Lay and professional knowledge in social work: reflections from ethnographic research on child protection

This paper is concerned with the discursive interaction of lay and professional knowledge in the practice of social workers. The contention is that identifying discrete sources of knowledge—such as evidence-informed materials—may be less important for explaining how social workers guide their practice than recognising the effect of the discursive interaction of lay and professional knowledge within organisational culture. The example used for this discussion is child protection work, with a particular emphasis on how practice can be seen to be gendered. In the course of making this overall argument, the paper draws on academic debates about the nature of knowledge in professional work and discusses lay and professional knowledge as revealed through ethnographic research carried out in a social work team in the UK.     

Reframing child protection: A response to a constant crisis of confidence in child protection

Child protection systems appear to be in a continual crisis of confidence. They get criticised for not doing enough to protect some children, whilst at the same time being criticised for being too intrusive or not managing demand. This constant balancing act drives almost continual reforms, none of which appear to reduce further crises of confidence. The central issue facing tertiary child protection systems stems from their function as makers of sometimes highly uncertain risk screening decisions. Uncertainty leads to errors; false positives and false negatives. Two recurring issues challenging child protection agencies are concerns about these errors. Fears about doing too much are concerns about false positives and fears of doing too little are concerns about false negatives. The need to address both issues within the context of uncertain high stakes decision making, in a highly risk intolerant environment leads to poorly formed sentinel event driven policy that in turn leads to organisational fragility. A decision outcome-based performance model based on Signal Detection Theory provides indicators that explicitly outline the link between these two strategic issues facing child protection systems. This has improved dialogue, understanding and support from sponsors. It has led an informed focus on improving decision making and stabilisation of decision thresholds. It demonstrates that Child protection systems are in fact very responsive and do perform well in their decision making (risk screening) function. Social work decision makers provide value in their decision making in spite of highly uncertain decisions to make. Child protection systems do not need reform, they need to be “reframed” to better understand true performance and so avoid poorly informed reactive policy responses to the genuine challenges that they face.     

Care and protection in Scottish child welfare: evidence of double jeopardy?

Since the inception of the Scottish children's hearings system, an increasing concentration of child care and protection referrals has emerged. Data on 225 children referred on care and protection grounds are examined. Children faced a double jeopardy of personal adversity against a background of social and economic disadvantage. A smaller group of children were also victims of an offence by an adult. A significant proportion of children had multiple referrals suggesting a recycling of some children. Social adversity in the backgrounds of children has been found in other child welfare studies. The significance accorded to this by social work agencies and the links between neglect and poverty may be overlooked. The importance of policy that provides comprehensive public assistance and services, as found in other European countries, is an inescapable conclusion.     

Managing risk under the children act 1989: Diversion in child care?

The idea of diversion has dominated the theory and practice of juvenile justice for some time. Developments in child care practice in the 1980s mirror those which produced diversion. Diversion provides an alternative conceptual framework within which the changes to child care law introduced by the Children Act 1989 can be analysed, particularly the interrelation of s.1(5), the so-called non-intervention principle, and Part III, which establishes the duty of local authorities to provide services for children in need. These provisions and current child care practices may be seen to promote four distinct forms of diversion: (1) diversion from court; (2) diversion from care or residential provision; (3) diversion from procedures; and (4) diversion from social work. Examining the law and practice in terms of diversion focuses on the potential gains and losses resulting from the Children Act's emphasis on partnership, planning and bureaucracy without presuming that losses will be compensated for by the provision of services. It also suggests the need to consider child care in terms of net widening and tariff raising.     

Inadequate housing and the child protection system response

Involvement with child protective services (CPS) is common among families experiencing inadequate housing conditions. As with other issues of material deprivation, inadequate housing is an area where the distinction between neglect and poverty is difficult to ascertain, and the response of the child protection system to inadequately-housed families is largely understudied. This study uses a nationally representative sample of child protection investigations to explore the associations between two types of inadequate housing—doubling up and experiences of homelessness—and system outcomes. Specially, we identify that, after accounting for other risk factors, inadequate housing is significantly associated with the receipt of services, but not directly associated with either substantiation or case closure. Moreover, housing concerns may have a different association with case outcomes when interacted with other risk factors, specifically mental health and substance abuse, and domestic violence. Overall, results suggest that, while child protection workers do not view inadequate housing as neglect in and of itself, they do identify housing issues as a service need.     

Substance-exposed newborns: Hospital and child protection responses

Recent federal legislation mandates that newborns identified as prenatally substance-exposed be reported to local child protective agencies. However, the legislation does not outline methods of identifying such newborns. A number of methods of identifying substance-exposed newborns exist, including maternal self-report, urine tests of either mother or newborn, and meconium testing, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Alcohol poses special challenges, as it is arguably as damaging to newborns as illegal substances, but it is treated differently by the medical profession and by child protective agencies than are illegal substances. There is inconsistency in the reporting by hospitals to child protective agencies, in terms of substances and maternal characteristics. This paper calls for hospitals to develop formal protocols for ascertaining prenatal substance exposure, including establishing objective criteria that both identifies a newborn as substance-exposed and dictates under what circumstances a newborn should be brought to the attention of child protective services. The child protective response is also seemingly inconsistent, and the system should develop appropriate responses for this population of newborns and their families.     

Social work intervention to protect children: Aspects of research and practice

This paper seeks to bring together three issues about which I have felt a nagging, persistent sense of unease over the past 10 years or more. They can be formulated thus: (a) Why is there a great divide between the professional debate on child abuse and that about other aspects of child care policy and practice; (b) Why is accepted good practice so often not carried out; (c) Why are the related implications of research so hard to translate into effective practice? These questions become even more pressing in the present political climate and in the context of the Implementation of the Children Act 1989.     

The right to be different: Implications for child protection

This paper traces the historical emphasis of defining the disabled child or adult as ‘abnormal’—to be made ‘normal’! Such an emphasis disempowers the child, who comes to believe that his or her difference is as ‘bad’, ‘unacceptable’, and readily allows him or her to be viewed as ‘useless’. Such disabilist attitudes have fostered the belief that child protection services would not be relevant for this child population. The experiences of disabled women are explored, and clear messages emerge that can help us consider the environment of disabilism and the effects of this on disabled children. It helps us to see that, even before the disabled child is abused, his or her experience is one of oppression.     

GPs' and health visitors' participation in child protection case conferences

This study was conducted in two related but separate phases. Phase one compared the frequency and type of participation by general practitioners and health visitors in child protection case conferences. Two hundred consecutive case conferences involving 83 general practitioners from 33 practices were independently reviewed and scored to assess the level of general practitioner and health visitor participation, whether by written report and/or by attendance. Health visitors showed a far higher level of participation in case conferences than general practitioners and their attendance was more often rated essential by the social worker than that of the general practitioner. There was no evidence in those cases where social workers rated the general practitioner's attendance as essential that this resulted in increased general practitioner participation. General practitioners were equally unlikely to participate in initial, first review and subsequent review case conferences. Most importantly, general practitioner participation/non-participation was not related to length of notice given. In phase two, 76 general practitioners from the sample of 83 were interviewed in order to elicit factors underlying their decision on participation in child protection case conferences. Personal and practice characteristics and attitudes towards the case conference and towards social workers were examined and subsequently analysed. No significant associations were discovered apart from a link between previous training in child protection and a less negative attitude towards communication with social workers and the belief that the general practitioner's participation in the case conference helps him/her in the subsequent management of the case. Personal contact between local social workers and the primary health care team was seen as likely to be helpful in the establishment of a climate of trust which would facilitate the flow of sensitive information in both directions. Health visitors were often regarded by general practitioners as fulfilling the role of delegate to the case conference without having any formal remit to carry out this task.     

Case Reading as a Practice and Training Intervention in Domestic Violence and Child Protection

This article explores the role of a case-reading tool, developed by the Safe and Together Institute, deployed across five Australian states, and which engaged workers from child protection (CP) and specialist domestic and family violence (DFV) services. It aimed to assess the extent to which DFV is identified in CP case files and to assess the quality of case practice from a DFV-informed perspective, as documented in the case file. The Safe and Together approach to child welfare provides a robust foundation upon which practitioners from statutory and nonstatutory backgrounds can work collaboratively and reach consensus about how best to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children living with DFV. The case reading is both a process of transformative working for practitioners and an analytical tool through which their agencies can affect systemic change.

IMPLICATIONS

• A national audit of 20 child protection case files using the Safe and Together case-reading process indicated that documented child protection practice sits at the lower end of a domestic and family violence-informed Continuum of Practice.

• Analysis indicates a need to improve: child protection engagement with fathers who use DFV, assessments of their parenting role and its impact on children and family functioning; identification of adult survivors’ protective capacities and their impact on children.

• Research in this area may have broader implications for other professions and government policy both nationally and internationally.

     

Fear management: How child protection workers engage with non-citizen immigrant families

Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a sample of 24 child protection workers in the northeastern United States, we analyze how workers engage with non-citizen immigrant families. Confirming findings from previous scholarship on immigrants' fears when interacting with Child Protection Services (CPS), workers reported encountering different fear factors—the organizations, events, or people that instill fear in immigrant families. These included fear of deportation, fear of CPS workers as the people who remove children, and fear of CPS as a potentially repressive government agency. We also found that workers seek to minimize or leverage these fears in the engagement process—we refer to this process as fear management. Most of the workers interviewed seek to minimize immigrant families' fears, and we show that they employ four strategies to do so: providing knowledge, brokering services, doing dignity and status work, and learning culture.     

Developing and validating measures for child welfare agencies to self-monitor fidelity to a child safety intervention

Building evidence of effective practice in child welfare requires practitioners and researchers to know the extent to which programs are implemented in order to understand evaluation results. Fidelity monitoring is a critical strategy for ensuring that evidence-based and promising practices are implemented as intended and can be studied in real-world contexts. This paper addresses challenges to measuring fidelity in child welfare systems and presents an approach taken with one state to define fidelity criteria and measure fidelity to a child safety intervention. Measurement challenges were addressed by using existing documents and case review mechanisms to assess fidelity, and measuring the quality of practitioner judgment using expert reviewers. Validity of fidelity criteria and fidelity review instruments was established through consensus with model developers and local purveyors. Twelve cases were reviewed by a panel of raters to assess inter-rater reliability and discrepancy between local purveyors and model developers. This participatory and capacity-building method can be replicated and used to develop and embed valid and reliable fidelity monitoring systems in public child welfare to continue to build evidence about what works in child welfare services.     

The Planets Aligned: Is Child Protection Policy Reform Good Luck or Good Management?

Abstract

Governments across Australia are struggling to address escalating child protection notifications, a marked increase in the number of children in State care, a decrease in the number of foster carers and chronic workforce shortages in child welfare services. This paper explores the reform process that culminated in the proclamation of the Victorian Children, Youth and Families Act, 2005 and represents an aspect of the response in Victoria to these wider issues. It explores the history of the reform from the perspective of key actors from government, non-government sectors and academics who participated in the process. The paper explores the “ingredients of social policy reform” and how the change process was managed in Victoria. It does not seek to evaluate the reform but rather to understand the complex processes through which a propitious moment for reform was both seized and constructed.     

Co-operation in a child welfare case: a comparative cross-national vignette study

The purpose of this article is to explore how social workers co-operate around a case where a four-year-old child is exposed to hardship or abuse in the family. The empirical data were collected using a vignette technique in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the state of Texas (USA) and Britain. The data show that it is common to discuss, as well as work jointly, with others in an obviously serious child welfare case, and that different professional expertise is involved. Discussions of a case are generally held within the agency rather than with external specialists. Moreover, there is a positive relationship between the severity of the case and the degree of collaborative working. The data show that there are differences in the answers between the countries under study. One cause contributing to differences might be variation in organisation of the social services in the countries. Another explanation could be the extent to which legislation affects co-operation at the single case level. To be able to establish regular co-operation between different agencies, it seems to be important that co-operation is integrated in the process of the practice in social work.     

Trafficked children and child protection systems in the European Union

Child trafficking is a significant social problem across the European Union (EU). A discourse has emerged of state services failing trafficked children, who are portrayed as especially vulnerable. Less attention is paid to the socio-political conditions within the EU that result in exclusion. Such exclusion adds to the situational vulnerability that many children on the move experience and it may lead to exploitation. This paper is based on a review of 20 multi-national European Commission funded projects about child trafficking. The projects addressed the child trafficking priorities outlined in the EU Anti-Trafficking Strategy [(2012). Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012–2016, COM (2012) 286, final. Retrieved from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52012DC0286&;from=EN]. Projects were reviewed via in-depth reading. Protective services for children in origin, transit and host countries contribute to the conditions that sustain child trafficking. Systems do not have the capacity to manage the consequences of globalisation. Consequently, exclusionary criteria are applied on the basis of gender, form of exploitation and ethnicity. In this review, being an EU citizen did not result in any guarantees of protection. Better protection requires commitment and investment in preventative programmes.     

Parent adoption and implementation of obesity prevention practices through building children's asking skills at family child care homes

BackgroundEarly childhood education programs provide a setting to reach children and parents to modify home environments to prevent obesity. The Healthy Opportunities for Physical Activity and Nutrition Home (HOP’N) Home project was a novel approach that linked Family Child Care Homes (FCCH) to home environments by developing children’s asking skills for healthful home environmental change through curricular activities.ObjectiveTo evaluate the feasibility of engaging parents in obesity prevention practices through building children's asking skills at FCCH.MethodsFCCHs (n = 5 settings) and children (n = 25; aged 3−5 years; female = 36 %; non-Hispanic white = 91 %; low socioeconomic status = 28 %; overweight/obese = 52 %) and parents (n = 25) participated in a pre-post cohort design. We assessed children's body mass index and self-report variables at three time points. HOP'N Home included continuous staff training, group time, dramatic play, meal prompts, songs, and home activities.ResultsFCCH providers implemented 83%–100% of intervention activities. All parents (100 %) adopted the program, most (87 %) returned completed homework activities to FCCHs, and over 90 % implemented changes in the home. Percent of overweight/obese children decreased from pre-intervention (50 %) to post-intervention (29 %,p = 0.06) and follow-up (38 %,p = 0.06).ConclusionsIt is feasible to build children's asking skills and pair this strategy with home activities to engage parents to prevent obesity.     

Job-strain and well-being among Finnish social workers: exploring the differences in occupational well-being between child protection social workers and social workers without duties in child protection

Work-related mental distress and its impact on employees’ working life is a mounting issue among Finnish social workers. This article focuses on identifying the factors associated with child welfare social workers’ occupational well-being. The occupational well-being of Finnish child welfare social workers (N?=?364) and social workers whose duties do not include child protection work (N?=?524) was explored and compared with each other using t-test statistics and logistic regression analysis. The data, collected in 2014/2015, were obtained from an ongoing longitudinal cohort study on work-related well-being among Finnish public sector employees. A multi-dimensional and holistic approach to occupational well-being was used as the outline for the analysis and comparison of the two groups. Child protection social workers reported higher levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress than social workers without child protection duties. Despite these burdens, both groups showed a similar level of general health, compassion satisfaction and overall occupational well-being. Individual and organizational factors associated with high occupational well-being were identified. Supervision was found to be an important supporting element. This study identified multiple determinants related to social workers’ occupational well-being, comprising positive and negative elements with regard to organizational and individual factors.     

Child-centered approach in the context of the assessment of children in need: Reflections of child protection workers in Estonia

Objective

This article describes empirical results on how practitioners understand the concept of child-centered approach and how it is applied in practice, extending knowledge of the unresearched phenomena in Estonian child protection practice.

Method

A small-scale study included twenty child protection workers from different regions in Estonia, exploring the child-centered approach in assessment practices through in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Results

Results indicate that child-centered approach in the child protection workers' practice is characterized, firstly, by doing work for the child, and less by working with the child, including the fact that some practitioners are somewhat unclear about the meaning of child-centered principle. Majority of the participants underscored the importance of child involvement and partnership in the decision-making process, nevertheless, their case reflections showed that most of them did not include the child in the assessment.

Conclusions and implication for practice

Findings highlight several challenges in Estonian child protection system and suggest a need to find ways to support child protection workers' competence and confidence to conduct comprehensive assessments based on the child-centered approach, including the child in the assessment process.