Search results for ‘Subject term:"child protection"’ Sort:
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Dangerous interventions
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Journal article citation:
- Professional Social Work, April 2001, pp.12-13.
- Publisher:
- British Association of Social Workers
The author calls for more systematic practice for dealing with threats and violence against social care staff, particularly child protection workers.
Investigating child abuse: the rights of parents, children and social workers
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse Review, 5(3), Winter 1991, pp.11-12.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Discusses the inherent contradictions in child protection work due to different expectations of families, social workers and the public and an unhelpful legal system; argues that social workers need the support of a General Council.
Child protection social work: risks of fears and fears of risks – impossible tasks from impossible goals?
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 42(6), December 2008, pp.662-675.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article examines the relationship between the causes and effects of fear in child protection social workers, and the effects of risk assessment and risk management policies on this area of work. The focus on risk assessment and risk management has become a major area of attention within practice, policy and management of child protection work in the UK in recent years. Concepts of risk as constructed by the media, government and the public are increasingly impacting upon professional practices. This article examines the basis and validity of risk assessments in the social professions field, and particularly within the child protection arena. The article goes on to examine the experiences of fear arising from the risk agenda, which affects frontline workers, managers and child protection agencies. This agenda arises from centrally produced risk assessment frameworks, alongside unrealistic expectations from central government of prediction of risk by the use of current risk assessment tools. Such controlling policies from central government can lead to fear and anxiety in social work professionals of not assessing and eliminating risk, as the government and their employing agencies are expecting them to do. The article also proposes that this risk agenda fails to address a key element in the assessment of risk – how social workers experience threats and stress in their work, and the pressures they can be subject to within it, particularly in relation to violence and threats from parent service users where their children are being investigated for possible child abuse.
The nature and effects of violence against child-protection social workers: providing effective support
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 35(3), April 2005, pp.387-401.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This article examines the experiences and views of child-protection social workers and managers in relation to the management of violence against child-protection social workers in a large county council’s Social Services Department. These findings demonstrate the importance of the role of managers and agency support systems in dealing with such matters. Questions are raised concerning the effects of interventions by child-protection professionals with resistant and threatening parent service-users, and challenges some of the assumptions underlying the current paradigm in child-protection work which demands an uncritical view that working in partnership with parents is always in the interests of children, and is always possible. The findings suggest that in certain types of situations, workers’ effectiveness can be compromised when carrying out their roles in both supporting families and protecting children. They also illustrate the types of agency responses which professionals and managers find helpful and unhelpful in response to parental threats and aggression. In particular, the importance of supervision and support from managers is addressed, as are the implications of the findings for practice and agency support strategies for workers. The relevance of the findings are also set out within the context of the requirements placed upon individual practitioners and agencies which employ social workers by the General Social Care Council Codes of Conduct and Practice for Social Care Workers and their Employers.
Working with aggressive and violent parents in child protection social work
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Journal article citation:
- Practice: Social Work in Action, 15(1), 2003, pp.33-44.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Examines the findings from research into the effects of parent service user aggression and violence against child protection social workers. It is based on interviews with 20 managers in a large county social services department and the findings of previous research comprising questionnaires and interviews with child protection social workers in the same agency. Discusses the types of violence that are most prevalent, and the effects on workers. Sets out the problematic areas to be addressed in order to provide the most effective forms of support and supervision. Also examines the links between risks to workers and risks to abused children within violent families.
Research into practice
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 19.12.02, 2002, p.47.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Reports on research with child protection managers, which highlights the traumatic effects on workers of violence and aggression from parent service users.
I know where you live: how child protection social workers are affected by threats and aggression; a study into the stresses faced by child protection social workers in Hertfordshire with notes on research into Finnish social workers' experiences
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Publisher:
- University of Hertfordshire
- Publication year:
- 2000
- Pagination:
- 63p.
- Place of publication:
- Hatfield
Survey of the experience of aggression and violence from clients by child care and child protection field staff in one Social Services Department, with notes on research into Finnish social workers' experiences. Describes the nature of such incidents, the effects on the staff, their experience of support, and their views on improving future practice in dealing with violence.
The stresses arising from violence, threats and aggression against child protection social workers
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work, 5(1), April 2005, pp.61-82.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This article examines the effects of violence by service users in England and Finland against child protection social workers. Proposals derived from analysis of research findings for improved policies and practice in agencies, with particular reference to England, are discussed. In addition, results and implications of a smaller number of interviews with social workers in Finland are explored. The research found that there are a number of different effects resulting from violence on child protection social workers, depending on the particular configuration of factors involved in any particular situation. These include concerns about the effects of user violence on the ability of social workers to protect children; the importance of managers keeping a focus on workers’ safety, particularly when threats are not always obvious to others; staff support strategies; responses to violent service users; and how workers’ experiences can be employed to improve risk assessment and risk management. This article suggests that the experiences of and learning by social workers derived from incidents of violence need to be more systematically included in policy development and review. In addition, attitudes and procedures need to be in place which allow social workers to report their concerns and have them dealt with effectively.
Children's rights to be heard in child protection processes - law policy and practice in England and Wales
- Author:
- LITTLECHILD Brian
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse Review, 9(6), November 2000, pp.403-415.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Examines how child protection procedures and practices can promote the rights of children to have their voices heard effectively within the child protection system in England and Wales. Presents and analyses new domestic legal requirements concerning the extent and nature of the participation of young people in child protection decision-making processes. The status of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the effects of the Human Rights Act 1998 for all agencies involved in child protection work are also discussed. Makes suggestions for regulation and monitoring of policies and practices that can empower children to participate more fully in child protection processes that comply with the UNCRC and the Human Rights Act.
Ethical practice and the abuse of power in social responsibility: leave no stone unturned
- Editors:
- PAYNE Helen, LITTLECHILD Brian
- Publisher:
- Jessica Kingsley
- Publication year:
- 1999
- Pagination:
- 235p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Presents the view that to avoid unfair and abusive practice in social care, a more sophisticated participatory approach to social responsibility must be developed. Includes contributions from service users, judges, therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, social policy academics and parents, who examine the body of values, rules and methods wich guide social care work. Focuses in particular on: accountability and confidentiality; system abuse in psychiatric medicine, child protection and child care work; community and poverty action; and children's rights in statutory agency decision making.