Search for an Indicator of Effective Child Protection in a Re-analysis of Child Homicide in the Major Western Countries 1973-1992: A Response to Lindsey and Trocme and Macdonald

Correspondence to Professor Cohn Pritchard, Department of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1 BJ England Summary An analysis of child homicides published in the British Journalof Social Work, demonstrated major falls in child deaths inEngland and Wales between 1973 and 1988. The results were seenas one indicator of improved child protection (Pritchard, 1992a).That study, and a reply to a critique by Creighton (1993), werechallenged by Lindsey and Trocmé (1994) and Macdonald(1995). This paper is a response, and takes advantage of thecriticisms and new data to present evidence which confirms thatthere have been reductions in child homicide in England andWales between 1973 and 1992 and that the Anglo-Welsh improvementswere the best of all the major Western countries.     

Children's Homicide as an Indicator of Effective Child Protection: A Comparative Study of Western European Statistics

Correspondence to Colin Pritchard, Professor of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO9 5NH. Summary It is known that the extreme consequence of child abuse is adead child. Attempts to determine the success of services toprevent child abuse and subsequent deaths confront the problemsinherent in trying to prove a negative. The use of an epidemiologicalapproach resolves some of the methodological problems by measuring‘failure’ to protect in an examination of children'shomicides rates over time. Between 1973 and 1988 it was found that there was a substantialreduction in baby homicides in England and Wales, equivalentto a fall of 61 per cent and a 57 per cent reduction in Scotland.In a comparison with the other fifteen Western European countries,England and Wales topped the league of improvements in children'shomicide, and Scotland was fourth. Such improvements suggestadvances by the child protection services. Explanations forthe positive British results are considered.     

Have Child Protection Efforts Reduced Child Homicides? An Examination of Data from Britain and North America

Correspondence to Duncan Lindsey, School of Public Policy and Social Research, Department of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles, 247 Dodd Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1452, USA. Summary In a recent British Journal of Social Work article examiningtrends in child homicide statistics collected by the World HealthOrganization (WHO), Colin Pritchard attributes a reduction inchild homicides in England and Wales to improved effectivenessof child protection services. However, further analysis of theWHO data show that the decrease in England and Wales is dueto an unusual single-year drop in homicide rates, and that thereis no evidence of a long-term downward trend. Examination oftrends in Europe and North America show that there are no consistentpatterns in fluctuations in child homicide rates, and in particular,no evidence that fatality statistics have been influenced bythe rapid expansion in child protection efforts.     

Unemployment, Age, Gender and Regional Suicide in England and Wales 1974-90: A Harbinger of Increased Suicide for the 1990s?

Correspondence to Prof. Colin Pritchard, Department of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO9 SNH. Summary The Department of Health's Health of the Nation aims at a substantialreduction in suicide; this is a ‘vote of confidence’in the effectiveness of the community psychiatric and healthservices. However, it will be shown that a number of socioeconomicchanges have occurred which may lead to increased suicide; forexample British male suicide rose in the 1980s, significantlyassociated with unemployment. Though female suicide fell substantiallyover the period, across the regions suicide rates for both menand women were worse amongst the ‘work age’ bands,16–44 years, than the older groups. In respect to therelatively poorer rates amongst younger women, this may be linkedto unemployment and their unfulfilled job expectations. If thesuicide targets are not met, it is feared that the ‘failure’will laid at the door of the community and health services.     

Prior Agency Contact and Physical Abuse in Cases of Child Homicide

Correspondence to Ania Wilczynski: Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, 173–175 Phillip St, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia Summary This article describes the features of child homicide offenders'previous contact with professional agencies and the incidenceof prior physical violence towards their victims. This is basedon an examination of 48 cases notified to the Director of PublicProsecutions in 1984 in which children had been killed by parentsor parent-substitutes in England and Wales. Professional agencieshad been involved with two-thirds of the offenders. Women'scontacts were usually with medical agencies, and men's withsocial agencies. Of those cases with prior agency contact, whilstalmost two-thirds involved a history of violence towards thechild, in only a third of the cases had the reason for agencycontact explicitly included concern about physical abuse. Infact, the most frequent reason for agency contact was concernabout the offender's mental health. Agencies had taken actionin two-thirds of the cases seen by them; this tended to be psychiatrictreatment for women and child protection measures for men. Aquarter of the offenders seen by professionals had been hostileto this intervention. The above findings run counter to thepopular stereotype (fostered by the child death inquiries) thatchild-killers will have had extensive contact with social agenciesand explicitly concerning physical abuse. Professionals needto be aware of more ‘subtle’ warning signals inidentifying potentially filicidal parents.     

Contract Management and Community Care: A Negotiated Process

Correspondence to Jackie Powell, Department of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. Summary Drawing on a wider study of community care arrangements forvisually impaired people in England and Wales, this paper exploresthe implementation of contractual arrangements as part of thedeveloping formalization of partnerships between local authoritysocial services departments and voluntary organizations. Itargues the importance of conceiving contract management as acomplex set of social processes involving a diversity of interestsand inequalities of power, where skills in negotiation are centralto promoting greater participation in community care policyand practice. It concludes with a brief discussion of the relevanceof social work to the implementation of this key area of contemporarycommunity care arrangements.     

A Comparison of Child-sex-abuse-related and Mental-disorder-related Suicide in a Six-year Cohort of Regional Suicides: The Importance of the Child Protection-Psychiatric Interface

Correspondence to: Professor Colin Pritchard, Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, Southampton University, Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton SO14 0YG, UK. E-mail: cp1{at}soton.ac.uk Summary The study compares Mental-Disorder-Related (MDR) suicide rateswith Child-Sex-Abuse-Related (CSAR) suicide of ‘Victims’and ‘Perpetrators’ of child sex abuse, based uponan examination of all Coroners’ inquest files over a six-yearperiod (n = 1,017). Census data, psychiatric case register andpolice records were used to calculate the potential MDR andCSAR populations. There were five main findings: (i) male andfemale CSAR victim suicide rates were 2.2. and 2.5 times theGeneral Population Suicide Rate (GPSR), respectively; (ii) everyfemale, and 80 per cent of male CSAR victim suicides, also hada mental disorder but none of the CSAR perpetrator suicides;(iii) male and female MDR suicide rates were 5 and 6 times theCSAR Victim rates; (iv) the sex abuser perpetrators’ suiciderate was more than 3 times the male MDR rate; (v) the intra-and extra-familial perpetrator suicide rates, were 25 and 78times the GPSR, respectively. Possible explanations for thesesurprising results are briefly discussed. They confirm the overrepresentationof people with mental disorder amongst suicides, and identifyan overrepresentation of CSAR suicides, particularly perpetrators.The results have implications for suicide prevention programmes,whilst highlighting the importance of the child protection-psychiatricinterface, and indicates the futility of simple explanationsin an area of practical and moral complexity.     

Statistical Errors in Papers in the British Journal of Social Work (Volumes 1-14)

Summary This paper examines the statistical error rate in the BritishJournal of Social Work (BJSW), volumes 1–14. Half of thepapers (n=175) contain empirical data and half do not. Fifty-nineof the empirical articles are quantitative with statisticalanalysis; they account for 17% of the papers in the first 14volumes. Thirty-nine of these papers (66%) make 57 errors, arate which is comparable to that reported in the British Journalof Psychiatry. Nineteen papers (32%) make serious errors. Examplesof the type of errors are described. The wider use of reliablestatistical advice, prior to undertaking data collection, isrecommended.     

A Winter's Tale

Summary ‘My father named me Autolycus; who being as I am litteredunder Mercury was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles...’ (Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale).     

Language and Practice: Minority Language Provision within the Guardian ad litem Service

Correspondence to Richard Pugh, North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, Plas Coch, Mold, Road, Wrexham, LL11 2AW, Wales. Summary This article contends that language should be seen as an importantelement of social difference and not simply subsumed under ‘race’.While it acknowledges the complex role of language as perhapsthe most significant means by which power is exercised, theprimary focus is upon understanding language as an importantaspect of differentiation that social service agencies needto consider. The results of a survey into Welsh language provisionwithin the guardian ad litem service in Wales are describedand used to develop a discussion on language policies, linguisticawareness, and anti-discriminatory practice more generally.The article contextualizes the Welsh results within the UK andoffers suggestions as to how services might be improved. Finally,it restates the broader relevance of the study of language asa necessary element in the analysis of discrimination.     

Foster and Residential Care Practices Compared

Correspondence to Dr Matthew Colton, Department of Social and Administrative Studies, Barnett House, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER Summary This paper reports what is, remarkably, the first systematic,in-depth, comparative study of foster and residential care practices.The overall research objectives were: (1) to delineate and comparecare practice in special foster homes (i.e., homes accommodatingchildren traditionally considered too old or disturbed for fosterplacement) and Children's Homes for older children in localauthority care; and (2) if possible, ascertain whether the responsesmanifested by children in such settings can be related to thecare practices they experience. The approach adopted was essentially sociological. A lengthyperiod of field-work in two local authorities featured the useof a range of research instruments and included the collectionof data on the following: the management of recurrent–mainlydaily–social events; children's community contacts; theprovision of physical amenities; the controls and sanctionsused by caretakers vis-à-vis children; the roles of caretakersand their behaviour and attitudes towards children; and thecharacteristics of children, their behaviour towards caretakers,perceptions of their social environments and progress duringplacement. Quantitative methods were used in data analysis becausethey provide a useful guide to the import of observed differencesbetween foster homes and Children's Homes. Care practice in the foster homes was, overall, significantlymore child-oriented than in the Children's Homes. Moreover,the responses of residential children appeared to fall shortof offering justification for the ways that the lives of suchchildren seemed to differ from those of foster children.     

Social Workers and Supervision Orders: A Case of Occupational Uncertainty

Summary A distinctive feature of the supervision order is that it canbe administered either by the Probation Service or by the LocalAuthority Social Services Department. An examination of the case files on a large sample of boys (N=971)aged 14–16 placed on supervision orders for criminal offencesreveals a number of differences between the way in which workersin the two agencies approach the task of supervision. The findingssuggest that social workers are in some respects less professionallysecure and certain as to their purpose in performing their supervisorytask than are probation officers. This is accounted for by locatingtheir practice in a number of intersecting contexts, includingan occupational ambivalence over the exercise of authority anda lack of clarity in relation to the role of welfare in thecontext of juridical requirements     

Notes on Theory and Practice in Social Work: a Comparative View

Please address reprint requests to Robert van Krieken, Department of Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia. Summary There are still a number of problems surrounding the relationshipbetween theories of social work practice and that practice itself.This paper examines the factors underlying those problems andemphasises their roots in the failure to examine the diversityof social work theories and practices. We refer to one attemptto resolve the problems—the distinction between ‘practicetheory’ and ‘theory of practice’—pointout some difficulties with it and suggest an alternative, three-folddistinction within theorising: between (a) materialist socialtheory, (b) strategic practice theory and (c) working concepts. As an example of how those distinctions can be used, we thenbriefly discuss the work of Oskar Negt and its introductioninto the Dutch welfare context, as it was the issues raisedby that which stimulated the ideas in this paper. We concludeby arguing that only this kind of perspective on theorisingcan produce ideas which are of real use to progressive socialwork practitioners.     

Probation Practice, Effectiveness and the Non-Treatment Paradigm

Correspondence to Dr Peter Raynor, Department of Social Policy and Applied Social Studies, University of Wales, Swansea SA2 8PP. Summary This paper reports interim and largely positive results fromthe continuing evaluation of ‘Straight Thinking on Probation’,a substantial intensive probation programme in Mid-Glamorganbased on the work of Robert Ross et al. (1988) in Canada. Thepotential effectiveness of this type of programme is then discussedin relation to the influential model of the probation service'srole advanced by Bottoms and McWilliams in their 1979 ‘non-treatmentparadigm’. Are such programmes ‘treatment’,based on a model of offender pathology and therefore in conflictwith the paradigm, or are they ‘help’, based ona model of empowerment? An attempt to answer this question alsorequires consideration of how far the ‘non-treatment paradigm’was itself a response to perceived ineffectiveness requiringrevision in the light of new evidence. It is argued that suchrevision need not threaten the underlying moral philosophy ofthe paradigm.     

Religion and Spirituality in Social Work Education and Direct Practice at the Millennium: A Survey of UK Social Workers

Correspondence to Dr Leola Furman, 1201 Yale Place, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403, USA. E-mail: furmanlfurman{at}aol.com Summary In recent years, an expanding body of social work publicationsand professional conference presentations has materialized inthe United States due to a resurgence of interest in spiritualityand religion. In order to explore the level of interest in theUnited Kingdom, a random sample of 5,500 practising social workersfrom the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) membershipwere mailed a questionnaire that examined religious and spiritualbeliefs, practices and affiliations. A total of 789 BASW membersin direct practice from England, Scotland Wales, and NorthernIreland returned questionnaires, a response rate of 20 per cent.The majority of respondents believed that spirituality was afundamental aspect of being human. More than three-quartersof the sample reported little or no content on religion andspirituality in their training programme. Respondents stronglyapproved of raising the topic of religion and spirituality withclients who are experiencing terminal illness or bereavement.This also held true in matters of adoption and foster parenting.Approximately 47 per cent of all respondents believed that includingreligion and spirituality in direct practice was compatiblewith social work’s mission. This sample may representthose social workers with a stronger interest in religion andspirituality than a random sample of the general populationof UK social workers. These findings, nevertheless, raise concernabout the availability of practice models and training curriculafor social work practitioners and students.     

Keeping Social Work Honest: Evaluating as Profession and Practice

Correspondence to Ian Shaw, School of Social and Administrative Studies, University of Wales Cardiff, 50 Park Place, Cardiff CF1 3AT Summary The central argument of this paper is that social work needsa radical alternative to existing options for evaluating practice.Social workers at present are offered three choices. They areinvited to choose between applying research, conducting researchor adopting specific forms of empirical research-based practice(for example Everitt et al., 1992; Thyer. 1993; Fuller and Petch,1995). We touch briefly on reasons why we believe none of these optionsprovides an adequate grounding for social work, referring especiallyto the growing call for social work to find new purpose throughan empirical, research-based practice. If alternative approachesare to be persuasive, they must be fashioned from the materialsof a new approach to research on social work practice—‘one that is exploratory rather than confirmatory, buildinga model of evaluation from the practitioners' own accounts ratherthan superimposing an ideal model’ (Elks and Kirkhart,1993, p. 555). The major part of this paper is taken up withevidence from research of this kind. The model of evaluatingin practice with which we conclude the paper is simultaneouslytrue to social workers' accounts of their practice, while offeringa critical starting point for evaluating and refashioning thatpractice.     

Psychological Distress in Staff of a Social Services District Office: A Pilot Study

Correspondence to High Winnard, Church Road, Bishopsteignton, Devon TQ14 9QH, UK Summary This comparison study of fieldworkers and administrative workersin a social services district office addressed three researchquestions. Would fieldworkers show more internality and wouldthey perceive higher job demands than administrative workers,and would there be a positive relationship between perceivedstress and perceived job demands for all workers? The GeneralHealth Questionnaire 28 was administered, in addition to a jobdemand inventory. Self-reported absenteeism due to illness wasconsidered, and locus of control was considered as a moderatorof stress, as were years of service, age, and whether the employeeworked part- or full-time. Because fieldworkers might generallybe thought to be under more stress due to their work contentthan their support staff, data from fieldworkers were comparedwith those from administrators. Gender differences were alsosought. Statistical tests showed no significant differencesfor gender or between the administrative staff and fieldworkstaff for internality or job demand. A positive relationshipwas evident between perceived stress and perceived job demandwith a correlation of 0–40 (p <0·05). In addition,over 72 per cent of the sample scored above the cut-off pointon the GHQ 28 indicating psychiatric morbidity. The implicationsof the results are discussed.     

Social Work, Liberty and Law

Correspondence to Professor John Williams, Department of Law, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DY, UK. E-mail: jow{at}aber.ac.uk Summary The relationship between law and social work is complex. Doeslaw assist practitioners to promote rights, or is it confinedto ensuring accountability and regulating practice? This articleexplores law's role, and its limitations, in promoting liberty,or more accurately ‘constitutional liberty’. Doeslaw provide practitioners with liberty-based values capable,if necessary, of legal enforcement? The paper argues that thereis no simple answer; law impacts on social work in differentways and there is little consistency across and within clientgroups. However, it concludes that law is one of the tools thatsocial workers can use to promote liberty.     

A Revisionist History of Intermediate Treatment

Correspondence to John Pratt, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zeland. Summary This paper examines and challenges the view that intermediatetreatment for young offenders in England and Wales has alwaysbeen intended as an alternative to custody provision. It arguesthat its origin and subsequent development have to be understoodwithin what was the prevailing welfare discourse at the timeof the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act. It traces some ofthe processes involved in the change that has since taken place,characterized by a move from ‘welfare’ to ‘justice’talk, and suggests that it was only then that the conceptualspace for intermediate treatment to operate as an alternativeto custody was established. Finally, it examines some of thecritical issues raised by these changes in policy and discourse.     

Swimming with Dolphins: The Assessment Framework, New Labour and New Tools for Social Work with Children and Families

Correspondence to Dr Paul Michael Garrett, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. E-mail: paul.garrett{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary Local authorities, in England, implemented the Framework forthe Assessment of Children in Need and their Families in April2001. The Framework is the first ‘official’ standardassessment model intended for use in the initial assessmentof all ‘children in need’ under Part 111, section17 of the 1989 Children Act. This new ‘conceptual map’needs to be understood in terms of previous policy documentsand earlier technologies of intervention related to child protectionand, more broadly, child welfare. However, it also needs tobe more expansively perceived, fixed and located as it relatesto other elements in New Labour's political ‘project’.The Framework's preoccupation with an ecological approach toassessments and with questionnaires and scales are likely tohave major implications for social work practice and for micro-engagementswith children and families.