Parents' Views on Social Work Interventions in Child Welfare Cases

Correspondence to Trevor Spratt, Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Work, The Queen's University Belfast, 7 Lennoxvale, Belfast BT9 5BY, Northern Ireland. E-mail: T.Spratt{at}qub.ac.uk Summary This article reports findings from the third part of a three-partresearch project examining the potential for social workersto shift from a child protection to a child welfare orientationin their practice. Whilst social workers in the UK have beenencouraged to make such changes, they have been hampered byconcerns to manage risk. Findings reported from the earlierparts of the project, indicated that there was potential fora substantial proportion of child protection work to be redesignatedas child welfare work, but that where this was achieved in practice,there was evidence of the continued influence of child protectionprocesses as social workers sought to manage the risks inherentin child welfare cases. The study reported here sets out toascertain the views of parents who were subject to child welfareinterventions. The findings indicate that while parents feelapprehension with regard to contact with social workers, inthe majority of cases successful relationships are formed. Itis argued that social workers display considerable skill inmonitoring potential risks whilst engaging with families andthat the subtleties involved in such activity are not capturedby official measures of governance which concentrate on moreabstract indicators of performance.     

Working in Partnership in Child Protection: The Conflicts

Correspondence to Dr Margaret Bell, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, York, UK. Summary This article critically examines the work of twenty-two localauthority social workers undertaking child protection investigations.The findings suggest that, while the social workers were committedto being (and believed their practice to be) participative,the dual tasks of making risk assessments for the conferenceand working in partnership with the families concerned producedconflicts of interests and rights. The impact of these on socialworkers' engagement with family members, on their assessments,and on the decision making process is explored. It is concludedthat the difficulties identified limit opportunities for participativepractice, and that these difficulties are endemic to the presentsystem. It is argued that these findings point up the need fora more broadly based child-care service which more appropriatelymeets the families' welfare needs, and that the contradictorynature of the conference task should be addressed by clarifyingthe legal base of the intervention and developing other modelsof decision making. Some ways forward are suggested.     

Avoidable and Unavoidable Mistakes in Child Protection Work

Summary This article argues that social workers and the general publicneed a clear understanding of the distinction between avoidableand unavoidable mistakes in child protection work. The publicis understandably distressed when a child dies and is rightto demand an inquiry to check the quality of help provided.But a child's death is not proof that any professional was incompetent.Our limited knowledge and the complexity of assessing risk meanthat professionals can only make the best judgement on the availableevidence. Analysis of forty-five inquiry reports shows thatinquiries appreciate this; in 42 per cent of them social workerswere not criticized. The analysis however also reveals one persistenterror: social workers are slow to revise their judgements. Psychologyresearch indicates that this error is widespread and by no meanspeculiar to social workers but it means that misjudgements aboutclients that may have been unavoidable on the limited knowledgeavailable when they were made continue to be accepted despitea growing body of evidence against them. Social workers needa greater acceptance of their fallibility and a willingnessto consider that their judgements and decisions are wrong. Tochange your mind in the light of new information is a sign ofgood practice, a sign of strength not weakness.     

Assessing Child Protection Risk

Correspondence to Lorraine Waterhouse, Lecturer, Edinburgh Centre for Social Welfare Research, 23 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN. Summary The article outlines a set of child protection criteria usedby social workers for the evaluation of risk in sexual abusecases. The criteria were distilled from research findings basedon a sample of 51 child sexual abuse cases drawn from ChildProtection Registers in Scotland in 1987/89. Criteria dividebetween two types: primary (child care) criteria which concentrateon assessing circumstances prevailing within the family home;and secondary (disclosure) criteria which serve to either substantiateor refute disclosure. Primary criteria include attitude of non-abusingparent to alleged perpetrator; access between referred childand alleged perpetrator; type of abuse; age of child or youngperson; attitude of alleged perpetrator to allegations; andparental attitude to social work investigation. Secondary criteriainclude belief or disbelief of child; psychological symptomsin child; physical signs of abuse; children's attitudes towardsremaining at home; and criminal or psychiatric history includingalcohol or drug abuse. In practice the criteria tend to be usedlike a set of building blocks: tall towers represent higherrisk; low towers lesser risk. Given the enormous stakes involvedin child protection decisions, front-line practitioners wereunder considerable pressure to ‘play it safe’.     

Decision making in Child Protection: The Use of Theoretical, Empirical and Procedural Knowledge by Novices and Experts and Implications for Fieldwork Placement

Correspondence to Dr Julie Hudson, 89 Yorktown Road, Elizabeth Park, South Australia 5113 Summary This paper is concerned with the process of decision makingin child protection, particularly as it relates to the decisionwhether or not to remove a child from home. The study compareda group of novice social workers with expert practitioners,placing a particular focus on the types of knowledge that novicesdraw upon when making such decisions. A three-stage, qualitative methodology was employed to investigatechild protection decision making. All parts of the study utilizeda case vignette of a neglect scenario. This paper reports onsome of the findings in respect of the use of theoretical, empiricaland procedural knowledge. The findings suggest that novices tend to lack a clear understandingof the factors that are associated with child maltreatment.While they have a superficial awareness of the concept of riskassessment, they have an inability to weigh factors appropriatelyand to apply this to their practice. The implications of these findings are discussed in relationto field education.     

Discourses of Child Protection and Child Welfare

Correspondence to Gordon Jack, University of Exeter, Department of Social Work and Probation Studies, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ Summary The history and dominance of the discourse of child protectionand its influence over social work practice with children andfamilies is discussed in the light of recent research into theoperation of child protection systems in the UK and elsewhere.The often negative effects of current approaches on professionals,parents, and, particularly, children are highlighted. The issuesof confidentiality and empowerment appear to be of central importancefor current debates about the welfare of children and youngpeople. Three strategies for change are outlined and discussed. It isargued that a fundamental challenge to the child protectiondiscourse is required. Parallels are drawn with the changeswhich occurred in attitudes and responses towards football supporters,following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. The dangers and shortcomings of the present reliance on a diseasemodel of ‘abuse’, with its focus on individual pathology,are analysed. Support is provided for the development of a newdiscourse, which acknowledges the social contexts within whichallegations of ‘abuse’ arise, and without whichsocial work will continue to be restricted to a procedurallydominated conservative orientation to child welfare.     

A Comparison of Child Fatalities by Physical Abuse Versus Neglect: Child,Family, Service,and Worker Characteristics

ABSTRACT

In the field of child welfare, attention has been given to risk factors for child maltreatment fatalities with little attention to the difference between children who die from abuse versus neglect. As part of a larger study, child welfare workers (n = 104) from 14 different states responded to an anonymous online survey that described the child, family, and case characteristics before death and worker characteristics/experiences before and after death. Results supported that prior to death, neglectful families presented with less risk than abusive families, in the areas of parent–child attachment, child behavior problems, and changes in household composition while reporting that they received more services. With regard to child welfare practice, workers did not report any differences in how they handled cases before death nor did they report differences in their posttraumatic stress symptoms at the time of the survey. These findings can be used as a springboard for future research that focuses on fatal maltreatment.     

Gender and the Child Protection Process

Correspondence to Dr Elaine Farmer, Centre for Family Policy and Child Welfare, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, Block F, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 ITN, UK. Summary In the debates about finding a new balance between child protectionand family support, there has been silence on the issue of theimpact of gender on child protection work. Using data from oneof the studies in the Department of Health (1995) child protectionresearch programme, this article examines the impact of genderat each stage of the child protection process. It shows thatmothers have tended to be under-represented in relation to offersof service and over-included in respect of agencies' effortsto control them. When social work practice in cases of physicalabuse by men focuses exclusively on mothers, this allows men'sviolence to their female partners to be ignored. This practicehas been sustained in recent years, even though the child protectionsystem itself developed in response to public anxiety aboutchild deaths caused by men.     

The Beckford Report: A Critical Appraisal

Correspondence to Nigel Parton, Department of Behavioural Sciences, The Polytechnic, Queensgate Huddersfield HDI 3DH. Summary This paper provides a critical analysis of the Beckford Reportand its implications for social work and the personal socialservices. Four interrelated themes are explored: the relationshipbetween social work practice, statutory responsibilities andthe law; the attitudes of social workers towards children andfamilies; the social work skills required; and the assumptionsthat are made about child abuse and the role of social workers.This is then related to recent research findings in the areaof policies and decision making in child care. It concludesby arguing that the report is in great danger of misdirectingour attentions from the major issues concerned with social workwith children at risk.     

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.     

Child protection social work and men's abuse of women: an Irish study

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of the response of social workers within a community care setting, in a large Dublin suburb, to cases involving men's abuse of women. This research aims to focus on what child protection workers do regarding this abuse, and what they say about what they do, thereby giving readers a sense of the action taking place in this social work team. The data, generated from both qualitative and quantitative methodological research, reflects this aim, as it taps into the working model of responses to men's abuse of women held by social workers, and identifies what influences that, thereby reflecting the realities and constraints of everyday work. At the time the research was carried out (2000), the results confirm that the prevalence of cases involving men's abuse of women on this team was in line with international findings. This research revealed an absence of a team policy, an agreed definition of intimate violence in this context and agency practice guidelines, and illuminated how these gaps act as a deterrent to effective intervention. This paper explores some of the ethical and practical dilemmas that may arise for child protection social workers intervening in cases where the abuse of women by men is present. Recommendations arising from this research identify a need for a clear policy and best practice guidelines for social work staff in relation to this abuse.     

Social Workers and Child Welfare

Correspondence to Dr Gunvor Andersson, Lund University, School of Social Work, Box 23, 22100 Lund, Sweden. Summary What problems do social workers at social services offices haveto face in their child welfare work? How do they handle theproblems, and how important is the relation between the socialworker and the child's parents? The research project includes189 child welfare cases with 0–3-year-old children inten local communities in Sweden. The article shows that thesocial work can be categorized into four different types ofwork, where the work done, as well as the relation between thesocial worker and the child's parents, differ. (1) The socialworker is mediating help and support and has a positive contactwith the child's parents. (2) The social worker is exercisingcontrol and authority and has a negative contact with the child'sparents. (3) The social worker is doing treatment-oriented workand has a personal involvement and a relation to the parentsthat is important for the family and not exchangeable. (4) Thesocial worker is solely engaged in investigatory work with norelation to the child's parents, rather a neutral contact. Inthe categorization the concepts contact and relation are differentiated.Only in the treatment-oriented category, encompassing aboutone-fifth of the children, can one speak of a relation. In allcategories there are elements of both help and control, butdifferent ways of handling this doubleness.     

The assessment relationship: interactions between social workers and parents in child protection assessments

Summary This paper is concerned with a relatively unresearched areaof child protection practice: the comprehensive assessment.The study comprises qualitative research of social workers conductingthese assessments. Sixteen assessments are analysed in detail.It is noted that these assessments, like many other in-depthsocial work assessments, are mainly based on verbal interactions.Some of the core evidence cited by social workers as formingthe basis of their assessment decisions is based on verbal interactionbetween social workers and parents. Such verbal interactionsare viewed as being inextricably intertwined with the socialworker-client relationship. A particular aspect of the relationship,the ability to agree a plausible explanation for the familysituation, is highlighted as particularly important in determiningthe outcome of the assessment. The possible implications ofthese findings for assessment practices are outlined.     

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.     

The Manifest and Latent Lessons of Child Abuse Inquiries

Correspondence to University of Glasgow, Department of Social Administration and Social Work, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RT. Summary This article examines some of the key implications of publicchild abuse inquiries for social work services and practice.It recognizes the positive value of certain of their findingsand recommendations. However, equally important are the unintendedconsequences and latent social functions of inquiries. Thesehave meant that the general public has been able to distanceitself from responsibility for protecting children. Attentionhas been diverted from wider social processes, including adult-childand male-female power relationships. At the same time, the dominantrole of child protection procedures in the statutory sectorhas inhibited the development of preventive practice strategies.     

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.     

A Comparative Study of Child Abuse Risk Assessment in the United States and Korea

The perceptions and judgments of social workers who interview the child and family are especially significant factors in child abuse assessment process. The current study describes and compares child protection workers’ assessment processes in Korea and the USA through the use of case vignettes and in‐depth interview. The responses from social workers in these two countries were compared and discussed in the areas of: risk assessment; perception of the main problems; tolerance of corporal punishment; and judgments about appropriateness of interventions. Most revealing was that Korean social workers determined abuse based on their child abuse definition and the US Army FAP social workers determined abuse based on their definition, which was affected by legal standards and cultural differences. Korean social workers are more likely to remove a child from the home, even in mild cases, but US FAP social workers would recommend child removal from the home as a last option. The social workers that participated in this survey play a vital role in the safety of children in child protective services. Both countries can benefit from sharing information to improve the child protection services delivered. Social workers' professional judgment leads to objective and consistent outcomes and are less likely to compromise child safety in the decision making process.     

Liberty and Respect in Child Protection

Correspondence to Sally Holland, Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3WT, Wales, UK. E-mail: HollandS1{at} cf.ac.uk Summary The paper begins by introducing Isaiah Berlin's concepts ofpositive and negative liberty and the application of these conceptsto child protection. There is discussion of some recent debateson the social and political context of state social work andchild protection in particular. The authors then consider, inturn, the experience of children, parents and social workersin the child protection system. There is also a considerationof partnership and rights. The conclusion is that opportunitiesfor statutory child protection to be liberating are limited,but that there is more potential than the most pessimistic accountsmight allow. Rather than libertarian child protection, socialworkers can aim for child protection practice that is respectful.The paper concludes with some principles for respectful practice,based on the ideas of Richard Sennett. Most importantly, Sennett'sideas recognize the importance of relationships in social welfareand acknowledge the context of inequality within which socialwork takes place.     

Investigation or Initial Assessment of Child Concerns? The Impact of the Refocusing Initiative on Social Work Practice

This paper is based on a qualitative research study of socialworkers’ and parents’ experiences of attempts to‘refocus’ child protection practice in England sincethe late 1990s. A review of the research base for the refocusinginitiative is presented, leading to an exploration of one ofthe key changes arising from the initiative: the move away frominvestigations in ‘borderline’ cases towards lessintrusive initial assessments. Methods involved qualitativeinterviews with parents and social workers in twenty-three casesdrawn from two local authorities. The main conclusions are thatinitial assessments, as developed through the refocusing initiativeand the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need andtheir Families (Department of Health, 2000), provide a formof practice that offers benefits in terms of balancing childprotection and child welfare approaches, and in terms of relationshipswith parents.     

Child Abuse, Social Anxiety and Welfare

Summary This article attempts to locate the ‘moral panic’concerning child abuse within the context of broader changesin the material conditions and ideological forces in Britainin the early 1970s. It argues that the development of a senseof social anxiety amongst certain sections of the populationand the appeal of the New Right were crucial in the processof establishing the problem as the major issue for social workers.As a consequence social workers have been constrained into amore punitive and interventive relationship with children andfamilies, particularly the poor. The analysis illustrates thatthe way social workers experience role conflict and tensionin this area of their work reflects much wider historical andcultural confusions and contradictions.