‘Like walking on eggshells’: service user views and expectations of the child protection system

This paper reports on a study of service users' views on Irish child protection services. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 67 service users, including young people between 13 and 23. The findings showed that despite refocusing and public service management reforms, service users still experience involvement with the services as intimidating and stressful and while they acknowledged opportunities to participate in the child protection process, they found the experience to be very difficult. Their definition of ‘needs’ was somewhat at odds with that suggested in official documentation, and they viewed the execution of a child protection plan more as a coercive requirement to comply with ‘tasks’ set by workers than a conjoint effort to enhance their children's welfare. As in previous studies, the data showed how the development of good relationships between workers and service users could compensate for the harsher aspects of involvement with child protection. In addition, this study demonstrated a high level of discernment on the part of service users, highlighting their expectation of quality standards in respect of courtesy, respect, accountability, transparency and practitioner expertise.     

What do service users think of evaluation? Evidence from family support

Programme evaluators increasingly strive to capture how service users experience child and family welfare programmes. Yet user involvement is rare in a more routine form of evaluation: performance measurement. This paper considers how service users' perspectives can help improve the performance indicators that inform child and family service funding, management and planning. Qualitative research, conducted in family support contexts in New South Wales, Australia, identifies five user‐defined domains upon which indicators can be based. As well as showing how parents judge service quality and outcomes, the findings also show how they experience data collection, and how they prefer to participate in the routine performance measurement and monitoring that informs child and family welfare provision.     

Programme form and service user well-being: Linking theory and evidence

Since the early 1990s, the “activation turn” has become a standard welfare orthodoxy at the heart of international welfare systems. Although policymakers talk confidently about the well-being gains of activation interventions and their employment outcomes, a growing body of research has focused instead on questions around “activation process well-being”—the potential well-being effects of participation in activation programmes themselves. The present article makes three main contributions to the theory, knowledge, and policy practice of this activation well-being literature. First, the paper develops an original conceptual framework that newly connects well-being theory, qualitative variation in programmatic form, and empirically testable well-being expectations for participating service users. Second, the paper uses multivariate statistical analyses to examine six conceptually derived hypotheses around variation in programme forms and implications for participating service users' well-being, drawing on the case study of U.K. activation policy. Noteworthy is the paper's unique distributional insights into well-being effects across different types of service users. Third, the paper offers new policy contributions around the relevance of policy form to service user well-being as well as important pointers to key programme features in this regard.     

Child protection in China: Changing policies and reactions from the field of social work

This article offers a general review of the development of national policies on child protection in China. It offers an in‐depth analysis of related legislation enacted between 2010 and 2015 that have had an impact on child protection and related historical, cultural and legal issues. Furthermore, in the study we examined the emerging role of social work in preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect in China. Major findings of the research include: (i) policies concerning child protection have been highly influenced by Confucianism and its perspective of the child as family property; (ii) child protection regulations on accident reporting, custody transfer, and surrogate care are gradually being refined and improved, although the legal system for child protection is still incomplete and needs further substantiation; and (iii) the involvement of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and social workers has enhanced the child protection system. Key Practitioner Message: ? Policies concerning child protection have been subject to an immense impact by Confucianism, placing strong responsibility on family members in providing childcare although the child is viewed as part of the family's property; ? After 1949, the newly founded socialist political structure began to exert a significant influence on welfare and child welfare policies. Because the Confucian perspective emphasised family and parental responsibility, government in China has traditionally not been heavily involved in policies that interfere in the internal workings of families; ? Since the shift toward an open‐door policy in 1979, child protection policies in China have begun to develop, with a child welfare network gradually spreading to cover the majority of children. Moreover, child protection is generally supported by the legal system, within which regulations on accident reporting, custody transfer and surrogate care are gradually being refined and improved. However, despite the huge progress achieved in recent years, there are significant deficits in its implementation and monitoring; ? The involvement of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and professional social work services has promoted a child protection system.     

Service user experience of participation in child welfare case management

Child welfare case management systems were designed, in part, to standardize participatory practices for both young people and their parents. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study of Australian service users' experiences of participation when using the case management systems, Looking After Children and Supporting Children and Responding to Families. Findings indicate that the majority of service users reported positive experiences of participating in the use of these systems. However, participatory relations were often slow to develop and frequently involved conflict. Some service users used their power to control the flow and accuracy of information, or resisted workers in other ways. Some children and young people were excluded from the opportunity to participate because the systems did not have a ‘text‐based’ format to ‘ensure’ that this process occurred. These findings indicate that case management systems did not result in relationships which consistently informed the intervention in a way that the systems' authors had envisaged. Service users did not necessarily take up the openings offered to them and workers did not necessarily comply with the systems' obligations. The findings cause us to question the assumptions that power can be bestowed or withdrawn, in the way suggested by these case management systems.     

Toward Client-Centered Service: Asking Clients for Their Views of TANF,Food Stamps,Child Care,and Medicaid Services

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of a randomized study that asked Division of Family and Children Services' (DFCS) clients throughout the state of Georgia to rate their satisfaction with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, child care services, and Medicaid services, as well as their perspectives of the customer service they received through their county DFCS offices. Telephone interviews were conducted with 2,408 clients. Overall client satisfaction percentages are: TANF, 80%; food stamps, 88%; child care, 92%; and Medicaid, 94%. Satisfaction indices were also created from the data collected. Client suggestions for improvement are presented as well as practice and educational implications.     

Caregiver involvement in behavioural health services in the context of child welfare service referrals: a qualitative study

Human service agencies serve a growing number of adults with behavioural health needs. Despite these agencies' key role in identifying need and facilitating services, many individuals do not receive care or end services prematurely. Few studies have explored the experiences of families referred to behavioural health services by such agencies or the extent to which families' perceptions of service need align with those of treatment providers and frontline workers. This study presents findings from a qualitative study of caregivers involved with child welfare agencies who were referred to behavioural health services. Researchers reviewed agencies' case records and conducted in‐depth interviews with 16 caregivers, 9 child welfare caseworkers and 12 behavioural health treatment counsellors. Findings suggest that when deciding to engage in services, caregivers weigh not only their individual and family behavioural health needs but also potential agency intervention, including loss of child custody. Many professionals reported that involvement with a child welfare agency hindered the caregiver's disclosure of behavioural healthcare needs. Implications for managers and practitioners are discussed.     

A prospective study of adolescent mothers’ social competence,children's effortful control and compliance and children's subsequent developmental outcomes

Previous work has established that caregiver and child temperamental characteristics are associated with child compliance. Given the critical role that parents play in this process, and that children of teen mothers are at risk for poorer developmental outcomes, it is important to understand the development of compliance in the context of at‐risk parenting such as adolescent motherhood. The current study examined child compliance (Wave 5; W5) as a mediator of the association between adolescent mothers’ social competence (Wave 4; W4) and children's behavioral and academic outcomes (Wave 6; W6), and whether this mediation varied depending on children's effortful control (W4) in a sample of 204 Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers (M_age at W4 = 19.94, SD = .99) and their children (M_age at W4 = 36.21 months, SD = .45). Adolescent mothers reported on their own social competence and their children's effortful control and externalizing problems; compliance was assessed using observational methods; and academic readiness was assessed using standardized developmental assessments. Findings based on structural equation modeling revealed that adolescent mothers’ social competence was positively related to children's compliance among children with high effortful control, but not among those with low effortful control. Moreover, child compliance mediated the longitudinal association between adolescent mothers’ social competence and child externalizing problems and academic readiness. Discussion focuses on the importance of considering the role of child temperament in understanding how adolescent mothers’ social competence is subsequently associated with children's social and academic adjustment.     

Children's participation in post-divorce decision-making: The role of conflict and attachment

Increased child participation in decision-making about custody and visitation when parents separate is an explicit political goal. This study delineates central family processes associated with child participation in post-divorce decision-making, both in mediation and in the home. Children recruited to the Dynamics of Family Conflict Study at Norwegian family counselling centres (7–15 years, n = 554) completed surveys about interparental conflict, attachment security and whether they had been invited to participate in mediation and share their views at home. Results showed a strong correlation between the two decision-making arenas as children who were invited to participate in mediation were also more likely to have been asked about their views at home, and vice versa. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses indicated that attachment security to mothers predicted that children were invited to participate in mediation. Older children were more likely to have been invited to participate both at home and in mediation. More child-related interparental conflicts predicted that children did not know if they had been consulted at home. The study points to the need for developing better practices for including younger children.     

Satisfaction with Personal Assistance Services of People with Disabilities in Korea

An essential component for achieving independence in a community setting for people with disabilities is the ability to perform personal care activities with or without assistance. This paper aims to evaluate the level of satisfaction of people who used personal assistance services (PAS) during 2007 in Korea. People's satisfaction was high when they were able to use all of the assigned hours and when they had been assigned enough hours to meet their needs. Therefore, policymakers must try to increase service hours for people with disabilities so that they have enough help from attendants. The more the opinions of people with disabilities were considered in shaping the plan of care, the higher the satisfaction score. To increase the satisfaction, service users' involvement with the program has to be incorporated into the program as much as possible.     

Reimagining child welfare outcomes: Learning from Family Group Conferencing

This article reports on a qualitative study, which sought to retrospectively understand the contribution family group conferencing (FGC) makes to longer‐term outcomes for children at risk of entering State care and their families. Eleven case examples of FGC were studied from five local government areas across Scotland. Each example included the perspectives of different stakeholders in the process: children, their parents/carers and extended family (n = 32), and professionals (n = 28) involved with them. The study found a number of interconnecting issues in relation to FGC outcome contribution. First, the personal experience of process matters to the service user and his/her opinion of the outcomes they achieve. Second, what professionals do and how they do it can impact the outcomes of people requiring support. Thus, the relationship between professionals and service users is central to understanding why and how families achieve longer‐term outcomes. Finally, who defines outcomes and to what purpose is significant when understanding outcomes. This article reports on two sets of FGC outcomes identified within the study: personal and professional. Arguing for a more nuanced understanding of outcomes in child welfare this article begins to explore, and challenge, the manner in which outcomes are identified and valued in child welfare.     

The nature and culture of social work with children and families in long‐term casework: Findings from a qualitative longitudinal study

Social work in the United Kingdom is preoccupied with what social workers cannot do due to having limited time to spend with service users. Yet remarkably little research has examined what social workers actually do, especially in long‐term relationships. This paper draws from an ethnographic study of two social work departments in England that spent 15 months observing practice and organizational life. Our findings show that social work some of the time has a significant amount of involvement with some service users and the dominant view that relationship‐based practice is rarely achieved is in need of some revision. However, families at one research site received a much more substantial, reliable overall service due to the additional input of family support workers and having a stable workforce who had their own desks and were co‐located with managers in small team offices. This generated a much more supportive, reflective culture for social workers and service users than at the second site, a large open plan “hot‐desking” office. Drawing on relational, systemic, and complexity theories, the paper shows how the nature of what social workers do and culture of practice are shaped by the interaction between available services, office designs, and practitioners', managers', and service users' experiences of relating together.     

Impact of child care arrangements on Australian children's cognitive outcome: moderation effects of parental factors

This study examines the effects of child care arrangements on children's cognitive outcomes. It is a secondary analysis, using data on 5107 children born in 2004 and their families from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Data were collected in 2004 (Wave One), in 2006 (Wave Two) and in 2008 (Wave Three). This study asks (i) Do children receiving non‐parental child care have different cognitive developmental outcomes at ages 4–5, compared with those who never had non‐parental child care during the first 3 years of life? Do parental factors affect these associations?; and (ii) among children with non‐parental child care, do child care characteristics such as types of care, quantity, entry age and stability of child care affect child outcomes? Do parental factors affect child outcomes? The study's findings suggest that children in non‐parental child care had higher Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test scores at age 5. Among children in non‐parental child care arrangements, quantity and entry age of non‐parental child care affected children's cognitive developmental outcomes. Along with child care arrangements, parental mental health was associated with children's cognitive outcomes.     

Trust as a Means of Bridging the Management of Risk and the Meeting of Need: A Case Study in Mental Health Service Provision

Shifts in public policy towards an increasing focus on risk have been deemed problematic at a number of levels, particularly the tendency for concerns over reputational risk to institutions to trump the interests and needs of service‐users. This article explores the tension between these two dimensions, of risk and need, in a case study of local mental health services – a setting where conflicting objectives to manage risk and meet need are apparent. Media‐driven pressure to ward against the ‘risk’ represented by service‐users tends towards more coercive policy which may obstruct the meeting of need, which in turn may undermine service‐user engagement and hinder risk management. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with service‐users, professionals and managers, the article explores the process of trust and its facilitative role in meeting need and managing risk. Findings suggest that while existing foci on risk are at times counter‐productive, trust plays a significant role in service‐users' initial and ongoing engagement, communication and co‐operation with professionals. Yet inherent obstacles to trust within mental healthcare contexts remain, due to cultural pressures on professionals, the nature of the illness experience and negative past experiences of in‐patient care.     

Leadership and Listening: The Reception of User Voice in Today's Public Services

Over the last decade leadership has become a watchword in public service provision, especially in its association with the seemingly ubiquitous ‘delivery’ agenda. As leadership styles change in response to developments in the contemporary public service environment, it has become imperative for service providers to find ways to listen to service users. However, listening is itself widely recognized as an underdeveloped public sector competency. This article addresses the relationship between leadership and listening. Using findings from recent research, it identifies a ‘listening gap’ in public services, before pointing to ways in which this gap might be better understood and subsequently narrowed. In doing so, it seeks to present new ideas about the essential balance between ‘leadership’ and ‘listening’, and how this can be struck in today's public service environment. First, the nature of the user voice is examined. By talking to service users who have communicated their views in different ways in each of three different services (housing, social care and leisure), the article seeks to understand the nature of users' ‘projects’ in the expression of their views. These projects are compared with those of public service leaders. Second, the congruence (or incongruence) of these projects is considered through a comparison of the world views of both users and leaders. Finally, aspects of the context are considered in the discussion of the way public service organizations might go about defining the relationship between leadership and listening.     

Family conditions, parental acceptance, and social competence and aggression in Chinese children

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations among family ecological factors including parental educational and occupational status, family income and housing conditions, the quality of the marital relationship and social support, parental acceptance and rejection, and social competence in a sample of Chinese children. Four hundred and seventy-six primary school children in Shanghai, P.R. China, and their parents participated in the study. Children were administered a peer assessment measure of social behavior and a measure of their perceptions of parental behavior. Parents completed questionnaires concerning family background, parental acceptance and rejection, perceived social support, and marital conflict and satisfaction. Teachers completed a rating scale concerning children's behaviors in school. Information on children's leadership was collected from the school administrative records. Results indicated that parental educational and occupational status was associated with family psychological conditions which, in turn, were predictive of parental acceptance. Family capital resources were negatively related to parental acceptance. Results also indicated that parental acceptance was associated positively with prosocial-competent behavior in children and negatively with aggressive behavior in children. Parental educational and occupational status was directly associated with children's competent behavior. Finally, it was found that family psychological resources were positively related to competent behavior and negatively related to aggression in children, through the mediation of parental acceptance and rejection. Family capital resources were indirectly and positively associated with child aggression through the mediation of parental acceptance and rejection.     

Children's and carers' perspectives of a therapeutic intervention for children affected by sexual abuse

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study with children affected by sexual abuse who had recently completed a therapeutic intervention (N = 12) and their carers (N = 17). Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis that influenced participants' satisfaction with the service: the attribution of the child's recovery to the therapeutic support received; the therapeutic relationship between the child and practitioner; children's recollection of important aspects of the intervention and the relationship between the carer and the child's practitioner. The findings indicate that the process elements of therapeutic support, including the development of strong relationships and allowing children choice and control, are as important as the content.     

The impacts of accessible service delivery on front‐line helping relationships in child welfare

This paper presents the results of a study comparing the impacts on helping relationships of locating front‐line child protection service providers in central locations or in accessible school and neighbourhood service delivery sites. Creating easier access to front‐line child protection service providers, fostering more positive community perceptions of child welfare services, improving client and service provider satisfaction with helping relationships and services, and increasing families' willingness to ask for help were core objectives at the accessible sites. Using a quasi‐experimental outcome design, file reviews and qualitative interviews with service providers and parents, this study presents evidence that accessible sites had substantial success in achieving these objectives when compared with central service delivery locations.     

What is a family? Constructions of family and parenting after a custody transfer from birth parents to foster parents

The subject of stability for children in long‐term foster care is an emerging field within social work with vulnerable children. In Sweden, the adoption of foster children is not a common occurrence. Instead, when a child has been placed in foster care for 3 years, the local social welfare committee will consider whether the custody of the child should be transferred to the foster parents regardless of the circumstances of the birth parents, in order to secure stability and a sense of family belonging. Consequently, custody transfers raise questions such as “who is family?” and “who is a parent?” This qualitative interview study with custodians and young people who have experienced custody transfer highlights that who counts as family and as a parent is ambiguous. This article draws attention to how negotiations about family and parenthood revolve around biological, emotional, and relational dimensions. Furthermore, we show that stability for children in care has to be understood in terms of processes over time and not as the result of a single decision of custody transfer. Consequently, social workers need to take several aspects into account when they assess family belonging and stability for children in foster care.