Parenting with Learning Difficulties: Lessons for Practitioners

Correspondence to Dr Tim Booth, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN. Summary Parents with learning difficulties form an underserved needsgroup whose numbers are steadily increasing and are likely tocontinue to do so as a result of deinstitutionalization, communitycare and the acceptance of ‘ordinary life’ principlesas a basis for service provision. This article reviews the researchliterature on parenting by people with learning difficultiesin order to draw out the lessons for practitioners and to assistthem in developing a clearer view of their aims and approachwhen working with these families. Case vignettes from an ongoingstudy of mothers and fathers with learning difficulties areused to illustrate the common themes. The authors conclude thatservice providers still have much to learn about how best theycan secure and uphold the citizenship rights of these parentsas well as protect the welfare of their children.     

Deprofessionalizing Social Work: Anti-Oppressive Practice, Competencies and Postmodernism

Correspondence to Lena Dominelli, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 ZTU Summary Social Work is in a state of flux. One of the key factors impactingon the direction it is currently taking is market forces. Thisarticle argues that the globalization of the economy and theinternationalization of the state are affecting social workeducation and practice in Britain through the competency-basedapproach being promoted by CCETSW and the government. This isleading to the demise of the autonomous, reflective practitioner,creating instead, a fragmented, deprofessionalized senice thatis poorly placed to meet the requirements of anti-oppressivepractice.     

Moving Out: Insiders' Views of Relocation

Correspondence to Tim Booth, The University of Sheffield, Department of Sociological Studies, Joint Unit for Social Services Research, Sheffield, S10 2TN. Summary This paper presents some of the findings from the Kirklees RelocationProject, an evaluation of a local community care programme forpeople leaving long-stay mental handicap hospitals and socialservices hostels. It concentrates on the views of movers interviewedbefore and after the move using an innovative ‘visualgame’ technique. The study confirms that given the opportunityto make an informed choice the movers would almost always optfor the least restrictive alternative.     

Parental Participation in Child Protection Case Conferences: The Social Worker's View

Correspondence to Dr Ann Macaskill, Health Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University, 36 Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield S10 2BP Summary This article reports the findings of a questionnaire surveyof 118 local authority social workers' attitudes towards parentalparticipation in child protection case conferences. Argumentsfrom the professional literature both in favour of and againstparental participation were presented. Overall social workerswere found to be largely supportive of parental participationalthough aware of the potential problems. Other professionalgroups involved in case conferences were perceived as beingless enthusiastic about parental participation. The implicationsof these findings are discussed and some training needs identified.     

Group Living in Homes for the Elderly: A Comparative Study of the Outcomes of Care

Correspondence to Tim Booth, Department of Sociological Studies, Joint Unit for Social Services Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN. Summary This paper traces the theory and practice of group living inhomes for the elderly in the literature and in the field. Itreviews the current state of research and calls for more workon the comparative evaluation of outcomes. It describes andpresents the results from a longitudinal study of matched samplesof residents in group homes and traditional homes which assessedthe relative changes in their personal functioning over time.The findings suggest that group living arrangements have beenoversold—in so far as they promise more than they deliver.     

From Values of Rights in Social Work: Some Issues in Practice Development and Research

Prof. E. Sainsbury. Dept. of Sociological Studies. University of Sheffield. Sheffield S10 2TN. Summary The following is a discussion paper prepared for a researchteam engaged in a project funded by the Joseph Rowntree MemorialTrust. The problems it sought to address concerned how the teamcould derive a clear statement of clients rights from broadformulations of professional values, and the extent to whichresearch can measure the realization of these rights in socialwork practice. It was found in the research that the practical wisdom (commonsense) of social workers is frequently assumed to be based onprofessionally agreed values, and that—in the pressuresof daily work —values are seldom articulated in ways whichchallenge the procedures and solutions dictated by common sense.Thus, an initial purpose in preparing the paper was to commenton ways in which matters concerned with values become obscuredin practice, and to find ways of linking together values. rightsand practice more strongly. In offering this paper for widerpublication. the research team hopes that it will stimulatecomments which will assist their thinking.     

Working Together to Protect Children on the Child Protection Register: Myth or Reality

Correspondence to Jan Horwath, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Elmfield, Northumberland Road, Sheffield S10 2TU, UK. Summary Child protection guidance at a national level has predominantlyfocused on the investigation and assessment of child abuse andneglect. Post-registration practice has received little attention,resulting in a variety of local responses. This paper describesthe findings from a national study designed to identify theimpact of the lack of national guidance on local post-registrationframeworks for practice. Data collected indicate that very fewArea Child Protection Committees (ACPCs) have developed policies,procedures or practice guidance which would provide a structurefor post-registration practice. This position is aggravatedfurther as individual professionals are confused about theirown roles and responsibilities and those of colleagues. We considerthe impact of these findings on practice and conclude by suggestinga macro level framework that can be utilized by ACPCs who wishto develop practice in this area.     

Reconciling Cash and Care: Home Care Charges and Benefit Checks in Social Services

Correspondence to Pete Alcock, Health and Community Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Cresent, Sheffield S10 2BP Summary This article contains the report of a small research projecton the development of welfare rights checks for home care clientsin social services departments. Welfare rights take-up activityhas become an important feature of provision by local authoritysocial services departments, frequently targeted on particulargroups of clients known to experience problems in claiming fullbenefit entitlement. Users of home care services are such aclient group. Take-up work with home care clients is also, however,a product of the impact of community care policy changes andof financial pressures on local authority social services. Thesehave resulted in the introduction of charges for home care servicesby many authorities, and the use of rebates from such chargesto protect low income service users. Welfare rights work hasthus become an important feature of the reconciliation of thesenew charging policies with the continued service needs of poorhome care clients. The research examined a successful take-upinitiative, linked to home care charges, in Sheffield and contrastedthis with similar activities in other authorities throughoutthe UK. The conclusion is reached that levels of non-take-upof social security benefits are particularly low amongst homecare clients and that benefit checks can secure significantadditional income for them, which may also have the indirecteffect of increasing the income to social services departmentsfrom the charges for home care services.     

Staff Attitudes and Caring Practices in Homes for the Elderly

Correspondence to Tim Booth, Joint Unit for Social Services Research, The University, Sheffield S10 2TN. Summary This article presents the findings from a major survey of staffattitudes and caring practices in homes for the elderly in Fife.The survey was carried out in the wake of the Wagner Reportto examine the diffusion of good practice ideas among residentialstaff and to see how far these ideas are reflected in actualcaring routines. The study points to the existence of a ‘coolingeffect’ whereby adherence to good practice lessens thecloser one gets to operational reality. Finally, the implicationsof these findings for staff training are discussed.     

Family Placements for Adults and Children--A Double Comparison

Correspondence to Dr M. Hill, Centre for the Study of the Child and Society, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RT. Summary This article compares family placements for adults with thosefor children with special needs. Findings are presented of apostal survey which was carried out in the UK and closely basedon a survey undertaken shortly before in the USA and Canada.There were a number of similarities between the programmes foradults and specialist schemes for children, despite their differentpurposes, origins and contexts. Although outcomes are oftengood, both types of project have worrying levels of breakdown,whilst a number of adult schemes are precarious in status andresourcing.     

Task-centred Casework with Marital Problems

Summary The use of task-centred casework with people who have maritalproblems and have taken an overdose is described. The stagesof task-centred work are illustrated and difficulties whichwere encountered are discussed. Task-centred casework is seento be a feasible and helpful method of working with people withmarital problems.     

Adoption Advice: A New Service

Summary In the summer of 1975, Barnardo's Yorkshire divisional officelaunched an adoption advice service for anyone with any problemsrelating to adoption. At that time there was no service of thiskind in operation and people with adoption problems had no focalpoint to which to refer for help and advice. The following articledescribes the thinking on which this project is based and describesthe type of problems with which the counsellor had to cope andthe necessary information and social work skills which wereneeded to assist the people using the advice service. This discussioncovers the period from the inception of the Adoption AdviceService to 31 December 1975.     

A 'Missed Opportunity' Re-assessed: the Influence of the Day Training Centre Experiment on the Criminal Justice System and Probation Policy and Practice

Correspondence to Maurice Vanstone, Department of Social Policy and Applied Social Studies, University of Wales College of Swansea, Swansea SA2 8PP. Summary In 1973 four probation day training centres were set up in Liverpool,London, Sheffield and Pontypridd as part of an experimentalproject which focused on providing a community based trainingprogramme for offenders who would otherwise have been imprisoned.The experiment, which lasted from 1973 to 1981, has never beenproperly evaluated. This paper, whilst not purporting to fillthat gap, is an attempt to critically review its significancewithin the context of the criminal justice system from botha policy and practice perspective. It further reflects on thereasons for the formulation of the training centre model asa community based semi-institution. It examines its originalpurposes of diverting offenders from custody and helping them,against the charge that they not only failed to achieve thosepurposes but had the unintended consequence of drawing inappropriatepeople into a burgeoning network of state control. Throughoutthe paper a distinction is drawn between the day training centresand the numerous day centres that were established in the probationservice during the late 1970s and the 1980s.     

Where has all the care management gone? The challenge of Parkinson's disease to the health and social care interface

Summary The delivery of health and social care has undergone massivechange in the UK in the 1990s. A key factor in the drive forreform was the failure of joint working arrangements betweenhealth and social services and the need to provide integratedcare for people who have overlapping health and social careneeds. This article draws on a research study investigatingthe community care provided to people with Parkinson's diseasein the wake of the 1990 National Health Service and CommunityCare Act. As a chronic progressive disease predominantly affectingolder people, the management of Parkinson's provides an exemplarof some of the key features of supporting people with continuingcare needs. This study found serious deficits in the assessmentand meeting of need, arising from weaknesses at the health andsocial care interface. The article concludes by consideringan approach which resources and supports the service user/carerin managing their own care pathway.     

Help for Those Bereaved by Suicide

Summary Thirty-one people widowed by the suicide of a spouse were askedabout their needs following the bereavement. All had needs ofsome kind, most of them being met by relations. Nevertheless,more help could easily have been given by professional people.We make proposals here aimed at increasing the awareness ofthose who cope with the aftermath of suicide. They could domore to ease the burden for survivors.     

The Probable Extent of Minor Mental Illness in the Adult Clients of Social Workers: A Research Note

Summary A small scale pilot study was conducted in two area teams andfour part-time GP attachment schemes to test the use of a psychiatricscreening instrument (GHQ28) and social assessments. The instrumentswere administered at case allocation and again at three months.Few clinical and social changes were observed in the short term.It was found that 27 out of 40 cases (68%) were identified bythe psychiatric screening instruments as probable cases of minordisorder, on both occasions, and that a further seven clientscould have had a transient disturbance. On the basis of theseresults it was felt that a larger two-stage enquiry was warranted,and necessary, before definite conclusions could be drawn.     

The Professional Standing of Work with Elderly Persons among Social Work Trainees

Correspondence to Dr Howard Litwin, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel. Summary A random sample of 93 students of social work in Israel werequeried regarding their perception of the professional standingof work with older people. The general ranking given by traineesto this field of practice was moderate to low. Relatively positiveevaluation of the status of gerontological practice, however,was found to be explained by: (1) a traditional view of therole of the elder in society; (2) the perception that peersattribute prestige to such work; and (3) having had a fieldpracticum in the area of ageing; and was inversely related tounderstanding of work with elderly persons as mainly indirectintervention. The implications of these findings for the promotionof social work practice with elderly people in an ageing societyare discussed.     

A Profile of Adult Placement Carers

Correspondence to Andrew Gage, Manchester City Council Social Services Department, Adult Homefinding Team, Fenham, 5 Moorfield Road, West Didsbury, Manchester M20 8UZ. Summary This study examines the social and personal characteristicsof the people providing support in their own homes (adult fostering)to people with severe learning disabilities. Comparisons aremade with the general population on social and personal areas.A typical carer is identified and the results lead into issuescurrently affecting carers. Links are drawn between carer characteristicsand service user quality of life which require further study.     

Clients' Reactions to Task-Centred Casework: a Follow-Up Study

Summary Four hundred people who came to a hospital casualty departmentduring one year after taking an overdose were randomly assignedto an experimental task-centred casework service or to the routineaftercare service. Half the sample was followed up four monthsafter overdose and the remainder 18 months after it. Clientsin the experimental group were more satisfied with the servicethey had received and showed more immediate improvement in socialproblems. A task-centred method (agreement on target problems,work on tasks and adherence to a time-limit) proved feasiblein about half the experimental cases.     

Differential Assessment of Residential Group Care for Children and Young People

Summary Twelve qualitative variables frame the production of outcomesin residential group care for children and young people. Theseare used to examine contemporary themes in social care practicewith children and families. This assessment typology offerssocial workers, managers, researchers and policy-makers bothvalid and reliable baseline measures for use in evaluating residentialservices for children and young people. The typology also providescomparative interval measures for use in longitudinal evaluationsof quality. Close attention needs to be given to the impacteach of these variables has on the quality of residential groupcare services offered to children, young people and their familiesor significant others.