A social model: experiences in practice

2018 ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Brid Featherstone ◽  
Anna Gupta ◽  
Kate Morris ◽  
Sue White
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Individual Change ◽  
Assessment Report ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Case Work ◽  
The Impact

This chapter suggests some approaches to practice and offers examples of alternative models for child protection. Within a social model for protecting children, a multi-dimensional and contextualised understanding of social problems is required, as are services and professional practice which address the lack of material, social, and symbolic capital that cause harm to children and their families. For individual social workers working with individual families, as a start this means assessments, reports, and plans recognise and highlight the structural underpinnings of families' hardships, making them visible to professionals and to the families who are the subject of the assessment/report. There can be a recognition that solutions to problems are not only about individual change, but also reflect the impact of social and economic environments on individuals and families. However, all these developments are difficult in risk-focused case work approaches. The recent turn towards strengths-based case work may open up possibilities.

scholarly journals Varför forskarutbildning?

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dellgran ◽  
Staffan Höjer
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Significant Feature ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Professional Practitioners ◽  
Doctoral Programmes

Why doctoral education? Motivational factors and aspirations among nurses, teach- ers and social workers A significant feature of our knowledge-based society is the gradual academization and professionalization of a growing numbers of occupations. In Sweden, as in other countries, this academization has in several cases led to the establishment of profession-based university disciplines, with professors and PhD programmes, in order to develop and reinforce a scienti c base for profes- sional practice and education. A crucial element in this process is that professional practitioners are expected to seek admission to these doctoral programmes, and thereby choose a career as a researcher, and in varying degrees become involved in the continued development of scientific knowledge within their discipline. This article is based on a survey with 749 respondents and the aim is to examine and compare motives and aspirations among nurses, teachers and social workers to undertake doctoral educa- tion. Over 90 per cent of the respondents have stayed in academia as teachers and researchers after their PhD. e results show that multiple motives are normal but that desire for personal growth and personal challenge dominates declared motives in all groups. However, social workers more often stresses political aspirations, while nurses and teachers more often highlight professional and practice-oriented motivation. Furthermore, motives also have some impact on the subject of the dissertation. Studies on patients and professional practice and methods are, for instance, more common among nurses compared to social workers, where research more frequently deals with organizations, social problems and social policy issues. Finally, some implications for research policy, and the continual debate about the gap between research and professional practice, are discussed.

scholarly journals The involvement of family in child protection cases in Iceland

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-49
Author(s):  
Anni Haugen ◽  
Sigrún Yrja Klörudóttir
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Violent Behaviour ◽  
Child Protection Workers ◽  
The Family ◽  
International Comparative ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

The aim of this study is to examine the involvement of families in child protection cases in Iceland, as well as to shed light on the attitudes of child protection workers on the importance of including families while working on child protection cases. The study is part of an international comparative analysis called: Social Work with Families: Social Workers’ Constructions of Family in Professional Practice. This article only addresses the Icelandic segment of the research. In the study, qualitative methods were used and three focus groups were conducted, in which the same three-step vignette about a child protection case was presented. The findings highlighted how difficult child protection workers found it to define the family. The main element is that family are those individuals closest to the child and connected to them through emotional ties, as Icelandic child protection workers seem to strive to involve family in child protection cases. However, there are signs which show that when working with more complicated cases the definition of a family becomes narrower, and involvement is restricted mostly to parents and grandparents. The findings also show that attitudes toward fathers differ from those toward mothers. The mother is expected to support and create security for the child, while the father is judged mostly on his violent behaviour and is not automatically regarded as providing support or actively taking responsibility for his child.

scholarly journals Loss of Trust Among First Nation People: Implications when Implementing Child Protection Treatment Initiatives

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Thibodeau ◽  
Faye North Peigan
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Nations People ◽  
First Nations People ◽  
The Impact

Social workers and other health care providers have been asked to develop and implement innovative and culturally sensitive treatment initiatives in First Nation communities. However, because of traumatization and oppression, many First Nations people face troubling psycho-social issues which have resulted in a diminished capacity to trust. If this loss of trust is not dealt with skillfully, it can impede the ability of social workers to implement initiatives. Through a process of person-centred interviewing, 36 participants identified four levels of trust that have been diminished among many First Nations people. The impact of this phenomenon on the development and implementation of community based initiatives is discussed in this article.

How parents and children view the system

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-64
Author(s):  
Clive Diaz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Barriers And Enablers ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
System P ◽  
The Impact

This chapter considers children and parent’s perspectives of child protection conferences and whether they feel actively involved in decision making. It is based on interviews with 40 children and 52 parents in two local authorities whose children were subject to a child protection plan at the time. Most parents felt unsupported throughout the child protection process, reporting feelings of powerlessness, intimidation and fear. Parents reported that they found child protection conference particularly stigmatizing and oppressive and this led to them not trusting social workers and often other key agencies. A further interesting finding was that some parents felt sorry for their social workers and stated that they seemed stressed, clearly under too much pressure and often did not do what that said they could do. The chapter also considered young people’s views of social workers and what the barriers and enablers of good child protection practice are. This chapter highlights the high number of social workers young participants had; their relationships with their social worker and their perception of the child protection conference. The extent to which the young participants were aware of the impact of bureaucracy and high caseloads on the service they receive, coupled with the impact of the high turnover of social workers, was also examined. These factors impacted on how much the children and young people participated in the work that social workers were carrying out with them and the extent to which they trusted their social workers.

scholarly journals The Perception of Social Workers in the N-E Area of Romania on Supervision

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 224
Author(s):  
Elena Unguru
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Control Dimension

The supervision relationship is a long-lasting evaluation, oriented towards a number of purposes: improving the professional activity of supervised persons, monitoring the quality of services provided by practitioners, and promoting professional practice in general. The aim of the research is to analyze the main axes of the social construction of the supervision of social services in public institutions for child protection in the N - E area of Romania. The research was based on the questionnaire survey and was carried out between October 2018 and January 2019 in the public social work institutions in Bacău, Botosani, Iaşi, Suceava, Neamţ, Vaslui counties. Social workers prefer the supportive side to the administrative one, while supervision managers put the focus on the control dimension, but accompanied by the formative one.

scholarly journals Practising ethically during COVID-19: Social work challenges and responses

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 569-583
Author(s):  
Sarah Banks ◽  
Tian Cai ◽  
Ed de Jonge ◽  
Jane Shears ◽  
Michelle Shum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
International Study ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Qualitative Survey ◽  
Complex Decision Making ◽  
Complex Decision ◽  
The Impact

This article draws on findings of an international study of social workers’ ethical challenges during COVID-19, based on 607 responses to a qualitative survey. Ethical challenges included the following: maintaining trust, privacy, dignity and service user autonomy in remote relationships; allocating limited resources; balancing rights and needs of different parties; deciding whether to break or bend policies in the interests of service users; and handling emotions and ensuring care of self and colleagues. The article considers regional contrasts, the ‘ethical logistics’ of complex decision-making, the impact of societal inequities, and lessons for social workers and professional practice around the globe.

scholarly journals Conceptions, Norms, and Values in the Work of Child Protective Services with Families at Risk: An Analysis of Social Workers’ Diaries

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-379
Author(s):  
Annelie Björkhagen Turesson
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
Value Judgements ◽  
The Subject

Abstract Since the conceptions, norms, and values that govern the work of child protection are elusive, they are rarely discussed in the research. This study is based on diaries maintained by three social workers in relation to 15 families that were the subject of interventions by the child protective services in Sweden. All of the mothers in the 15 families had been diagnosed with mental health problems. The diaries include both significant events within the families and the social workers’ own feelings and perceptions about their work. This article discusses four themes: the Janus face of child protective services, clienthood and its conditions, child protective services and good or bad parenting, and the fathers. The results show that the families were subjected to extensive discipline. The diaries also expressed strong value judgements regarding how children should be raised. The parents’ desires and wishes were redefined by the social workers, making the parents powerless. The fathers were marginalized, which meant that an important resource within the families was lost. The parents reacted to this exercise of power in part by trying to escape it and in part by adapting to it. In summary, the desire to help was in some cases transformed into an abusive exercise of power.

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.

Reflecting upon child protection – the professional doctorate journey

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-195
Author(s):  
Martin Kettle
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Professional Doctorate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Grounded Theory Approach ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose – This paper draws on a recently completed professional doctorate thesis. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the research process mirrors the area being researched, and underscores the importance of the ability to tolerate ambiguity, in both the research process and in working to protect children. Design/methodology/approach – The doctorate used a constructivist grounded theory approach, and drew on 22 in-depth interviews with social workers and a sample of 20 serious case reviews. Central to the research process were issues of reflexivity and positionality, which were both crucial to the area under exploration. Findings – Central to the thesis on which this paper draws, and the professional doctorate is the notion of balance. Social workers and researchers have to negotiate both getting close to and achieving distance from, the subject of enquiry. Seeking and maintaining balance requires managing a number of dimensions, and the negotiation of ambiguity. Originality/value – This paper explores the complexity of “working the hyphen” of insider-outsider research, and argues that, as in child protection practice, insider-outsider research requires the adoption of strategies to both get close to, and achieve distance from, the subject of enquiry.

scholarly journals Radical practice in a risk-averse environment: Learning from ATD Fourth World UK

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Hannah Blumhardt ◽  
ATD Fourth World UK ◽  
Anna Gupta
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Family Relationship ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Fourth World ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
State Child ◽  
The Impact

INTRODUCTION: The escalation of coercive, risk-averse policy directives in Aotearoa New Zealand’s child and family social work sphere is undermining the profession’s potential to meet its social justice, human rights based aspirations. Social workers may need to look further afield for best practice models that facilitate emancipatory practice in neoliberal social policy environments. This article posits the radical practice of anti-poverty organisation ATD Fourth World in England (where child protection is characteristically risk-averse, individualised and coercive), as an alternative for work with families experiencing poverty and social exclusion.METHODS: We drew on the voices of ATD Fourth World activists cited in previous publications, alongside Activists(a-d) interviewed specifically for this article, and Activist(e) who contributed at a roundtable discussion on a previous project. Interviews focused on ATD Fourth World’s approach to working with families in poverty; three distinctive aspects emerged: the organisation’s philosophy on poverty, and its collaborative and relational family support model. We contrasted these three aspects with state child protection policies in Aotearoa New Zealand and England.FINDINGS: The often inflexible, top-down nature of state child protection policies, coupled with an atmosphere of policing, control and disregard for the impact of poverty, constrain social workers and families alike, eroding the crucial social worker/family relationship underpinning best practice. ATD Fourth World’s approach suggests that genuine strengths-based practice relies on nuanced understandings of poverty, a commitment to advance families’ wishes, and trusting relationships grounded in human dignity and commonality.CONCLUSION: The Aotearoa New Zealand reforms may amplify coercive, risk-averse tendencies in the state’s child protection system. Child and family social workers could consider adapting aspects of ATD Fourth World’s approach to resist or mitigate these coercive aspects and steer the reforms’ implementation in more emancipatory directions.

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