Research Review: Family group decision-making: a promising practice in need of more programme theory and research

The use of family group decision‐making (FGDM) in child protection is rapidly increasing throughout the world. This paper provides a brief overview of the research evidence from 1996 to 2005 and proposes future directions for both practice and research. The purpose of the review is to help move the discussion of FGDM from a promising practice to an evidence‐based practice. The research review considers what is known about the child welfare outcomes of FGDM. The paper then turns to research concerning which families are offered FGDM and which FGDM processes appear to be important. The paper concludes with specific suggestions for developing FGDM programmes that can improve child protection practice and then testing these specific programmes in rigorous trials.     

A racial comparison of Family Group Decision Making in the USA1

This study examined Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) among a nationally representative sample of African‐American and White children investigated for maltreatment in the US. While FGDM was developed for work with ethnic minority families, there is no research on how this is being carried out in the US, where African‐American children are overrepresented in child welfare services. The study views racial differences in child, caregiver and maltreatment characteristics related to FGDM; composition of FGDM meetings; service referrals and receipt; and service satisfaction. Data are from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐being (NSCAW), a study of 5501 children ages 0–14. Current analyses include African‐American and White children (n= 4129). Stratified, bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were used. Results showed that while race was not related FGDM receipt, different characteristics lead to FGDM among African‐American and White families. Surprisingly, caregivers report feeling no more involved in decision‐making in association with FGDM. FGDM is provided at low rates overall (10%) and less frequently among White caseworkers. Child access to mental health services increases in relation to FGDM. Implications are discussed.     

Social workers' attitudes towards family group conferences in Sweden and the UK

The New Zealand family group conference (FGC) approach to decision making in child welfare and protection has attracted strong interest among policy makers and professionals all over the world. While New Zealand’s legislation makes use of FGCs more or less mandatory in child protection, other countries permit social workers to refer families to an FGC at their own discretion. Knowledge about social workers’ attitudes towards the model is thus paramount if we want to understand implementation and evaluations of FGCs outside New Zealand. This study looks at attitudes towards and actual referrals to FGCs amongst 219 social workers from 18 local authorities in Sweden and the UK. Results reveal an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards FGCs in both countries. Given these attitudes it was striking that only 42% of the social workers had initiated at least one FGC over an 18‐month period. The number of implemented FGCs was almost exactly the same in Sweden and the UK, after adjusting for time and number of social workers. Possible explanations for this paradox are discussed, using data from the survey and child welfare literature.     

Making welfare conditional: A street-level perspective

This article looks at how welfare conditionality is delivered at the street level. It argues that the street-level delivery of welfare conditionality is structured by policies, the governance context in which workers deliver welfare conditionality, the organization in which they work, and the occupation they are part of. Characteristics of these contexts present street-level workers with a variety of signals and incentives that direct their decision making. The article elaborates on this proposition on the basis of a review of academic studies analysing the street-level delivery of various aspects of welfare conditionality: the use of sanctions, service personalization, and the treatment of vulnerable clients. The review shows that context characteristics together have a significant impact on the street-level transformation of welfare conditionality policies into practices. Street-level decision making concerning the use of sanctions is far more complex than can be captured by a perspective on street-level workers as merely policy implementers. Sanctioning practices are sometimes harsher, sometimes more lenient than policies lead us to expect. The “soft” side of welfare conditionality—represented by service personalization—is often under pressure at the street level, potentially strengthening welfare conditionality's tough side. This affects vulnerable jobseekers most: Street-level studies show that the balance between disciplining and enabling aspects of welfare-to-work is most at risk for more vulnerable groups. The article concludes that the contextual pressures street-level workers have to deal with in their daily work hardly reflect the “delicate equilibrium” that they need to deliver welfare conditionality in a professional, responsive, and responsible way.     

What about the fathers? The presence and absence of the father in social work practice in England,Ireland, Norway,and Sweden—A comparative study

Within Northern Europe, gendered roles and responsibilities within the family have been challenged through an emergence of different family forms, increasing cultural diversity, and progressive developments in welfare policies. To varying degrees, welfare policies in different countries support a dual‐earner model and encourage men to be more active as fathers by reinforcing statutory rights and responsibilities. In child welfare practice, there has traditionally been a strong emphasis on the mother as primary carer for the child; the father has been less visible. This paper explores, in four national welfare contexts, how child welfare social workers include fathers in practice decisions. Data were collected using focus group interviews with social workers from England, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. Similarities and differences emerge in relation to services and the focus of social work assessments. However, overall, the research suggests that despite gains in policy and legislation that promote gender equality, fathers remain largely absent in child welfare practice decisions about the parenting of their children. From the research, we raise questions for social work practice and the development of welfare policies.     

Effects of case characteristics on teamwork in family meetings

Little empirical research has examined the effects of case characteristics on high‐quality teamwork within family meetings in child welfare. We attempted to fill this gap using 497 child welfare cases in a Midwestern state in the United States. We found that overall teamwork was negatively associated with domestic violence, frequent placement moves, and a permanency plan of adoption, whereas teamwork was positively associated with the length of involvement in the child welfare system. We also examined the relationships between the case characteristics and two components of teamwork. The results showed that domestic violence and the length of the involvement were equally significant factors for both team formation and functioning. The permanency plan of adoption was a significant factor for team formation, but not for team functioning. Finally, family voices and frequent team meetings appeared to be stronger factors for improving both team formation and functioning. The results suggest that families in the child welfare system have different experiences in forming and functioning high‐quality family team meetings. Therefore, it is necessary to customize specific processes and strategies to promote teamwork depending on the child and family's characteristics and situations.     

Counting family support

Preventative family support approaches are positioned as central to child welfare policy reforms aiming to address the problems of relying upon investigation and out‐of‐home care as the main modes of intervention. Extensive claims are made for family support but relatively little is known about its scope, processes and impact. This study examines the provision of family support in one jurisdiction. A census‐type survey of family support services in one Australian state was conducted using a performance measurement framework in which inputs, outputs, processes and outcomes were measured. Family support services constituted a minor part of child welfare expenditure. They provided a narrow range of service types, and most families received short duration, low intensity services. Workers had difficulty identifying the specific child and family needs that were met by services. For family support to be a genuinely alternative response to concerns about the care of children, it must be capable of making an observable difference in the lives of families experiencing serious difficulties. The collection of aggregate performance data on family support would assist in understanding the nature and outcomes of service provision, as well as ensure family support is ‘counted’ in measurement‐orientated policy and budget processes.     

Achieving permanency for youth in foster care: assessing and strengthening emotional security

For some youth in foster care, the closest family or family‐like relationships are with the foster parents with whom they have lived for extended periods of time. Nonetheless, child welfare agencies often do not explore these relationships and the potential they may hold for youth for legal permanence through adoption or guardianship. Recognizing that social workers often lack resources to help them initiate permanency conversations, Casey Family Services, a direct service child welfare agency in the USA, developed a tool that social workers can use to explore youth's sense of emotional security with their foster parents and foster parents' sense of claiming and attachment with youth in their care. The research literature that suggests that emotional security is a critical component of successful permanence provided the foundation for the development of the Belonging and Emotional Security Tool (BEST). When used with youth and foster parents, the BEST was found to advance meaningful permanency conversations. The authors provide case examples of its use and discuss future directions for using the BEST and broadening its application.     

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.     

Family policy and social order – comparing the dynamics of family policy-making in Scandinavia and Confucian Asia

This article compares family policies in two Scandinavian and three Confucian Asian countries. Through a general survey on schemes of child allowance and parental leave, it seeks explaining factors for cross-regime diversity of the welfare systems. In focus are the agents affecting the family policy-making process, including social classes, the state, women and families. In order to assess the roles these agents have played, this study retraces the preconditions of family policy development and its associated socio-cultural backgrounds. Results from such an examination will illustrate how the social order determines the patterns of family policy, which offers a new path to travel to these different cultural 'worlds'. Taking the Confucian Asian states into its frame of reference, the study will take a fresh look at Scandinavian welfare systems, which still have some general implications for the study of the dynamics, model and outcome of family policy in an international context.     

After Safety,What is the Goal of Child Welfare Services: Permanency,Family Continuity or Social Benefit?

Child welfare services have multiple goals, including child protection, family continuity, and achievement of legal permanency so children can end their involvement with child welfare services and have a lifetime family. These goals are not all achievable to the same extent in all cases. American child welfare policy has, in the last few years, become more definitive about the priority of child protection above family preservation. Now, situations which involve safety risks that are too great do not require any efforts at reunifying children to their biological homes. Less clear in American child welfare policy and practice is the value to be placed on other factors – particularly when a child cannot return home and will need an alternative adoptive family. Practitioners often emphasize family continuity – that is, the opportunity to maintain contact with the biological parent and extended family members – as a key decision making consideration. Yet, family continuity does not necessarily predict a successful transition to adulthood that is healthy for children or provides social benefits to the community. This paper explores the rationale for expanding child welfare decision making criteria by adding longer-term outcomes and the likelihood that children will eventually generate social benefits.     

Parents' involvement in care order decisions: a cross‐country study of front‐line practice

This article examines parents' involvement in care order decision‐making in four countries at one particular point in the care order process, namely, when the child protection worker discusses with the parents his or her considerations regarding child removal. The countries represent different child welfare systems with Norway and Finland categorized as ‘family service systems’ and the USA as a ‘child protection system’, with England somewhere in between. The focus is on whether the forms and intensity of involvement are different in these four countries and whether the system orientation towards family services or child protection influences practice in the social welfare agencies with parents. Involvement is studied in terms of providing information to parents, collecting information from parents and ensuring inclusion in the decision‐making processes. A vignette method is employed in a survey with 768 responses from child protection workers in four countries. The findings do not show a consistent pattern of difference regarding parental involvement in care order preparations that align with the type of child welfare system in which staff work. The goal in each child welfare system is to include parents, but the precise ways in which it is carried out (or not) vary. Methodological suggestions are given for further studies.     

Psychosocial and relationship-based theories for child and family social work: political philosophy, psychology and welfare practice

Psychosocial perspectives on children’s development are allied to theories that recognize the ‘self’ as essentially a social entity. The quality of relationships that children experience in their social environment have a profound effect on their socio-emotional development, personality formation and social competence. To this extent, psychosocial theories of children’s development and wellbeing can provide child and family social workers with a powerful framework within which to analyse, assess and practise. However, it is also recognized that the character of child welfare practices and policies are influenced by prevailing political climates. A simple dichotomy is described between political philosophies of the right and left; libertarianism and communitarianism; individual freedom and collective action. It is argued that the present swing to libertarian individualism has brought about major changes in the policy and practice of much child and family social work, including a preference for theories that emphasize people’s psychological independence, rationality and personal responsibility. In such a climate, child and family social work becomes more legalistic, orientated towards principles of justice rather than welfare, and towards rights and responsibilities rather than personal relationships and social competence. Psychosocial developmental theories, with their emphasis on the importance of social relationships and the emotional interconnectedness of people in community, fare less well under the rigours of psychological individualism and free-market economics. The paper concludes that if children’s psychosocial development and competence are a product of their social history, practices that psychologically ‘disembed’ people from their relationship environment are unable to consider children’s needs within a coherent, well-grounded theoretical framework. If child and family social work is premised on helping children develop social understanding and emotional wellbeing, theory and practice are best served by taking a psychosocial perspective.     

From parental engagement to the engagement of social work services: discussing reductionist and democratic forms of partnership with families

Social work has moved from a child protection discourse towards a child welfare discourse that views the relationship between social workers and families as a partnership. Partnership with families in the field of child protection and child welfare, however, mirrors diverse ideological motives of social policy, civil society and practice. We engage in a theoretical discussion of different interpretations of partnership. We draw a primary distinction between reductionist and democratic forms of partnership with families. In a reductionist approach, social workers activate parents in order to realize the goals set by social work. A democratic approach to partnership refers to a shared responsibility between social workers, parents and children. In this approach, effective partnership is not something to be realized as an outcome, but a point of departure that implies a joint search for meaning and an experiment with which social workers engage. This engagement presents ‘non‐participation’ not as problematic but as an essential element of participation. The focus then shifts from a methodical approach to partnership – how to activate people to participate in the care process – to the question of how the engagement of social workers can be constructed together with families.     

Risk assessment and domestic violence – how do child welfare workers in three countries assess and substantiate the risk level of a 5‐year‐old girl?

This paper examine how a sample of 301 child welfare workers in Norway, England and California, USA assess risk in cases of domestic violence. Decisions in child welfare cases are made under a high degree of uncertainty, and by using the vignette method, we explore whether child welfare systems and risk assessment approaches result in different assessment of risk level and substantiations. We find both cross‐country differences and similarities: Norwegian workers consider the risk level to be significantly higher than their peers in England and USA. However, workers' justifications for and identification of decisive factors in the case are strikingly similar across countries. These similarities are observed for both high‐risk and low‐risk assessors, and they may exist due to widespread knowledge about domestic violence and its negative consequences. We argue that the international differences in risk level assessments are due to system differences in the countries studied.     

Indigenous family life in Australia: A history of difference and deficit

Indigenous family life has been a key target of family and child policies in Australia since colonisation. In this paper, we identify four main policy eras that have shaped the national and state policy frameworks that have impacted Indigenous families: the protectionism, assimilation, self-determination and neoliberalism eras. Our analysis of these national and state policy frameworks reveals an enduring and negative conceptualisation of Indigenous family life. This conceptualisation continues to position Indigenous families as deficient and dysfunctional compared with a white, Anglo-Australian family ideal. This contributes to the reproduction of paternalistic policy settings and the racialised hierarchies within them that entrench Indigenous disempowerment and reproduce Indigenous disadvantage. Further, it maintains a deficit paradigm that continues to obfuscate the positive aspects of Indigenous family life that are protective of Indigenous well-being.     

A Framework for Cultivating and Increasing Child Welfare Workers’ Empathy Toward Parents

ABSTRACT

Much emphasis has been placed on child welfare workers’ skills and attributes when working with parents involved in the child welfare system; however, few studies have examined the potential benefits of using an empathic approach to interacting with parents. Child welfare workers may have negative perceptions of parents involved in the child welfare system and might have a tendency to reflect these attitudes and value judgments in their practice. The lack of empathic understanding and communication between workers and parents impacts service implementation and the success of family interventions. Increasing the workers’ ability to empathize with parents can enhance their relationship while increasing parent participation in services and ultimately family reunification. This article will discuss specific ways to cultivate and increase child welfare workers’ empathy for parents by enhancing workers’ emotional response and self/other-awareness, ability to perspective take, emotion regulation, and their ability to make appropriate decisions. Implications for application to practice and training are discussed as is the need for future research to validate the proposed framework for increasing child welfare workers’ empathy toward parents.     

Intensity,moderation, and the pressures of expectation: Calculation and coercion in the street-level practice of welfare conditionality

This article offers a street-level perspective on welfare conditionality as it was practiced in contracted-out UK activation programs between 2008 and 2015. Drawing on observation and in-depth interviews, the article illustrates the ways that behavioral conditionality provided street-level workers with the means to intensify or moderate activation for particular claimants. Responding to arguments about the curtailment of street-level discretion, the article argues that in the particular context of target-driven, work-first, and otherwise highly constrained services, discretion resided in the ability to intensify or moderate conditionality and its coercive potential—in decisions about how, on whom, and to what extent it would be applied. The article argues that attending to this form of discretion provides an alternative frame through which to view the differentiated treatment typically understood as “creaming” and “parking.” In so doing, the article problematizes accounts that draw clear lines between calculative, normative, and dispositional forms of street-level reason and practice. It shows how advisors' responses to the “street-level calculus of choice” were articulated in terms of expectation, where attempts at future-oriented calculation necessarily entailed making other forms of speculative and normative judgement about claimants and their situations. The article thus contributes to an understanding of both the causes and meaning of differentiated treatment in conditional welfare services.