An Evaluation of Social Support Intervention with Depressed Mothers in Child and Family Care

Correspondence to Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, UK. Summary The significance of maternal depression to social work practicein child and family care has become increasingly apparent inrecent years. Social support, furthermore, is a concept (aswell as a reality) which provides a major focus for social workpractice. Indeed, social support, it is also clear, is of considerableimportance in helping prevent depression. This paper seeks toexamine social support work carried out by social workers inrelation to depressed mothers in child and family care. In particularit seeks to evaluate the quality of that intervention in thelight of key problem areas associated with high levels of supportneeds, the extent to which social workers target support needsthrough direct, indirect and informal supports, and the extentto which particular interventions are associated with a higheradequacy of support experienced by these depressed women. Thepaper finds a certain degree of haphazardness in social workers’targeting of support needs, although in some areas of indirectsupport, in particular, their targeting is reasonably accurate.There is little evidence of any one form of intervention beingassociated with more adequate support with one significant exception,relief care of children. The paper concludes that social workersneed to develop a keener awareness of support deficits so thatthey are targeted better; they need to monitor more carefullyinterventions carried out by other agencies and professionals;and they should look to relief care of children as a major formof intervention to support these women.     

Towards a Model for Co-working in Family Conciliation

Correspondence to Thelma Fisher, Tutor in Social Work, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, Avon BA2 7AY. Summary This article surveys the present state of co-working in thepractice of those independent family conciliation services affiliatedto the National Family Conciliation Council. It proposes thata model of co-working is needed that is specifically tailoredto conciliation practice. It sets out progress towards such a model in a particular agency—theSwindon Family Conciliation Service. It develops a theoreticalbase for this model from the concepts of ‘content’and ‘process’ which it links with the ‘underlying’and ‘substantive’ issues brought up by separatingand divorcing couples for resolution. It draws these ideas fromwritings about divorce experience and negotiation procedures. It then presents a particular case, with an extract from anactual interview in which the model is used, and introducesa diagrammatic format for analysing conciliation processes interms of the model proposed.     

The Witch-Hunt Metaphor (And Accusations against Residential Care Workers)

Correspondence to Mr Chris Beckett, Anglia Polytechnic University, School of Community Health and Social Studies, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK. Summary This Critical Commentary examines the widespread use of themetaphor of the witchhunt in relation to child sexual abuseinvestigations when they are perceived as being unjustified.The use of this metaphor can be seen to be part of a backlash,part of a widespread desire to discredit the evidence that sexualabuse is widespread. However, it is argued here that the metaphoris actually quite apt in the case of the recent wave of convictionsof residential care workers, where the methods used have beenquite suspect—and genuinely reminiscent in some respectsof those used in historic witch hunts. It is suggested thatlegitimate child protection will ultimately be the loser ifthis is not addressed.     

Social Work and Blood Vengeance: The Bedouin-Arab Case

Correspondence to Alean Al-Krenawi, Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel Summary The practice of blood vengeance, the obligation to kill in retributionfor the death of a member of one's family or tribe, is illegalin most countries of the world; however, many traditional culturesstill demand this form of maintaining honour. This paper outlinesthe cultural and historical contexts of the practice of bloodvengeance among the Bedouin of the Negev of Israel. It considersthe consequences for the targeted family and details the copingstrategies adopted by the family, especially the children, underconditions of extreme social, emotional and economic deprivation.It discusses social work intervention, from initial contactto partial resolution; strategies of cultural sensitivity arealso outlined.     

Openness and Contact in Adoption: A Child-centred Perspective

Correspondence to Beverley Hughes, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary This paper reports the findings of a study on the views of birthparents on openness and contact and, in the light of the findings,examines the current trend towards a presumption in favour ofdirect contact between birth parents, child and/or adopters.It argues for a child-centred approach which must discriminatemore clearly between the implications for the child of differentpost-adoption arrangements. The assumptions underlying a presumptionin favour of direct contact are critically reviewed.     

Women Whose Children have been Sexually Abused: Reflections on a Debate

Catherine Humphreys, Department of Applied Social Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. Summary Women whose children have been sexually abused have been thesubject of a polarized debate between feminist practitioners/writersand family therapists. This paper explores the development ofthat debate, outlining the key characteristics of work whichwas informed by family systems perspectives and the contrastingunderstandings which feminist perspectives brought to analysisand practice. Both feminist perspectives and family therapyhave changed since the original debate erupted. This articleexplores issues which may have been obscured within feministperspectives. These are, first, the difficulties in the mother-childrelationship and, second, the contribution which aspects offamily therapy can make to progressing the interests of womenand children in the aftermath of child sexual abuse.     

The Abuse of Elderly People: Considerations for Practice

Correspondence to Ms. B. Penhale, Team Leader, Social Work Department, West Norwich Hospital, Bowthorpe Road, Norwich NR2 2TU. Summary Within the last six years, concern about the abuse of elderlypeople by their informal carers has increased in Britain. However,problems remain in the identification and treatment of boththose who are abused and their abusers. The purpose of thispaper is to consider some of the barriers to the identificationof abuse; to look at the similarities and differences betweenthe abuse of elderly people and other forms of family violence(in particular child abuse) and to discuss the implicationsof these for social work practice.     

An Act of Empowerment: The Children, Young Persons and their Families Act (1989)

Correspondence to Marie Connolly, Department of Social Work, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 1, New Zealand. Summary In 1989, New Zealand introduced child protection legislationthat embraces a model of family decision making. The model,based on traditional indigenous decision-making practices, hasrevolutionized social work with children and families in thechild care and protection area. This paper considers the developmentof the legislation in terms of its antecedent factors and itsvision. It looks particularly at some of the care and protectionprovisions of the legislation, and explores, by use of casestudy, some of the issues of using a family decision-makingprocess as a practice model.     

Children and Literature

Correspondence to Kate Wilson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD Summary The paper draws on a range of fictional and autobiographicalaccounts of childhood to illustrate different aspects of children'sperceptions and responses and to show how they can enhance theadult's ability to understand what a child is experiencing.Three themes, concerning children's perceptions and suggestibility,their sense of helplessness and difficulty in communicatingwith adults, and their responses to loss and change are illustratedthrough the work of nineteenth- and twentieth-century creativewriters. It is argued that literary accounts can work at a consciousand unconscious level in heightening our understanding, andmay also give us a perspective on how childhood experiencesinfluence the adult personality.     

Defensive Social Work

Correspondence to Nigel Harris, Department of Philosophy, The University, Dundee DD1 4HN. Summary Social workers with child clients face the possibility thatsome mistake or oversight of theirs could lead to a child abusetragedy, for which they may suffer opprobrium and blighted careers.How can they guard against such risks? This paper shows howsocial workers might use different types of ‘defensive’measure to protect themselves. These parallel the types of measureused by some doctors, particularly in the United States, facedwith risks of litigation on grounds of malpractice. Becausedefensive practices have undesirable consequences, it is importantto find ways to eliminate their use by protecting social workersby other means.     

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.     

The Influence of Performance Measurement on Child Welfare Policy and Practice

Correspondence to Clare Tilbury, School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences, University of Queensland Q 4072, Australia. E-mail: c.tilbury{at}social.uq.edu.au Summary The increasing use of performance measurement in child welfarepromises to have significant consequences. Performance indicatorsare not neutral or merely technical—they represent viewpointsand values that may influence policy and practice. This three-partarticle examines how this may occur. The first part outlinesa theoretical approach to understanding the policy significanceof performance indicators. As they become part of the frameworkwithin which policy debates occur, indicators may frame policyissues, create boundaries around options for solutions, definestandards for evaluating results, and set the terms of publicdiscourse. The second part discusses the background to the developmentof performance measurement in child welfare in Britain, theUSA and Australia, locating it as integral to contemporary approachesto public sector management. The third part examines the performanceindicators used in these jurisdictions-aspects of performancemeasured, underlying assumptions about ‘good’ performance,and how they construct child welfare. Existing indicators narrowlyconstruct child welfare in terms of investigations and out-of-homecare, whereas the child welfare literature suggests a broaderapproach with more attention to family support. The articleargues that there is space to negotiate on the new managerialistterrain, developing an approach to performance measurement thatcontributes to better services and outcomes for children andfamilies.     

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.     

The Vulnerabilities of Children whose Parents have been Sexually Abused in Childhood: Towards a New Framework

Correspondence to Carol-Ann Hooper, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK. E-mail: cah13{at}york.ac.uk Summary Concerns about the parenting capacity of adults with a historyof childhood sexual abuse have often been framed in individualizingand pathologizing ways. This paper draws on qualitative researchwith twenty-four women survivors of childhood sexual abuse todevelop a new framework for understanding the possible vulnerabilitiesof their children that may help inform anti-oppressive practice.The framework places the mother-child relationship in its broadercontext, taking account of the role of the immediate family,the extended family, the community and the state. Within eachlevel of context we identify the range of issues that couldcontribute to children’s vulnerability, elaborating theprocesses involved. Some issues recur within different contexts,for example the impacts of survivors’ issues around attachment,and others connect across contexts, such as the impact on childrenof deterioration in their mothers' mental health when appropriateservices are not available. All of these issues may affect survivors’well-being and access to social support and hence their abilityto care effectively for their children. Ways of supporting bothsurvivors and their children involving greater collective responsibilityfor children, effective collaboration between mental healthservices and child-care services, and professional responseswhich take account of contextual issues are identified.     

The Significance of Past Abuse to Current Intervention Strategies with Depressed Mothers in Child and Family Care

Correspondence to Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL6 7EW, UK. Summary There is now considerable evidence that a high proportion offamilies subject to child and family care social work interventioncontain depressed mothers. There is also evidence that the presenceof clinical depression is associated, amongst these clients,with child abuse. Vulnerability to both depression and childabuse have been traced back to the early child-care experiencesof those who are currently parents, expressed in child abusein terms of intergenerational transmission, although it is alsoclear for both that further factors also contribute to thisvulnerability. Despite the link between maternal depressionand child abuse, we have little evidence about the processesand mechanisms, based on social workers judgements about thesituation, by which families with depressed mothers are morelikely than other clients to be involved with intervention forchild abuse. This paper seeks to ‘map’ the pathwaysand the intermediate mechanisms which provide the link betweenthe experience of past abuse and social workers interventionstrategies. Drawing on theoretically significant factors, itfocuses on the following variables: the experience of past abuse,the mother's attributed character, attachment and bonding, childbehavioural problems and intervention strategy. The paper demonstratesa number of significant ‘paths’ through which familiesbecome subject to one or other intervention strategy. It showsthat, while an emphasis on needs assessment is to be welcomed(Department of Health, 1999), they need to be considered (i)within a theoretical framework which helps social workers makesense of, and respond to situations and (ii) through an understandingof longitudinal dimensions (key factors in mothers' earlierlife) which are aspects of this theoretical understanding.     

Have Child Protection Efforts Reduced Child Homicides? An Examination of Data from Britain and North America

Correspondence to Duncan Lindsey, School of Public Policy and Social Research, Department of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles, 247 Dodd Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1452, USA. Summary In a recent British Journal of Social Work article examiningtrends in child homicide statistics collected by the World HealthOrganization (WHO), Colin Pritchard attributes a reduction inchild homicides in England and Wales to improved effectivenessof child protection services. However, further analysis of theWHO data show that the decrease in England and Wales is dueto an unusual single-year drop in homicide rates, and that thereis no evidence of a long-term downward trend. Examination oftrends in Europe and North America show that there are no consistentpatterns in fluctuations in child homicide rates, and in particular,no evidence that fatality statistics have been influenced bythe rapid expansion in child protection efforts.     

The Protective Environment of Children: Towards a framework for anti-oppressive, cross-cultural and cross national understanding

Correspondence to Department of Social Work, School of Applied Social Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN. Summary The article explores the strengths and limitations of existingcross-cultural, cross-national and anti-discriminatory theoryand research in the child protection field. The way in whichstructural, cultural, personal and inter-personal factors combineto create the child's protective environment is analysed anda framework for an integrated approach to anti-oppressive understandingand practice is suggested. The framework identifies four factorswhose impact at national, community and family levels needsparticular consideration. These factors are the value attachedto children, the status of women and carers, the social interconnectednessof children and carers, and the extent and quality of the protectivesafety nets available. Examples are provided to illustrate theframework's usefulness in practice. It is argued that childprotection theory and practice in Britain needs to take moreaccount of collective and community-based approaches if anti-oppressiveand user-empowering practice is to be achieved.     

Prior Criminality and Employment of Social Workers with Substantial Access to Children: A Decision Board Analysis

Correspondence to Joanne M Smith, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, 20 Portland Villas, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA Summary The central purpose of this research was to find the extentand circumstances of the influence which a criminal record hasupon appointment as a social worker with substantial, unsupervisedaccess to children. One would suppose that applicants with aconviction for indecently assaulting a child would never beappointed, but that those with other kinds of record would beappointed to the extent to which prior offences were relativelytrivial, distant in time and involved property rather than people.The reality was much less clear-cut. The study may be seen asa way of depicting the pattern and process of current practice.It has clear implications for the refinement of guidance toachieve nationally desired ends of child protection. This article will draw upon data gathered for a Ph.D., incorporatinginterviews with every social services department (SSD) in Englandand Wales. The study has yielded interesting findings relatingto (inconsistency in decision making across SSDs. The findingsfrom the first 64 interviews have been used for the article.Preliminary analysis suggests that the remaining interviewsshow similar patterns. The focus will be on possibly the mostsignificant finding of the research: that six SSDs in a decision-makingprocess relating to a number of fictitious candidates, revealedthat they would have agreed to employ one of the candidatesas a children and family social worker, despite knowledge ofthat candidate's conviction for indecently assaulting a child.     

Child Therapy and Evidence in Court Proceedings: Tensions and Some Solutions

Correspondence to Kate Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD. Summary Recent policy developments in the UK, implemented in the wakeof well-publicized child abuse court cases, have highlightedthe tension between offering the abused child adequate supportand providing sound evidence in any statutory proceedings. Therapeuticwork can give the court clear indications of the child's wishes,feelings and developmental needs, with or without explicit verbalstatements, and non-directive play therapy, because it is non-coerciveand largely free from therapist suggestion, is particularlyeffective in this respect. Particular features of non-directiveplay therapy which enhance the validity of such evidence areconsidered and a range of factors involved in presenting therapeuticwork to the courts are explored.     

Tracing the Causes of Stress in Families with Handicapped Children

Summary Variations in the level of stress in mothers with very severelydisabled children do not appear to be associated with the characteristicsof the disabled child or the social and economic circumstancesof the family. The level of stress in a sample of mothers didnot change after they had received help from the Family Fund.