Working with Violence,the Emotions and the Psycho‐social Dynamics of Child Protection: Reflections on the Victoria Climbié Case

In recent years, attention to the psychological and emotional aspects of doing child protection has been largely ignored in the literature and squeezed out of understandings of welfare practices. This paper argues for the establishment of a coherent psycho‐social perspective at the core of social work education and practice and in inter‐professional child protection work more generally. Central to this must be recognition of the complexities of service users, especially the challenges of working with resistant and often hostile ‘involuntary clients’ and the impact of violence and other health, safety and contamination fears on the capacities of workers and professional networks to protect children. These issues are grounded in a critical analysis of the Victoria Climbié case and the Laming report into her horrific death which, despite its strengths, presents rational and naïve solutions to what must be understood as often irrational and inherently complex psycho‐social processes. A psycho‐social reading of the case permits us to explain the unexplainable in how Victoria's abuse was missed. The general implications of these arguments are drawn out for education, training and practice.     

Mark My Words! Service User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Academic Assessment

This paper discusses the involvement of service users in academic assessment as part of a second year module for social work undergraduate students at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK. The three main tasks undertaken in partnership are detailed: designing an assessment form, assessment of student group presentations and assessment of a written reflective essay. The paper starts by identifying key questions raised by the assessor team before providing a critical commentary on the process, and identifying challenges and learning points. The experience emphasises the need for a more critical and searching approach towards service user involvement in social work education in academic assessment. Moreover, the team's experience suggests that such work is best achieved in the context of collaborative working relationships based on trust, with opportunities for team reflection and supported by training in academic assessment.     

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.     

青少年事务服务体制的国际经验与启示

青少年事务是影响社会稳定的重要因素,越来越多的国家和地区把青少年事务摆到了重要的议事日程。近年来,我国青少年事务服务体制随着社会经济的发展不断完善,但尚有诸多环节和因素亟待进一步提高和优化。因此,国际先进国家和地区青少年事务服务体制的经验值得借鉴。结合青少年事务服务体制的发展特点,我国完善青少年事务服务体制的思路应从增强服务意识、完善服务组织体系、优化服务内容、改善服务环境和创新服务方式等多方面入手。     

HIV/AIDS and Homelessness

This article describes the results of research on the demographic, housing, psychosocial characteristics, and service needs of a sample of homeless people with HIV disease_ Results show that respondents are similar in demographic and housing characteristics to the general homeless population. On average, respondents report high levels of stress and depression, moderate satisfaction with perceived social support availability, moderate beliefs in their ability to influence health related outcomes, moderate levels of self-efficacy, and low levels ofphysical and psychosocial disability. A range of services was identified as both helpful and useful in supporting a stable living arrangement. Implications for social policy, service provision, and research are discussed.     

Service Barriers of Chinese Family Caregivers in Canada

ABSTRACT

Family caregiving is a stressful process, especially when the complexity of being an immigrant or ethnic minority is added. This paper examined service barriers experienced by Chinese immigrant family caregivers in Canada and the predictors of different types of barriers. Principle component analysis was performed with the barriers reported loading onto cultural barriers, administrative problems, circumstantial challenges, perceived negative quality of services, and personal attitudes. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify the role of the culture-related factors in predicting service barriers, controlling for socio-demographic status of the caregivers'. The results show that financial factors significantly predicted the number and types of barriers reported by the caregivers. Culture-related factors were significant in predicting the total number of access barriers and the different types of barriers experienced by the family caregivers. The findings indicate the importance of culturally sensitive support for family caregivers in order to reduce the access barriers.     

Withdrawal from the public employment service by young unemployed: a matter of non-take-up or of non-compliance? How non-profit social work initiatives may inspire public services

In their effort to increase labour market participation, several EU welfare states are currently confronted with the problem of an ‘off-register NEET generation’, that is, a significant group of unemployed youngsters who do not register with the public employment service (PES) or withdraw early. Their behaviour is puzzling as they risk a penalty in the form of a reduction or a loss of benefits. Combining insights from non-compliance theory and non-take-up theory, this article argues that this withdrawal cannot be fully explained by the calculations of risks, costs and benefits that these youngsters make, nor by problematic attitudes. At least as important are the factors at the organisational level which prevent the youngsters from taking up their rights. An alternative activation approach based on private non-profit social work practice, namely integrated guidance, is proposed in order to improve participation in PES services. The findings are based on a study of nine pilots involving hard-to-reach young unemployed people in Belgium. A triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to collect and analyse the data.     

城市居家养老公共服务产业刍议:基于浙江实践

城市居家养老具有准公共服务的属性,公共服务产业是其发展的必由之路。经济水平、社会发展和公共政策三方面因素决定了一个城市的居家养老公共服务产业是行政化的、社会化的或市场化的。浙江实践表明,在构建城市居家养老公共服务产业过程中,应重视初始制度设计,强调政府责任,因地制宜发展,突出家庭孝道。     

Inventory‐Related Compensation in Decentralized Organizations

We consider a principal agent problem in a decentralized organization. The agent holds private precontracting information with respect to an uncertain demand in a single period setting. Being head of a profit center, his only task is to determine the optimal order quantity. We show that using a profit share as the only performance measure to incentivize the agent creates agency costs. In fact, offering a menu of profit‐sharing contracts to the agent to pick from, requires rent payments to motivate the agent to always choose the desired contract. This result still holds if a fixed payment is added. Using an inventory‐related component as a third measure, however, allows one to solve the agency problem and to achieve first best outcomes. Precisely, each contract needs to specify a bonus or a penalty conditioned on the inventory level at the end of the selling season combined with a profit share and a fixed pay. The paper not only demonstrates that first best can be achieved in the described setting, it also provides a theoretical explanation for the observed practice of using inventory‐related compensation elements, such as service‐level agreements, in organizations.     

The impact of a waiting-time threshold in overflow systems with impatient customers

This paper analyzes the performance of call centers with impatient customers, two levels of support, and an overflow mechanism. Waiting calls from the front-office queue – if not reneging – are sent to the back office if at least one back-office agent is available and if a certain threshold t on the waiting time is reached. We approximate such systems via a continuous-time Markov chain that allows for overflow immediately upon arrival. Two different approaches for the derivation of the respective probability of an overflow are developed. Numerical results compare the reliability of these Markovian performance approximations for different parameter settings. The impact of the threshold t on different performance measures is shown dependent on the impatience of customers.