The home visit in child protection social work: Emotion as resource and risk for professional judgement and practice

This article conceptualises the role of emotion in social work home visits. It draws on findings from a qualitative study of initial child protection home visits in the United Kingdom. The research used narrative interviews and focus groups to examine how emotions arising from visits were registered in social workers' narratives. These visits were often challenging; social workers needed to manage their own emotions and those of the family, while at the same time investigating concerns and assessing need. This article identifies seven key emotional experiences associated with the home visit from the perspective of the social worker: going into the unknown; being intrusive; being disliked; fear of harm to self; fear of causing or allowing harm; pain, disgust, and distress; and “absorbing” emotion. It is argued that emotion plays a central role in home visiting and that professionals' emotional responses have important implications for the way they make sense of, and manage, home visits. Emotion is therefore conceptualized as both a potential resource and risk for social workers' professional judgement and practice.     

Child protection and fathering where there is domestic violence: Contradictions and consequences

Children live in different contexts of protection and vulnerability when exposed to domestic violence. The negative impacts for many children are consistent and widely acknowledged. However, the implication that this requires men who use violence to address their fathering has been slower to emerge. This article draws from 69 in‐depth qualitative interviews with men, women, and workers across four men's behaviour change programmes in rural Victoria, Australia. Particular attention is given to men's attitudes to their fathering and the formal and informal consequences they experienced as a result of their violence and its impact on their fathering. Although most men came to recognize that their violence impacted their children, they failed to make the connection that the involvement of statutory child protection services in their lives was a direct consequence of their abusive behaviour. This article explores this disconnection by fathers who use violence, their attitude to the involvement of statutory child protection services, and identifies the implications for social work practitioners in addressing this issue.     

A personal reflective account: The impact of the collation and sharing of information during the course of a child protection investigation

This paper provides a subjective, personal account of the impact and effect which the collation and sharing of information had and continues to have on my family during the course of a child protection investigation. By sharing my story I hope to preserve my unique, subjective experience in the midst of an impersonal and highly invasive bureaucratic process in an attempt to bridge the power divide between the professional and parent. I do not attempt to analyse theory but rather feelings, and identify the differing perceptions of those involved. The importance of the professional maintaining an open mind and challenging any preconceived assumptions or judgements about a family is also stressed. Child protection work must ensure that policies and practice comply with the rights laid down in the Human Rights Act (1998) and the professionals involved must be seen to promote and protect the rights of all vulnerable individuals.     

The impact of ‘being assessed’ by a disabled children's team: a personal reflective account

The body of ‘service user’ literature confirms the value of parental perceptions of child and family social work and the insight parents and others can offer. This paper lends my voice to the literature regarding parental perceptions, inspired by the work of Pamela Davies, who provided a personal account of the impact of a child protection investigation. This paper draws upon my experiences of being a father of two ‘disabled children’ and undergoing an assessment of need. This paper seeks to draw attention to issues of choice, power imbalances and the role of expertise. My personal experience of undergoing an assessment was that it was an emotionally fraught process, for the duration of the assessment, our family stress increased and we had a sense of having to ‘battle’ for the support we needed. As such, my personal experience fits well with the wider body of literature, which highlights the increased stress of caring for children with additional needs, the challenges of ‘fitting’ disabled children into the frameworks used to assess all children and the difficulty for parents and professionals in distinguishing between ‘normal’ parenting responsibilities and the additional responsibilities of caring for a disabled child.     

The progress of child protection in South Africa

Child abuse in South Africa is a serious and escalating problem. In this article, the writer reflects on the response of the South African government and civil society organisations to the problems experienced by practitioners in their management of child abuse during the past decade. This response must be understood within the context of South Africa's transition from a past characterised by state-enforced discrimination, exclusion and inequity. The article focuses on the child protection service system and draws attention to a review conducted in the nine provincial departments of social development across the country. It discusses the recommendations of the review in light of international literature on child welfare and lessons learnt over the past ten years. Despite the progress in policy formulation, implementation remains a major problem regarding child protection in South Africa.     

Strategies for survival: users' experience of child welfare in three welfare regimes

This paper draws on research into child welfare services in France, Germany and England which compares the subjective experience of mothers who have been in contact with family support and child protection agencies in the three countries. The mothers' stories suggest that successful help‐achieving strategies differ according to the nature of the child welfare regime, and that behaviour which is effective in getting a good response in one country may work less well elsewhere. The stories of two mothers in each of the countries have been chosen to demonstrate how the structures of different social welfare regimes affect the efforts of welfare users to get the help they need.     

What does empathy sound like in social work communication? A mixed‐methods study of empathy in child protection social work practice

It is widely accepted that empathy is important for social work practice, yet there are multiple dimensions of empathy and comparatively few studies of empathy as a component of social work skill. To date, published studies have been quantitative, and as a result, we know little about how social workers demonstrate empathy in practice or what skilled empathic practice in child and family social work might sound like. This study contributes to the development of understanding of empathy as a social work skill through a mixed‐methods analysis of 110 audio recordings of meetings in a child protection service between workers and parents, applying a coding framework for analysis. Findings indicate that workers who demonstrate higher levels of empathy skill use more open questions and reflections in their communication with parents. Further, they demonstrate curiosity about and make efforts to understand parents' often difficult experiences, including a focus on emotions. That the majority of workers were found not to demonstrate a high level of empathy skill presents concerns to be considered by the social work profession. A deeper understanding of empathy presents an opportunity for an increased focus in organizations to enable workers to demonstrate empathy towards families they work with.     

Performing child protection: home visiting, movement and the struggle to reach the abused child

Social work and child protection literature, policy and practice discussions largely ignore the core experience of doing the work. Little attention is given to where it is performed, and in particular, the practice of home visiting and the emotions and challenges of accessing children it gives rise to. Although it is the methodology through which most child protection goes on, the home visit is virtually ignored, as the emphasis in policy and practice texts is increasingly on what happens in the office, at the computer and in inter-agency collaboration. Examining scenes from home visiting practices and child death inquiry reports – Baby Peter, Victoria Climbié and Jasmine Beckford – the paper identifies the core problem of contemporary child protection as being social workers (and other professionals) not moving in rooms or around houses to meaningfully engage with, touch or examine children. Analysing practice through the sociology of 'mobilities' and psychodynamic social work theory, the paper provides new ways of understanding social work experience as forms of embodied movement. It uses the concept of 'containment' to suggest ways in which practitioners can be supported to use their bodies to move more and better in performing child protection to the benefit of children, other service users and themselves.     

Child Protection Social Work: Risks of Fears and Fears of Risks – Impossible Tasks from Impossible Goals?

This article examines the relationship between the causes and effects of fear in child protection social workers, and the effects of risk assessment and risk management policies on this area of work. The focus on risk assessment and risk management has become a major area of attention within practice, policy and management of child protection work in the UK in recent years. Concepts of risk as constructed by the media, government and the public are increasingly impacting upon professional practices. This article examines the basis and validity of risk assessments in the social professions field, and particularly within the child protection arena. The article goes on to examine the experiences of fear arising from the risk agenda, which affects frontline workers, managers and child protection agencies. This agenda arises from centrally produced risk assessment frameworks, alongside unrealistic expectations from central government of prediction of risk by the use of current risk assessment tools. Such controlling policies from central government can lead to fear and anxiety in social work professionals of not assessing and eliminating risk, as the government and their employing agencies are expecting them to do. The article also proposes that this risk agenda fails to address a key element in the assessment of risk – how social workers experience threats and stress in their work, and the pressures they can be subject to within it, particularly in relation to violence and threats from parent service users where their children are being investigated for possible child abuse.     

Changing the cultural story in child protection: learning from the insider's experience

This paper argues that child protection organizations intent upon tackling low retention rates and enhancing the services they offer to children and families must pay greater attention to the emotional life of the organization and to enabling workers to manage the intrusiveness of the work. Findings from in-depth qualitative interviews with child protection workers and supervisors are reported in the form of a story about the insider's experience of the organization. The consequences of working in an organizational culture that denies opportunities for workers to understand and manage the emotional toll of the work are explored. While reporting on research and work undertaken with Australian child protection workers between 1997 and 2002, the view is expressed that these ideas have current relevance to many organizations in the health and welfare field whose core business involves workers coming into contact with individuals in complex, uncertain and ambiguous situations. The paper looks at what needs to change about organizational structures such as supervision to promote learning within a more healthy organizational culture. A clear message from senior managers and politicians to workers that the organization endorses the open expression of feelings, doubts and uncertainties is pivotal.     

What social workers talk about when they talk about child care proceedings in the District Court in Ireland

Court proceedings are a fundamental and increasingly time‐consuming aspect of social work practice. However, to date, there is a relatively modest body of literature considering the experiences of social workers in instituting child care proceedings and giving evidence in court. This paper draws on data gathered as part of an in‐depth qualitative study of professional experiences of District Court child care proceedings in Ireland and presents findings regarding the experiences of social workers in bringing court applications for child protection orders. It seeks to answer 2 key questions: First, how do child protection and welfare social workers experience the adversarial nature of child care proceedings in the District Court? Second, what are the views of child protection and welfare social workers on the strengths and weaknesses of child care proceedings as a decision‐making model for children and young people? The main findings are that social workers expressed significant reservations about the predominantly adversarial model that currently operates in Irish child care proceedings and about the level of respect that social workers are afforded within the operation of the system.     

Poverty‐aware social work in the child protection system: A critical reflection on two single‐case studies

In recent years, scholarly writing that calls for the development of a new child protection framework that contextualizes risk and links it to poverty and social marginalization has increased. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research on the challenges of implementing such a framework in frontline practice. Based on the ongoing, rigorous documentation of the author's experience, as a social work practitioner in a community child protection centre, this article presents two single‐case studies that describe and conceptualize the potential contribution of the poverty‐aware paradigm to the creation of a social framework for child protection practice. Utilizing critical reflection as a method of analysis, the findings reveal two major tensions entwined in poverty‐aware child protection practice: the tension between focusing child protection interventions on parenting and focusing them on poverty and the tension between framing risk within a social context and framing it within the concept of the best interest of the child. Based on the case studies, seven poverty‐aware practices to cope with these tensions are identified.     

Chronic Child Abuse: The Characteristics and Careers of Children Caught in the Child Protection System

The introduction of the Quality Protects initiative in Englandand the focus on performance management has challenged socialservices departments to examine the systems, processes and outcomesfor children who have their name on a child protection register.Research indicates that approximately one-quarter of the situationsin which children are registered could be described as chronic—thatis, they remain on the child protection register for significantperiods of time, experience more than one period of registrationor suffer a further incident of significant harm whilst subjectto a child protection plan. In this article, the findings froma research study conducted into this group of vulnerable childrenare reported, focusing on the characteristics of the childrenand their families, and their careers in the child protectionsystem. The paper concludes with observations about the weakconceptualization of performance management and the need torecognize the complexity of the factors that influence children’scareers in the child protection system.     

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.     

Shame and guilt in child protection social work: new interpretations and opportunities for practice

Shame is an underexplored and misunderstood emotion. It can be described as an acute awareness of one's flawed and unworthy self. It is the primary social emotion and one of our most intimate feelings developed within the context of our family of origin, which can have a devastating effect on an individual and their relationships. Social workers are routinely faced with issues of shame as an intrinsic consequence of the matters with which social work deals and also as a result of how both families and workers experience the child protection process. This paper outlines the research on shame and guilt to argue for a re‐evaluation of the key challenges faced by child protection social workers. It is argued that shame experienced by parents and carers potentially plays a significant role in these challenges, while it may be argued that ‘guilt’ has had a bad press and may potentially play an important role in the successes. An argument is made for a shame‐reducing child protection social work practice with some key themes for practitioners to consider in their attempt to improve the accuracy of assessments and intervention.     

Negotiation as a style in child protection work

How child protection professionals orient to the work can be described as a style, and in the two teams reported on here, a style is emerging that is characterized by reaching for and inviting ongoing negotiation with families, with allied professionals and colleagues, and a reflexivity that is the result of the attention focused on the professional and the need to continually defend the work and explain to others one's point of view. Negotiation is a political concept that blends the reality of State authority with the practice of taking seriously the goals and interests of clients as well as the goals and interests of allied professionals. For these teams, this practice is rooted in an identity of service to the client, the importance of the protection of children and long‐standing motivations common to the helping professions.     

Facts with feelings – social workers' experiences of sharing information across team and agency borders to safeguard children

This paper reports findings from a psychosocially informed case study of information sharing across team and agency borders, carried out in three children and family social work teams within one local authority. The study investigated practitioners' understanding and experiences of information sharing, the tasks, processes and technologies involved, as well as perceived barriers and facilitators. It also considered how the emotional and social dynamics of working contexts could impinge upon information work. Practitioners described information tasks relating to collecting, interpreting, communicating and recording information, guided by the demands of rigid organizational protocols. Performance of these tasks was, however, infused by the emotional complexities of child protection work, presenting a number of challenges for practitioners seeking robust and reliable information in the midst of ambiguity, complexity and heightened emotions. For practitioners across all teams, information work, and information itself, was both cognitive and affective and often at odds with linear processes for its exchange across team boundaries, designed to filter out all but hard evidence. Increased recognition of the dual nature (facts and feelings) of information and information work, throughout the safeguarding process, has potential to enhance the generation of shared understandings and collaborative practice across team and agency borders.     

Adoption as a means of child protection: the law and practice in Malaysia

Adoption in Malaysia is of two kinds; firstly, taking the child of another as a person's own child, where as a result, the adopted child will stand in equal footing with the natural children of the adoptive parents; and secondly, taking a child of another into a person's custody without affecting the biological status of the adopted child. This article wishes to discuss the law and practice of adoption in Malaysia as one of the means of child protection. The article will also examine as to whether the law is adequate to protect children who are the subjects of adoption.     

Child protection practitioners: Including children in decision making

This article presents findings from a study with 467 child protection practitioners in Australia to determine their practice responses and views on children's participation. The practitioners, recruited from 5 state jurisdictions, completed an online survey responding to case studies designed to determine the extent to which they would seek and include children's perspectives in decision making, and their confidence in talking to children. We report on practitioners' responses to a case study of a 5‐year‐old girl with suspicious bruising where the mother reports domestic violence. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that the child's young age would lead to low levels of confidence in consulting with the child and giving weight to her perspective. In contrast to the findings of other research, our results show that almost all workers report that they would speak with the child, would be confident doing so, and would give weight to the child's perspective. Our discussion explores the potential reasons for the difference in these findings compared with other research, including the experience of practitioners, increased child‐centred policy in Australia, multiple understandings of participation, and variation in children and practitioner views of participation.     

Living in the red zone: the experience of child‐to‐mother violence

Child‐to‐mother violence is an area of family violence that has received limited attention over the past 20 years but is a problem for many families. It is poorly understood in the community and this lack of understanding creates a basis for families and service providers to minimize the abused mothers' experience. This paper is drawn from a larger study that aimed to explore child‐to‐mother violence in a high‐risk geographical area and describes a qualitative theme developed from 185 participating women's narratives, ‘Living in the red zone’: the experience of child‐to‐mother violence. The red zone refers to danger and was an element throughout women's narratives. It is clear from the reflections of these women that child‐to‐mother violence is a significant and complex issue. Mothers were predominantly struggling in silence with their experiences of a child or children whose behaviour was threatening and/or abusive. Their experiences were most often minimized and/or devalued by family and community members, which may prevent affected women from seeking support. Mothers generally had limited concepts of the possibilities open to them to improve their situation, or limited access to appropriate and empathic individuals or services.