Participation and Child Protection: The Importance of Context

Correspondence to Karen Healy, Department of Social Work, Social Policy and Sociology, University of Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia. Summary This paper examines the effects of discourses about participationon child protection practice. The paper critiques the prevalentconceptualizations of participation on the grounds that, often,these ideals have been imported from other disciplines withoutdue regard for the specificities of child protection practice.Initially, the critique is focused on how participatory discourseshave resisted adaption to the child protection field. For example,participation and paternalism are often paired dualistically,with the consequence that participation is seen as an unquestionablegood, whilst practices that do not conform to this ideal areassociated with paternalism and considered to be antitheticalto just child protection practice. By examining some of thetypical responses, within the child protection literature andamongst child protection professionals, to the prevalent discoursesabout participation it is argued that these discourses haveactually thwarted the development of participatory processesin child protection work. This is because these discourses donot engage with the expectations associated with child protectionwork, particularly the use of statutory power that such practicedemands. The final part of the paper identifies how post-structuraltheory, particularly the work of Foucault, can highlight anddismantle some of the assumptions about power on which participatorymodels have rested and allow for the development of a participatoryethos which is receptive to the specificities of child protectionwork.     

Towards a school health service for adolescents: the teacher-health worker team

SUMMARY. This article argues for a re-examination of the health service available to adolescents within schools so that it continues to meet needs, and is not duplicating services offered elsewhere. The author describes a two term trial of a successful model of working based on the early identification by teachers of adolescents with problems, their early assessment by the school doctor and joint planning of subsequent management by health, education and social work personnel. A large number of problems are identified and tackled with benefit to the teachers and doctor, as well as to the adolescents and their families     

Speaking in Tongues: Involving Users in Day Care Services

Correspondence to Dr Karen Ross, Centre for Policy and Health Research Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, The Park Campus, The Park, P.O. Box 220, Cheltenham, Glos. GL50 2QF. Summary The new focus on the importance of user involvement within arange of public services, as witnessed by legislation and policysuch as the NHS and Community Care Act (1990) and the Citizen'sand other Charters, has significant implicaions for the wayin which users will be encouraged to have a voice in serviceplanning and delivery. A crucial factor in the success of participativestrategies is training for both users and workers, to enableinvolvement and participation to be something more than token.This paper is based on a study which set out to explore thereality behind the rhetoric of user involvement in day careservices. It found that the most significant factor in determiningthe extent of user involvement in day centres was the organizationalculture of individual establishents. Empowering strategies weremore likely to exist in those centres where staff felt valuedand where senior officers were committed to the principle ofpower-sharing and partnership between users and workers: trainingwas rarely provided for users and workers as a matter of routine.A number of suggestions are made as to ways forward, in thelight of research findings.     

Executives’ Views of Factors Affecting Governance Change in a Not‐for‐Profit Setting

Knowing the factors that executives deem critical to governance change can improve our understanding of how such changes come about and can help us evaluate those changes. Interviews with business and finance executives at 11 colleges reveal the importance to governance change of chief executive and board member leadership and interactions, as well as executive communication style. Costs are clear constraints to action, particularly since benefits are not quantified and are difficult to describe. Efforts to discuss governance with internal stakeholders require persistence to overcome narrow, individualized concerns. Communication about governance to external stakeholders is rare and represents a missed opportunity for stakeholder feedback and the development of trust. Executives appear willing to adopt governance forms without considering the idiosyncrasies of their institutional field, limiting the working definition of governance and its potential. For corporations and not‐for‐profit enterprises these findings hold implications for the context in which leadership is exercised and the shape of governance structures. They also pose a fundamental ethical dilemma for leaders to address.     

Social Workers' Attitudes to Lesbian Clients

Correspondence to Karen Hardman, Department of Applied Social Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX Summary Within British social work there is no model of good practicefor working with lesbian clients. As a prelude to the establishmentof such a model, this paper attempts to ascertain social workers'attitudes to lesbians using a thirty-item attitude (Likert)scale. The implications of social workers' attitudes for practicewith lesbian clients are considered from responses to case vignettes.     

Local and transnational care relations: relatedness and family practice among au pairs in Denmark

An increasing number of young women from the Global South have become au pairs in the Global North since the turn of the millennium. Through ethnographic analysis of three cases of au pairing in Denmark, involving Filipina and Caribbean women, this article discusses the nature of the local as well as transnational family relations in which these women are embedded as au pairs, and the opportunities and restraints that they present. We use anthropological theory to conceptualize family and kinship in terms of notions and practices of relatedness. This offers a useful framework for elucidating the different moral and contractual obligations and expectations associated with these varying family relations, the power asymmetries with which they are linked, and the agency that the au pairs display as they seek to position themselves in the most favourable way in relation to the multi‐directional ties in which they are involved.