Parenting education for young fathers in prison

This paper explores the effectiveness of delivering an intensive parenting class to groups of young fathers in prison. Evaluation was based on course feedback from a total of 75 participants. Results demonstrate that even within a group of young prisoners of similar ages there were diverse parenting educational requirements, indicating a need for courses to remain flexible and participant‐led. In considering parenting support needs, three‐quarters of all course participants highlighted the importance of better visiting procedures to allow them to keep in contact with their children whilst in prison. Participants expressed reluctance in accessing parenting support services after release, with the majority of the young fathers indicating that they did not need or want to access formal post‐release provision. Results suggest that further efforts need to be made to support young fathers in custody and after release, with implications for preventing reoffending and engaging young men in parenting education.     

Interaction between Voluntary and Statutory Social Service Provision in Sweden: A Matter of Welfare Pluralism,Substitution or Complementarity?

Many welfare states have met with criticism and it has been argued that they are in crisis. Simultaneously, there has been a greater openness to voluntary work as an alternative to statutory services, for example in Sweden. Sometimes the activities of voluntary organizations have been seen as complementary to those of local authorities; at other times this issue has been addressed in terms of welfare pluralism. However, countries with strong welfare states have often been assumed to have insignificant voluntary work—as claimed in substitution theory. The purpose of this article is to examine variation in welfare service provision in the light of welfare pluralism, substitution theory and complementarity theory. The study was carried out in the area of support for relatives of older people in Sweden. It was conducted by means of national questionnaire surveys of voluntary organizations and local authorities in 1999 and 2002. In this period, there was an increase in statutory service provision and more voluntary organizations were involved in service provision. However, it is yet too early to describe this in terms of welfare pluralism. Neither was any evidence found for substitution theory. Furthermore, overlaps in service provision from voluntary organizations and local authorities question complementarity theory, which assumes that different actors specialize in different tasks. Nevertheless, the actors tended to be complementary at a local level. It is suggested that this complementarity might be explained by ideological support for a norm of complementarity.     

Placed and paid for: a national overview of the use of private and voluntary day care facilities for children in need

This paper examines day care provision for children in need, who are placed and paid for by local authorities in non local authority services. The England and Wales Children Act 1989 placed a new duty on local authorities to provide day care services for children who are defined as being 'in need', and the guidance accompanying the Act encourages the use of independent sector services for this purpose. This paper brings together the main findings from a survey of all English local authorities, an analysis of local authority documentation and secondary analysis of government statistics to provide a national overview of the use of sponsored day care places for children 'in need'. It concludes that the majority of English local authorities value the contribution of independent day care providers, but that there are potential problems with adopting a market approach to welfare services, such as low levels of training and support for such providers, and a shortage of suitable service provision in the areas where they are most needed. These require further consideration by policy makers and local authorities.     

What parents value from formal support services in the context of identified child abuse

Parents whose children are identified as having experienced or being at risk of experiencing significant harm potentially provide an invaluable dimension to our understanding of the circumstances that result in child abuse or neglect and how best to respond to these invariably complex situations. This paper reports findings from a study of the experiences of six parents.
In-depth interviews were conducted with four mothers and two fathers who had been referred to an intensive family support service by the Queensland statutory child protection authority. Using a critical ecological perspective, the study focused on identifying and understanding the experiences of the parents in using formal family support services, including aspects of service delivery that were helpful or unhelpful. Parents also commented on their experiences of statutory child protection services.
Service components and worker qualities that parents identified as being helpful included being accessible, targeted and integrated and being able to meet a continuum of needs, from a micro to a broader level. Their reports provide invaluable insight into how formal family support services, including child protection services, can better meet the needs of parents in addressing the recurring problem of child maltreatment.     

'Dealing With It': Experiences of Young Fathers in and Leaving Care

The interface between two major UK Government priorities—reducingunwanted teenage pregnancies and supporting teenage parents,and improving the health and well-being of young people in andleaving local authority care—has been the focus of recentresearch. The overall aims of this study were to explore factorscontributing to early pregnancy and parenthood among young peoplein and leaving local authority care; to determine the kindsof support available to these young people; and to identifywhat enables or prevents the delivery of the support they need.Via in-depth interviews, and in four contrasting geographicalareas, data were collected from young people and service providersacross England. This paper analyses data of relevance to theexperience of young fathers who have been looked after—toconsider how the needs of these young men might be better addressedthrough policy and practice. In-depth interviews conducted withyoung fathers and service providers highlighted three key aspectsof their experience that must be addressed if future needs areto be better provided for. These are: social exclusion, trustand more flexible forms of service provision. The implicationsof these issues for future policy and programme developmentare discussed.     

‘Unfit for reform or punishment’: mental disorder and discipline in Liverpool Borough Prison in the late nineteenth century

This article examines how Liverpool Borough Prison, opened in 1855 as one of the largest local prisons in England to adopt the separate system, categorized and dealt with mental distress and disorder amongst its prison population in the late nineteenth century. High prison committal rates in Liverpool, alongside high levels of recidivism, especially among female prisoners, led to severe overcrowding and encouraged a harsh disciplinary regime. Exacerbated by the poor physical and mental condition of the prisoners, this produced a challenging environment for maintaining the separate system of confinement and prisoners’ mental well-being. While official figures for the rates of mental disorder in local prisons are not readily available, Liverpool Prison’s diverse and under-exploited archives and official reports indicate that insanity caused prison officials and visiting justices great concern, and many prisoners were declared unfit for the rigours of prison discipline. Our article explores the implications of the ever more punitive, deterrent and physically taxing penal policy implemented in the late nineteenth century on the minds of prisoners. Despite the heavy toll on prisoners’ mental well-being, such cases were often retained by prison medical officers reluctant to acknowledge the failure of the prison to deter, reform and redeem.     

Bar None: Extending Affirmative Action to Higher Education in Prison

Recognizing the intent of Affirmative Action to include historically marginalized citizens into institutions of higher learning, we stretch the limits of Affirmative Action to consider the role of higher education in prison. We present empirical findings of a 4-year, qualitative and quantitative participatory action research study of the impact of college in prison. Evidence is drawn from participant observations; individual and focus group interviews with participants of the college program, former inmates, prison administrators, corrections officers, and children of inmates; faculty surveys; and a quantitative analysis of recidivism rates. We address the psychological, academic, and crime-related impacts of higher education on women in prison, and document the benefits of broad-based access for inmates, prison environments, children of prisoners, and society-at-large.     

Physical and social circumstances of children in Iran affected by the incarceration of the mother

The children of incarcerated parents have been a relatively invisible population. More and more children are being affected by the incarceration of a parent. These young people are already at high risk along several dimensions and tend to live under conditions characterised by poverty, instability and diminished access to sources of support. The study presented in this research explores the physical, social and psychological conditions of children in Iran affected by the incarceration of the mother, thereby contributing to the international literature by describing the problem of children of prisoners in Iran. Here we describe in an international perspective the physical and social conditions with which these children are confronted. The study comprises 33 children who had spent some time in prison with their mothers but were then moved to welfare centres. The most prevalent illnesses of these children were infectious diseases, bruises, wounds on lips and fractures of the hand. The Vineland Social Maturity Scale indicated that the children's locomotion and socialisation skills were relatively low.     

‘It's about changing services and building relationships’: evaluating the development of Children in Care Councils

The introduction of Children in Care Councils under the Care Matters reforms in England set a challenge for local authorities to find effective ways by which children in care could contribute their views to the planning and provision of services. This paper discusses a review of progress across London which combined a survey of boroughs with focus group discussions with young people, local authority staff and elected members. The research found that considerable progress had been made in that virtually all boroughs had some mechanism for representing children in care, and that staff and young people were proud of their achievements. However, major challenges remain – to embed a culture of participation in services, to ensure continuity, to reach all children including the many placed ‘out of borough’ and to defend what has been achieved in the face of severe cuts in public spending. The paper highlights a tension between empowering young people and meeting targets as corporate parents. The results support other research pointing to the need for a better understanding of the relationship between participation in governance and participation grounded in ordinary life.     

Volunteers, families and children in need: an evaluation of Family Friends

This paper explores the findings from a small‐scale research project that analysed the impact of Family Friends – a voluntary agency that provides support to families under stress who have children aged between 5 and 11 years. The study, funded by Family Friends, evaluated service users’ perceptions of the support they received, specifically in relation to the significance and impact of the volunteer befrienders. The research identified that there are a proportion of families in need who fail to attract services from mainstream statutory agencies. It also identified that the Family Friends voluntary agency makes a particular contribution to service provision by offering a friendly, non‐stigmatizing, caring and responsive service.     

Painting the Prison 'Red': Constructing and Experiencing Aboriginal Identities in Prison

Dominant Western paradigms of the social work profession havelargely failed to integrate Aboriginal traditional knowledgesand practices on healing and helping. This paper contributesto the promotion of a context-based approach to social workin prison by examining Aboriginality from both institutionaland individual points of view. Drawing on documentary analysesand interviews with Aboriginal women prisoners in Canada, thepaper sheds light on the prison’s endorsement of a hegemonicvision of Aboriginality, and on social work practitioners’inclination to adhere to it. Conversely, we argue that Aboriginalwomen prisoners negotiate their passage into prison throughAboriginal self-identification configurations that often havelittle in common with the prison’s vision of Aboriginality.Service delivery in prison may be enhanced by considering individualmodes of resisting identity-based oppression in prison, andby challenging prisons’ master narrative on Aboriginality.     

Informal kin caregivers raising children left behind in rural China: Experiences' feelings' and support

The well‐being of children in informal kinship care and their caregivers is a growing concern globally. This study explored the lived experiences of 23 kin caregivers raising children left behind in rural Northeast China while their migrant parents worked and lived in cities. The findings show that the expected authority and responsibility caregivers carry sometimes conflict with their social role of being children's grandparents. Caregivers' feelings about and understandings of these roles are shaped through their social interactions in local communities. In view of their situation and caregivers' self‐conscious attitudes towards utilizing local resources' future formal service provision and social support should take caregivers' viewpoints into account. These views are embedded in and shaped by their rural living context and relationships with community members who influence caregivers' perceptions and child rearing practices.     

Creative connections: parenting capacity, reading with children and practitioner assessment and intervention

This paper presents some findings from a study of the views of 33 parents from a diversity of backgrounds with children between 0 and 12. Twenty‐two parents were using family support services. They were asked about their views on ‘parenting capacity’ based on the dimensions of The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and Their Families (Department of Health et al.) which are now incorporated into the Common Assessment Framework used in Every Child Matters (Department for Education and Skills). They were also asked about reading with their children and how this enhanced their parenting capacities. Their responses were analysed using the parenting capacity dimensions of The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and Their Families. It became apparent that this common activity (parent/child reading) contributed much to children's development and to the quality of the child/parent relationship. It also enhanced parenting capacity as described in the parenting capacity dimensions. This paper presents that part of the findings which illustrates the creative connections that exist between the activity of parents and children reading together and the parenting capacity dimensions social workers use in assessment and intervention. These findings are relevant to practitioners working within current policy and practice agendas in children's services, which promote multidisciplinary working and non‐stigmatizing assessments and interventions.     

Substitution in statutory and voluntary support for relatives of older people

This study investigates the relationship between statutory and voluntary activity in the field of support to family carers of older people in Sweden. The relationship is considered in regard to substitution theory. A survey was conducted comprising 80 local authorities and 358 voluntary organisations. All the local authorities and about a third of the voluntary organisations arranged support activities. The number of activities varied substantially across the municipalities. However, correlation analysis found no significant relationship between local authority and voluntary activity, even though both sometimes arranged the same kinds of activities. In other words, this study finds no support for substitution theory. On the contrary, it shows that a higher level of voluntary activity is found in municipalities where the local authority cooperates with or supports voluntary organisations.     

A family support service for homeless children and parents: user and staff perspectives

Children and their parents who become homeless constitute a group of families with a complex range of social care and health needs, including mental health difficulties. In response to this, a local authority housing department established a family support team (FST) that provides assessment and detection of a range of problems, support to parents and children, parenting interventions for child behavioural problems, liaison with other agencies, and referral to specialist services when appropriate. The aim of this study was to establish the perceptions of parents and staff on their experience of the service, and ways of improving it in the future. The study adopted a developmental evaluation approach and used multiple methods, including in‐depth interviews with families; diaries; reflective activities; participatory learning and action; and observation of the FST. The study mapped the innovative service and captured the range of skills in the team and the complexity of agencies the team interacted with. It also identified areas for further development in terms of the mental health needs of children and parents who have become homeless.     

Strengthening urban community governance through geographical information systems and participation: An evaluation of my Google Map and service coordination

It is increasingly common for urban planners and local policymakers to adopt interactive technologies, such as geographical information systems (GISs), to inform their decision making and to enhance performance. This paper aimed to assess the role that interactive technology can play in enhancing urban governance to meet social needs by improving local organisations’ capacities, client access, and service effectiveness and responsiveness, as well as community building. Using the previous research framework on mapping community capacity developed by Brudney et al. (Community Development Journal, 2016, 52, 354) and Çöltekin et al. (Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 2009, 36, 5–17), we examined a simulated online interactive map for service provision in Hong Kong and interviewed around 20 local community organisations and 100 local residents about their user experience, their willingness to support its long-term adoption and their challenges. Our findings reveal that local residents find the interactive map helpful, particularly in improving service access, whereas local organisations are more reluctant to adopt such technology due to high maintenance costs. The implications of our study include the need to develop incentives to encourage technology adoption, to improve the capacity of local organisations and to establish better links between community organisations and local residents to identify sustainable financing (through crowdsourcing) for GIS applications to improve urban community governance.     

The impact of prison hospice: collaboration among social workers and other professionals in a criminal justice setting that promotes care for the dying

This study reports on a qualitative national telephone survey with coordinators of 14 prison hospice programs in 11 states. The rationale behind the survey was to learn about interdisciplinary collaboration between social work and criminal justice, using prison hospice as an exemplar of this collaboration. In addition to learning that all prison hospices in the study operate using an interdisciplinary team model and that most report high quality collaboration on the hospice team, the following additional five themes emerged: administrators and wardens are very supportive while correctional staff provides mixed support to team and program; greater collaboration with those outside prison hospice is critical; collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on dying prisoners; collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on prisoner volunteers; and, collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on the entire culture of the prison.     

Area Teams in Social Work Practice: A Programme for Research

Summary This paper critically examines assumptions underlying the beliefthat the organization of service delivery through a system ofarea teams has major advantages in the field of social work.It is generally felt that area teams are accompanied: (1) byimproved client access to service provision, (2) by a closeridentification with the local area on the part of social workers,(3) by decentralized organizational decision-making, and (4)by an increased sense of colleague support amongst professionalstaff. A review of some relevant literature casts doubt on thevalidity of these assumptions and reveals that the operationalacceptance of the area team principle has not been complementedby thorough investigations of organizational and other influenceson service delivery. In outline a programme of further researchis proposed. The paper attempts to broaden discussion on thissubject and place the basic philosophy of area teams for comparisonagainst a body of empirical research material.     

Children with an imprisoned parent: children's and caregivers' narratives

Previous studies have found that children may experience adverse effects from parental imprisonment. However, little research concerning this issue from children's perspectives has been undertaken in Hong Kong. In order to fill the knowledge gap, this study aims at exploring the challenges and resilience of children with a parent in prison. Nine children aged between 9 and 11 years with a parent in prison, and their caregivers, were interviewed. Their life experience and feelings during parental imprisonment were explored. The caregivers were asked about changes in the children's behaviour and resilience in the children. Children reported that they experienced academic stress and psychological distress, including sadness and problems in having to conceal their parent's imprisonment. They benefited through positive thinking, holding religious beliefs and talking to trusted persons. For caregivers, children's conduct problems, psychological distress and suppression of feelings were reported as the challenges children faced, while object hitting for venting emotion, religious beliefs and engagement in activities were reported as helping children to cope. The article concludes by making a number of recommendations concerning the provision of services, including the establishment of mutual-aid self-help groups, mentoring programmes and programmes promoting the importance of positive thinking for the children, and trainings for caregivers on understanding children's needs, as well as public education on the social stigma of parental imprisonment.     

Developing Models for Day Services

This paper reports an evaluation of a rural activity project for people with learning difficulties. The project is situated in (but not a regular part of) an agriculture college. Both statutory and voluntary interests are represented in the management of the scheme, which is funded by the All Wales Strategy for the Mentally Handicapped through the local authority. Despite the widespread presence of ideas about normalization and carer participation, key stakeholders in the project appeared to draw on various aspects of three different models in describing, assessing and participating in the work of the scheme: a training for work model, a personal and social growth model, and an education for life model. We explore the question of whether such contrasting views can be tolerated in a single project, and their implications for policy and practice decisions. Each model has its distinctive consequences for project aims, selection, programme planning, staffing requirements, future development objectives and desirable project outcomes. The debate has implications for the way in which policies of normalization are operationalized in and beyond the field of learning difficulties.