Worker time and the cost of stability

This paper investigates the time caseworkers spend supporting long-term foster care and adoption placements. Undertaken in Australia through collaboration between university and non-government agency researchers, the ‘Cost of Support Study’ tracked the hours that caseworkers spent supporting twenty-seven children and their carers over a nine month period.³ The placements were part of a ‘Find-A-Family’ program for ‘hard to place children’, many of whom had previously experienced multiple placement breakdowns. The program has a history of 78% stability on the first placement (over the young person's time in the program) and 93% by the second, with the type of support provided by this accredited agency's program detailed here. The weekly worker diaries reveal an average of 3 hours 32 minutes of worker time per week per placement; however wide variation is apparent in the time given to each placement, and depends on the characteristics of the child involved. Further, the resources required to support each placement are found by multiplying worker hours by the hourly cost per worker, using New South Wales government costings. The paper contributes to the important debate regarding the link between worker time and stability in care, by deepening our understanding of the costs involved in providing high quality support and supervision of casework.     

Technology and Family Dynamics: The Relationships Among Children’s Use of Mobile Devices,Family Atmosphere and Parenting Approaches

Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal - This paper examines how family atmosphere, parental self-efficacy, parenting methods and children’s patterns of mobile device use result in negative...     

The impact of sight loss in social work practice

This article intends to familiarize the social worker with the various definitions of blindness and sight loss, common obstacles faced by persons with sight loss, general therapeutic issues, when and how to use self-disclosure of a disability, and the ways in which the social worker can use his or her disability, specifically sight-loss, as an instrumental therapeutic tool with clients. Case examples will be provided to illustrate effective interventions and the various ways in which a disability may impact a client or clients. In addition, a brief discussion of various theoretical approaches to understanding disabilities is outlined.     

基于公平理论探讨服务补救质量影响的实证研究——来自中国电信服务行业的证据

企业与客户交易时并不会一帆风顺,当客户面对交易过程中出现的故障时,不同服务补救措施会如何对客户感知、满意度和信任度产生影响?本文区别于以往实验或准实验法为主的定性或定量研究,引入组织行为学的公平理论,采取真实客户服务数据,基于不同客户类型深入探讨服务补救质量对客户满意、客户信任和客户忠诚的影响.实证研究发现,服务补救质量对感知价值、满意和信任均会产生正向作用;大客户对服务补救过程中的"互动公平"最为重视,公众客户更为强调"结果公平"的影响.这就告诉服务型企业应如何采取补救措施,大客户看重过程,一般客户更看重结果.本文从理论和实践两方面为服务补救领域的研究提供了有力证据.     

Subsequent child protection contact for a cohort of children reported to child protection prenatally in one Australian jurisdiction

Repeated reporting to child protection is common. One approach to early intervention is for jurisdictions to receive and respond to child protection concerns raised before children are born. Despite this, little research has comprehensively examined subsequent child protection contact for those first reported prenatally. This study aimed to examine the subsequent child protection contact for up to a two-year period for a cohort of children who were reported about prebirth. Child protection administrative data were extracted for 640 children reported for a concern about an unborn child in a single jurisdiction during 2014. Data about child protection contacts included reports, investigations, substantiations and out-of-home placements for children reported prenatally. Of the 640 children, 79% reported about prenatally also had contact with child protection between birth and age two. From birth and up to age two, children reported prenatally had between zero and 21 reports. Twenty-two per cent of the children reported prenatally were removed from their birth parents and placed in out-of-home care prior to age two. These findings highlight the importance of intervening and supporting families prior to and during pregnancy to reduce harm to children and reduce the need for contact with child protection.     

The attitudes and beliefs of the child protection workforce and why they matter to children who live with violence

In Australia, like other developed countries, there has been an increase in reports to child protection services about children experiencing domestic violence. While there is research on the importance of the skills and knowledge of the child protection workforce for this growing problem, little is available about practitioner attitudes and beliefs. This paper presents findings on research undertaken in New South Wales, which is the most populated state in Australia. The research considered the attitudes and beliefs of the statutory child protection workforce about domestic violence. It relied on a large-scale survey of 1041 child protection practitioners. In order to compare the attitudes and beliefs of child protection workforce with those of the general community, the survey replicated questions from the Australian National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Surveys. Overall, the attitudes and beliefs of the workforce more closely reflected contemporary theory and evidence about domestic violence than those of the community. The research also examined variations in the attitudes and beliefs of the child protection workforce according to practitioner characteristics, finding variations by gender. The implications for the fields of child protection and social work are discussed.