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.

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.

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 Participation of Children and Parents in the Swiss Child Protection System in the Past and Present: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
Aline Schoch ◽  
Gaëlle Aeby ◽  
Brigitte Müller ◽  
Michelle Cottier ◽  
Loretta Seglias ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Protection System ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
Effects On Children ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Adult Protection

As in other European countries, the Swiss child protection system has gone through substantial changes in the course of the 20th century up to today. Increasingly, the needs as well as the participation of children and parents affected by child protection interventions have become a central concern. In Switzerland, critical debates around care-related detention of children and adults until 1981 have led to the launch of the National Research Program ‘Welfare and Coercion—Past, Present and Future’ (NRP 76), with the aim of understanding past and current welfare practices. This paper is based on our research project, which is part of this national program. We first discuss three overarching concepts—integrity, autonomy and participation—at the heart of a theoretical framework in order to understand the position of parents and children in child protection proceedings. Secondly, we critically analyze the historical and legal development of the child protection system in Switzerland and its effects on children and parents from 1912 until today. Thirdly, we give an insight into the current Swiss child protection system, with an investigation of hearings of parents and children conducted by the Child and Adult Protection Authorities (CAPA) based on participant observations. In particular, we show the importance of information exchanges and of signs of mutual recognition. Finally, in light of our findings, we discuss the interplay between socio-historical and legal developments in child protection and their consequences for the integrity, autonomy and participation of the people involved.

Cooperation between the school, parents and educational day care centres in Paris

2021 ◽  
Vol 600 (5) ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
Anna Rurka
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Day Care ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teams ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
Research Interviews ◽  
Day Care Centres ◽  
Two Stages

The article focuses on the cooperation between the school, parents and educational day care centres operating in the child protection system in Paris. It takes into account the way children and parents participate in this collaboration. In the range of services offered under the child protection system, day care centres are recognized as innovative due to the cross-sectoral nature of the support offered. The data was collected through two stages of interviews with parents and children. 23 children and young people aged 8 to 16 and 22 families participated in the study. Research interviews were also conducted with interdisciplinary teams and specialists involved in the collaboration. Documents on the situation of all 23 examined children were analysed. The presented study received positive opinions from the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Paris Nanterre University. The study was funded by the National Observatory for Child Protection and the four associations participating in the study.

scholarly journals Embodied Social Work Practice Within Risk Society

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Smeeton ◽  
Patrick O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Extreme Risk

This paper critically discusses the limitations of theorising social work from psychological and sociological perspectives and argues that phenomenology offers more opportunity to understand the embodied experiences of service users and social workers themselves. The paper argues that psychology and sociology have a limited analysis of being-in-the-world, which ought to be social work’s primary consideration. The paper offers an overview of the sociology of risk before embarking on an extensive description and discussion of Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology applied to the lived experience of child protection social workers working within risk society. The argument is put that phenomenology is a useful tool for understanding the lived experience of social work practitioners. Findings: The authors conclude that embodied social work practice containing fear and anxiety can be thought of as akin to taking part in extreme risk sports and that this is an unhealthy experience that is likely to skew decision-making and adversely affect the lives of social workers and service users. Applications: The authors argue that phenomenology can enhance understanding of practice and decision-making and offers insights into the lived experience of social workers. Phenomenology is useful for helping social workers negotiate risk-saturated environments, through a focus on meaning.

Child sexual abuse: A critical analysis of social workers' role in recognising and responding to it

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-33
Author(s):  
Gary Wade
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
It Services ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Critical Attention

The role of social workers in safeguarding and child protection has received much critical attention in recent years, in an evolving political and social arena, where policy and practice has shifted following both public outcry of serious case reviews and subsequent policy and practice changes concerning the profession and how it services the needs of the most vulnerable in society. This article seeks to critically examine the current methodology for identifying suspected child sexual abuse signs and indicators, the evolving spectrum of abuse, including critical evaluation of current perspectives on child sexual exploitation.

Preventing and responding to errors in US child protection

2020 ◽  
pp. 235-254
Author(s):  
Jill Duerr Berrick ◽  
Jaclyn Chambers
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Predictive Analytics ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Protection Policy ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools ◽  
The Us ◽  
Child Protection Policy

This chapter demonstrates how concerns about avoiding errors and mistakes have been at the centre of child protection policy and practice in the US for many years. In particular the chapter focuses on providing a summary of the state of the art relating to risk assessment tools and predictive analytics as strategies to reduce error in child welfare decision making. It also examines whether our understanding of ‘error’ needs to shift to account for the unknowns. When social workers make decisions based upon fundamental principles, and when they determine that it is in the interests of a child to privilege one principle over another, the result may appear in hindsight as an “error”, but when made as a decision guided by one widely-held principle which was in direct conflict with another. Examining child welfare decision making as a process of selecting and then privileging one principle over another narrows what we might otherwise think of as an ‘error’ and instead recasts some decisions as exceedingly difficult to get ‘right’.

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