Supervisor and policy roles in social media use as a new technology in child welfare

This analysis examines the role of agency policy and supervision in the decision-making of child welfare workers about their work-related social media use. Data were collected using a mixed-methods internet-based survey of 171 child welfare workers and interns about their social media use related to their direct-practice work with child welfare clients. The study finds that supervisor approval and agency policy is correlated with worker's social media use, and that workers find utility in social media use, but have poor clarity about how they should use social media in the child welfare work setting. These results suggest a need for agency policy and practice guidelines. Implications for child welfare agencies include an opportunity to consider the types of policy development necessary to ensure that multiple stakeholders are represented in policy and practice decisions, and that they reflect the possible benefits and risks of social media use.     

Family-based approach to the child welfare system: an integration of Bowen family theory concepts

The purpose of this article is to apply Bowen family systems theory to work with families involved in the child welfare system. An overview of family systems theory is provided, and then specific tenets of Bowen family systems theory are presented. The authors highlight incidents within the child welfare setting that can be conceptualized through Bowen family therapy terms and concepts. A case study is used to highlight how this theory could be applied in practice. Furthermore, recommendations for child welfare practice and policy implications are discussed, utilizing the lens of a Bowenian family systems approach.     

Transnational social workers in statutory child welfare: A scoping review

Internationally, child welfare services experience chronic workforce shortages and high rates of staff turnover. One strategy adopted to fill critical workforce gaps is the international recruitment of social workers. Child welfare employers in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have a shared tradition of recruiting transnational social workers to address ongoing labour shortages in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. This raises questions about the impact of this practice for those migrating social workers and about practice with indigenous populations. This paper scoped publications to identify emerging themes about social work movement between these countries, with a focus on knowledge that can prepare transnational social workers for the unique Australian context, including working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The review found that international recruitment to statutory child welfare in Australia is not well researched, with limited evidence about the profile of recruits, the effectiveness of this strategy and retention rates. The demographics and experiences of overseas qualified social workers in child welfare over the past 40 years in the various Australian jurisdictions remain relatively unknown. There are major gaps in knowledge about the ways international recruitment affects outcomes for children, and their families, in Australia's statutory child welfare services delivery.     

‘What can I do’? Child welfare workers’ perceptions of what they can do to address poverty

Within the field of child welfare, critical questions have been posed about the intersecting issues of child maltreatment and poverty. The study of the quality and nature of this intersection has continued relevance in light of evidence showing the increased likelihood of maltreatment of children living in poverty. Although child welfare workers interact directly with families involved with the child welfare system, the study of workers’ perceptions of whether or not they address families’ poverty and, if so, how they go about it has not yet been conducted. The study presented begins to address this gap. Analysis from individual interviews with 30 child welfare workers revealed that they differed in their perception of whether or not poverty should be addressed by child welfare and how. Findings suggest workers do what they can despite various barriers, including families’ limitations and the fragile US social welfare safety net. Based on the findings, current practice models and policies that impact poverty and child maltreatment reduction are discussed.     

The use of multidisciplinary teams to support child welfare clients

Meeting the educational needs of young people in the child welfare system (CWS) requires effective collaboration between the CWS and the education system. In Norway and in other countries, there is an increased focus on interprofessional collaboration to support child welfare clients in and around schools. Multidisciplinary teams are employed to facilitate collaboration and coordinate supportive measures. The purpose of this article is to describe how teachers and social workers use such teams as part of a collaborative effort to support children living in difficult conditions. In an inductive thematic analysis of 13 interviews with 7 social workers and 6 teachers, the following five key themes were revealed: (i) solution-focused work; (ii) listening to the child; (iii) parental support; (iv) social/environmental opportunities for successful interactions and (v) ensuring school attendance through adapted education and support. In conclusion, we discuss the ways in which these themes reflect how teams support child welfare clients.     

‘We have very different positions on some issues’: how child welfare workers in Norway and England bridge cultural differences when communicating with ethnic minority families

This article compares how child welfare workers in Norway and England experience and cope with communication problems resulting from cultural differences. This study is based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 53 front-line child welfare workers and draws on social theories that understand communication as a social act. We show cross-country variations in child welfare workers' perceptions of the communicative problems and coping mechanisms. In Norway, social workers think that minority parents' perceptions on children's needs and child-rearing and parents' lack of understanding of the child welfare system were challenging. Social workers in England perceive the physical abuse of minority children as problematic. They are also concerned about carers' fears of social workers forcing majority cultural values on minority families. While social workers in both countries spend more time with minority families, their approaches dealing with communication challenges correspond to their different problem perceptions. Social workers in Norway act as cultural instructors: they focus on the needs of the minority child and instruct parents about Norwegian values and the Norwegian welfare system. Social workers in England are cultural learners: they focus on practising in anti-oppressive ways, while protecting ethnic minority children from physical abuse. Both approaches avoid going into real communication about perceived problems and what a child might need. We also discuss the implications of these findings on social work practice.     

Preparing Social Work Students for Rural Child Welfare Practice: Emerging Curriculum Competencies

Multiple issues that are unique to child welfare social work practice in rural areas markedly affect workforce recruitment and retention, yet little attention is given to the proficiencies needed to equip emerging social workers for this growing area of the field. Curriculum content is needed that provides students with the opportunity to master the skills needed to thrive as child welfare social workers in rural areas. Using an evidence-based practice critical thinking model as a guide, a systematic review of literature and documents addresses many of the competencies needed to prepare social work students for child welfare practice in rural areas. These competencies are identified. Suggestions for integration into the social work curriculum are offered.     

Social Workers’ Preparation for Child Protection: Revisiting the Question of Specialisation

Abstract

Child welfare work is a key field of practice for social work graduates and for graduates of a growing range of disciplines. In the present paper, the authors drew on a survey of 208 child welfare workers and interviews with 28 senior personnel in child and family welfare agencies to analyse perceptions of the educational preparation of social workers and other human science graduates for this field of practice. The findings indicated that child welfare workers and employers are ambivalent about the value of social work and other generic social science and human services programmes as preparation for tertiary or statutory child protection practice, which involves investigation, assessment, and intervention in child abuse and neglect. The authors argue that the social work profession must better balance generic and specialist aspects to prepare graduates for practice in specialist fields of high social work involvement, particularly in tertiary child protection work.     

Systemic differences in views on risk: A comparative case vignette study of risk assessment in England,Norway and the United States (California)

This article examines how child welfare workers from three countries assess risk to a child in the context of different risk assessment tools, child welfare systems and welfare regimes. Previous research suggests that there are distinct differences between child protection-oriented child welfare systems such as England and the U.S., and family service-oriented child welfare systems such as Norway (Gilbert et al., 2011). We use a case vignette method to analyze how 299 child welfare workers from England, Norway and California (U.S.) assess risk. The case vignette describes the case of ‘Beatrice’, a nine year-old girl of Black African descent who was born with an organic heart disease and a cleft palate. We found that respondents from California assessed the risk to be the lowest, followed by respondents from England and Norway. The risk factors that respondents highlighted as important for their assessment also varied significantly between countries, displaying different perceptions of elements in a case constituting risk. Respondents from Norway, who, comparatively, practice within the context of the least regulated assessment platform, identified the most homogenous assessments and types of reasoning, whereas both the assessment of risk levels and identifications of risk factors were more heterogeneous among workers in England and California. We argue that the different risk assessment tools only partly influence what workers identify as risk factors in a case, and that type of welfare states and child welfare systems is also an influence. This study thus supports existing scholarship on the distinctions between child welfare systems. However, we also found significant differences in perceptions of risk factors between England and the United States.     

Interpersonal justice: the importance of relationships for child and family social workers

There is still much to learn about what it means to be a child and family social worker. Child and family social workers have a job that often entails making difficult decisions regarding vulnerable children and families in collaboration with other professionals, under stressful conditions in an increasing cost-restrictive climate with diminishing resources. The organisational justice framework has primarily been used to ascertain employee’s perceptions of fairness and can be used to explain a variety of organisational behaviours. Here, it was used qualitatively as a framework to structure the research aims of exploring the lived experience of child and family social workers. The results suggest that the relationships’ social workers have with their peers and managers are significant components to how they manage emotions involved with practice.     

Placement type matters: Placement experiences in relation to justice system involvement among child welfare-involved youth and young adults

Out-of-home placement in the child welfare system is related to justice system involvement. Yet, few studies address the similarities and differences of child welfare placement types in relation to justice system involvement within the same sample of youth, which can provide a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between the two. Utilizing a sample of child welfare youth with substantial out-of-home placements (N = 794), we investigate trajectory group experiences on each of three child welfare placement types, and cross-tabulate each with justice system trajectory groups to examine subgroups. The five-group model fits best for foster homes and group homes; four groups for residential facilities. Relationships between justice system groups and placement types were significant. Youth with chronic justice system involvement had more experiences in group homes and residential facilities; youth with less justice system contact tended to have foster home experiences. Implications for policy and practice are presented.     

The participation of social services in youth justice systems in Europe

This article considers the participation of social services in youth justice systems in 11 European countries. In international children's rights instruments, the importance of the assessment of the background situation of juvenile defendants is acknowledged. In this article, three models for social work participation are proposed, on the basis of the distinction between adversarial and inquisitorial legal traditions and welfare and justice approaches towards youth justice. In the welfare model, social workers play the most active role in the youth justice process, whereas in the justice model, social workers have the least active role. In between, a mixed model can be found in which social workers play an active role in the youth justice system only to some extent.     

Working on Treatment Teams: Educating Social Work Students to Function as Addiction Specialists within Interdisciplinary Groups

Social workers specializing in the addictions field invariably work with multiple disciplines. Any intervention must be organized in consideration of various fields of practice such as mental health, criminal justice, child welfare, and health care. As part of their education, social workers become adept at understanding the influence of factors associated with physical, mental, and social functioning. Thus, they learn to appreciate the need for interdisciplinary collaboration. However, once students become practitioners, they are often left on their own to solidify their specific role as addiction specialists among several other professionals. Working as a member of an interdisciplinary team can be taught in the classroom. The authors apply Bronstein’s model for team collaboration to build a method for teaching interdisciplinary work specific to the role of the addiction specialist. Within the interdisciplinary team model, students take on the various team roles and decide the importance of these roles in a substance use case study. They are taught how to assess, diagnose, identify appropriate evidence-based methods, build client objectives and goals, solidify concrete action plans, and evaluate effectiveness. As these methods have yet to be researched in the classroom, the authors offer recommendations for evaluation and future research.     

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Child Welfare Practice and Social Work Education

Social work in the field of child welfare is complex and full of challenges. In British Columbia Canada, the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which is the main employer of social workers, entered a partnership with universities to educate baccalaureate social work students in a child welfare specialization. This paper examines an instructional approach to child welfare education at the University of Northern British Columbia. The geography of the university region as well as the need to maintain a critical standpoint presented challenges in the delivery of a child welfare specialization course. The development of an online child welfare practice course assisted the university in meeting the challenges. This paper describes the practice context for social workers in British Columbia as well as the design of the online course offered to social work students at the University of Northern British Columbia.     

Organizational tenure among child welfare workers,burnout, stress,and intent to leave: Does employment-based social capital make a difference?

Research has shown that child welfare organizations have a prominent role in safeguarding their workers from experiencing high levels of job stress and burnout, which can ultimately lead to increased thoughts of leaving. However, it is not clear whether these relationships are shaped by their length of organizational tenure. A cross-sectional research design that included a statewide purposive sample of 209 child welfare workers was used to test a theoretical model of employment-based social capital to examine how paths to job stress, burnout, and intent to leave differ between workers who have worked in a child welfare organization for less than 3 years compared to those with 3 years or more of employment in one organization. Path analysis results indicate that when a mixture of dimensions of employment-based social capital are present, they act as significant direct protective factors in decreasing job stress and indirectly shape burnout and intent to leave differently based on organizational tenure. Thus, organizations may have to institute unique intervention efforts for both sets of workers that provide immediate and long-term structures of support, resources, and organizational practices given that their group-specific needs may change over time.     

Job conditions, unmet expectations, and burnout in public child welfare workers: How different from other social workers?

The purpose of this research is to compare public child welfare workers' perception of job conditions, unmet expectations, and burnout to those of social workers in other settings. Using data from a sample of 408 social workers identified from a cross-sectional random survey of California registered social workers, a series of ANOVA and multiple regression analysis was performed. Results of ANOVA revealed that public child welfare workers experienced higher workloads, greater role conflict, and depersonalization, and had lower personal accomplishment. However, they had similar levels of unmet expectations and emotional exhaustion as other social workers. Adjusted for perceived job conditions and demographic characteristics, regression analyses revealed that public child welfare workers had significantly higher levels of depersonalization than those of private child welfare workers. Finally, workers in public settings exhibited significantly lower levels of personal accomplishment than social workers in private settings did, regardless of their practice field. Implications for organizational practices and future research are discussed.     

The Influence of the Psychoanalytic Community of Emigrès (1930–1950) on Clinical Social Work with Children

This study examines the influence of emigrè psychoanalysts on clinical social work with children in America. It is anticipated that this study will be useful in understanding the transformation of some social workers into more psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians regarding the treatment of children during the period 1900–1950. Using literature review and primary source material, the study examines the evolution of clinical social work with children from a child welfare model to a child guidance model incorporating psychoanalytic thinking. The study examines how psychoanalytic theory influenced social workers in their conceptualization and treatment of children, and describes the difficulties confronted by the emigrè psychoanalytic community as it tried to enter professional practice in America.     

Child resilience in out-of-home care: Child welfare worker perspectives

The study of resilience and its associated factors is highly applicable to the child welfare population as children living in out-of-home care have often experienced much adversity and are particularly vulnerable to the development of problems in numerous domains of functioning. The use of qualitative research in this area is scarce, and the majority of such studies have been based on the U.K. or U.S. child welfare systems. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to gain child welfare workers' perspectives on resilience and to explore the factors that they believe might influence resilience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 child welfare workers from Ontario (Canada) to accomplish this goal. The interview was developed using an ecological perspective that inquired about possible sources of resilience from within children themselves, their family, their community, and the child welfare worker and agency. The workers identified a number of factors associated with resilience (e.g., child intelligence, worker communication skills); however, the critical importance of a child's relationships and social support from others underpinned all factors discussed. The findings highlight the importance of including the perspectives of all those involved in the child welfare system in assessing the well-being of children in out-of-home care. In addition, the dynamic interrelationships between the various levels of the ecological model and how these can impact on how a child is doing in out-of-home care were highlighted.     

The mediating role of inclusion: A longitudinal study of the effects of leader–member exchange and diversity climate on job satisfaction and intention to leave among child welfare workers

Due to increasing diversity among clients and workers in the public child welfare] sector, it is essential to understand how workforce diversity can be channeled into positive organizational outcomes. Using theories of symbolic interaction, reference groups, and social identity, we tested a conceptual model of the relationships between diversity characteristics, leader–member exchange, diversity climate, perception of inclusion, and job satisfaction and intention to leave among public child welfare workers. The current study used two waves of data from 363 employees of a large urban public child welfare agency in the western United States. Path analysis results indicate that leader–member exchange and diversity climate have a positive effect on job satisfaction through inclusion, and that a positive organizational diversity climate can lower intention to leave through both inclusion and job satisfaction. Findings illustrate how organizational climates of diversity and inclusion affect both job satisfaction and intention to leave, providing insight into organizational factors that can be targeted for workplace interventions.