supporting families and enriching the lives of all children.It considers the literature on early intervention, including the theoretical and research base of successful programs and the link between early intervention and the prevention of child abuse and neglect. It examines the way the child welfare and children's services sectors have grown and the imperative at the beginning of the 21st century for a closer alignment of services.The United Kingdom's ‘Sure Start’ early intervention strategy is considered in so far as it attempts to develop a more comprehensive approach to child welfare by developing programs which are based on the research. Finally the paper asserts that recent strategies introduced by Federal and State Governments to promote childhood health and wellbeing are positive first steps, but need to go further to seriously address increasing numbers of children reported as suffering harm through abuse and/or neglect.

Child Protection or Family Support — Directions in Family Welfare for the 80's

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Phillip A. Swain
Keyword(s):  
Family Support ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Continuum Of Care ◽  
Family Welfare ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
The Family ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
The Continuum

Child Protection and Family Support. These are two aspects of our work in family and children's services that have been much discussed over recent years. Can you protect a child whilst at the same time purport to support the family? Should the two functions be organisationally and structurally separated? Are they really just parts of the continuum of care and commitment which we all share in families and children? These and other similar questions have been frequently repeated during the first half of the 80's as we all searched for ways to meet the obvious deficiencies in the networks of families and children's services that had been established. But as we look to the remainder of the 80's there a number of critical issues which are well indentified but which we have yet to really come to grips with.

scholarly journals Outputs Reviewed: Neo-Liberalism

2015 ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
North East Third Sector Research Group
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Family Support ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Welfare To Work ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Big Society ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
Society Project

<p>Churchill, H. (2013). Retrenchment and restructuring: family support and children's services reform under the coalition. <em>Journal of Children's Services</em>, 8()3, 209-222</p><p>Jackson Rodger, J. (2013). “New capitalism”, colonisation and the neo-philanthropic turn in social policy: Applying Luhmann's systems theory to the Big Society project. <em>International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy</em>, 33(11/12), 725-741.</p><p>Kim, S. (2013). Voluntary Organizations as New Street-level Bureaucrats: Frontline Struggles of Community Organizations against Bureaucratization in a South Korean Welfare-to-Work Partnership. <em>Social Policy &amp; Administration</em>, 47(5), 565-585.</p>

Schools reform and early intervention

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-148
Author(s):  
Carl Purcell
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Youth Services ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Early Intervention Services ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
Intervention Services ◽  
Spending Cuts ◽  
Children’S Centres

This chapter and the next consider the development of children’s services policy since 2010, including key changes introduced by the Conservative Secretary of State Michael Gove. From the outset it was clear that schools reform would be the overriding priority for the renamed ‘Department for Education’. Moreover, under Gove’s Academies and Free Schools programme the broad emphasis on child well-being and the integration of children’s services, under Labour’s ECM framework, was largely abandoned as schools were afforded greater autonomy from local authority children’s services. Furthermore, the prioritisation of schools’ reform meant that services such as children’s centres and youth services bore the brunt of spending cuts, notwithstanding the Prime Minister David Cameron’s proclaimed commitment to the refocusing of early intervention services. In this context, the DfE distanced itself from the restructuring and hollowing-out of early intervention services at the local level, and NGOs campaigning in this area were largely ignored.

Conclusion: the politics of children’s services reform

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-184
Author(s):  
Carl Purcell
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Group Relations ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Local Service ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Reform Needs

In this concluding chapter it is argued that the reform of children’s services over the past two decades has been a more politically driven process than is commonly recognised. Reflecting on the evidence presented in the book four key features of children’s services are identified. Firstly, the extent to which reforms have been influenced by apparent local service failings has been greatly exaggerated by ministers. Secondly, children’s services reform needs to be understood within the context of the broader economic and social policy priorities of party leaders and senior ministers. Thirdly, the ubiquity of structural reform to local children’s services reflects the activism of ministers and their need to demonstrate impact. Finally, the politicisation of policy-making in this area has been reflected in continual shifts in government-interest group relations, including the declining access and influence of children’s sector NGOs over recent years.

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