Search results for ‘Subject term:"child protection"’ Sort:
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Post-pandemic: moving on from ‘child protection’
- Authors:
- FEATHERSTONE Brid, GUPTA Anna, MORRIS Kate
- Journal article citation:
- Critical and Radical Social Work, 9(2), 2021, pp.151-165.
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
COVID-19 has shone a light on the many inequalities scarring our landscape. As we look to the future, a consensus is emerging around the need to reject the highly individualistic focus of previous decades and to build back fairer by tackling the ‘causes of the causes’ of so many of our social ills. What might this mean for ‘child protection’, where a focus on individual families and individually generated risks has dominated? We suggest that this model is broken beyond repair and out of kilter with what is needed going forward. We argue that a focus on promoting human flourishing is likely to serve children, young people, their families and society better. In order to support such a project, we argue for the need to change our language, hold broader conversations than hitherto and marry ambition with caution. (Edited publisher abstract)
A marriage made in hell: early intervention meets child protection
- Authors:
- FEATHERSTONE Brid, MORRIS Kate, WHITE Sue
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 44(7), 2014, pp.1735-1749.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
In this article, we will argue for the moral legitimacy of support and its difference from intervention and the need to engage with and develop a family support project for the twenty-first century. We call for a debate on the current settlement between the state and family life and for a recognition that a perfect storm has ensued from the unholy alliance of early intervention and child protection. We will argue for a project that celebrates families' strengths as well as their vulnerabilities in the context of considerable adversities and (re) locates workers as agents of hope and support. We draw from a diverse set of literatures and disciplines to locate our arguments within a broader project occasioned by the economic crisis and questioning of the verities of neo-liberalism. (Publisher abstract)
Thinking family? The complexities for family engagement in care and protection
- Author:
- MORRIS Kate
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 42(5), 2012, pp.906-920.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Recent child welfare policy developments in the UK have highlighted the family as either the subject of intervention or the partner for change. However, policy and practice developments concerned with engaging families in care and protection planning are set within complex and, at times, contradictory policy drivers. This article draws primarily on 2 reviews of the practice evidence and the conclusions from a series of expert focus groups, held to explore the impact of the recent UK government guidance on care proceedings on family engagement, to consider emerging issues in researching and delivering family-minded policy and practice. The article begins by describing the focus of concern and then considers the challenges for family-focused research. The complex policy context is reviewed and, from this, issues for development in practice are considered. Throughout, family group decision making is used as an illustrative policy and practice example. The article concludes by setting out some of the questions for future developments in family engagement in care and protection.
Family decision making in child welfare: challenges in developing a knowledge base for practice
- Authors:
- MORRIS Kate, CONNOLLY Marie
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse Review, 21(1), January 2012, pp.41-52.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article discusses the growing body of evidence concerned with family group decision making (FGDM). It draws upon the messages of a broader international review of research published in 2009 which looked at family engagement strategies. Family group conferences (FGC) were introduced in the UK from New Zealand in the early 1990s. The FGC model provides a clear process that brings together professionals and the family, including extended family, in a meeting to resolve issues of child care and protection. This paper examines the recent research relating to family engagement strategies in child welfare. The findings are discussed under 3 themes: what happens when families become involved in decision making; what happens to children when families are included; and what happens to professional systems when family inclusion strategies are adopted. It concludes by exploring the ways in which family involvement in decision-making can be incorporated into emerging protective practices. The argument is made that, while FGDM developments offer a positive way forward for those seeking fresh approaches to the care and protection of children, careful consideration needs to be given to the influence of the changing contexts for practice.
Framed to fit? Challenging the domestic abuse ‘story’ in child protection
- Authors:
- FERGUSON Greig, FEATHERSTONE Brid, MORRIS Kate
- Journal article citation:
- Critical and Radical Social Work, 8(1), 2020, pp.25-40.
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
The current framing of domestic violence generates profound problems for those concerned with supporting change for all involved. In particular, the stress on the ‘equal vulnerability’ of all women to domestic abuse, irrespective of economic or social circumstances, is out of line with a developing evidence base and deprives policymakers and practitioners of the conceptual tools that are needed to situate actual identities, choices and challenges with differing implications for women as well as men. This article notes the relative lack of attention in the UK to the work of international researchers on how gendered inequalities intersect with those arising from a range of others, crucially, class and ‘race’. This body of work also draws attention to the importance of understanding the impact of state interventions on marginalised communities, an area also neglected in the UK. (Edited publisher abstract)
Exploring the lessons from dissemination of research to the judiciary involved in public family law and child care proceedings
- Authors:
- CHURCHILL Harriet, MORRIS Kate, RICHARDSON-FOSTER Helen
- Publisher:
- University of Sheffield
- Publication year:
- 2018
- Pagination:
- 60
- Place of publication:
- Sheffield
This study examined the strengths and shortcomings of mechanisms for disseminating social research to members of the judiciary involved in care proceedings. Using qualitative interviews, the study also explored judicial perspectives and experiences in accessing, interpreting and using social research in relation to their roles in care proceedings. Main findings are: there are a significant number of in-house judicial arrangements and broader research-practice initiatives that disseminate lessons from child welfare research to the judiciary, but these vary greatly in focus, scope and purpose; there are significant gaps in the degree to which the judiciary are served by comprehensive, targeted and tailored research resources and dissemination mechanisms; participants reported challenges in accessing relevant, up-to-date and quality research in timely ways to support their public family law roles; there is a tendency for an emphasis on an individualised approach to engagement with research on the part of judges themselves, which is problematic in the context of workload constraints and research support needs; participants reported concerns about the scope and depth of their research knowledge as well as highlighting concerns about pressing gaps in social research. Judicial understanding of, and uncertainties about, the implications and applications of research findings for their practice and decision-making were also prominent issues. (Edited publisher abstract)
Social work, poverty, and child welfare interventions
- Authors:
- MORRIS Kate, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 23(3), 2018, pp.364-372.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The relationship between children's material circumstances and child abuse and neglect raises a series of questions for policy, practice, and practitioners. Children and families in poverty are significantly more likely to be the subject of state intervention. This article, based on a unique mixed‐methods study of social work interventions and the influence of poverty, highlights a narrative from practitioners that argues that, as many poor families do not harm their children, it is stigmatizing to discuss a link between poverty and child abuse and neglect. The data reveal that poverty has become invisible in practice, in part justified by avoiding stigma but also because of a lack of up‐to‐date research knowledge and investment by some social workers in an “underclass” discourse. We argue, in light of the evidence that poverty is a contributory factor in the risk of harm, that it is vital that social work engages with the evidence and in critical reflection about intervening in the context of poverty. We identify the need for fresh approaches to the harms children and families face in order to support practices that engage confidently with the consequences of poverty and deprivation. (Edited publisher abstract)
Out of time: theorizing family in social work practice
- Authors:
- MORRIS Kate, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 22(S3), 2017, pp.51-60.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This paper draws on a British Academy (BA) funded study exploring social workers' conceptions of family using a vignette and focus groups. The policy context is discussed and the data from the BA study are then compared and contrasted with families' accounts of their own situations using the data from a separate qualitative study about child protection social work. The paper discusses the themes emerging and argues for a renewed focus on theorizing family in children's social work and the implications for practice. (Publisher abstract)
Troubled families: vulnerable families' experiences of multiple service use
- Author:
- MORRIS Kate
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 18(2), 2013, pp.198-206.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This paper draws on a small-scale study examining the experiences of highly vulnerable families with complex and enduring needs. The previous UK government and the current government have sought to develop policy and service initiatives that target families who present high levels of need and require high cost services. However, to date remarkably little is known about family perspectives and experiences. In this paper, family accounts of their experiences are presented and it is suggested that from these come some difficult practice questions. The family data reveal evident gaps in existing practice and challenges social work to ‘think family’ in new ways. The paper explores how families understand they are understood at the point of engagement, the assumptions that are made about family knowledge, and how families share and withhold information about their needs and experiences. In the discussion, the argument is made for the development of nuanced practice capable of recognising and working with the ways highly vulnerable families ‘do family’, and the processes that support and inhibit professional interventions. (Publisher abstract)
Re-imagining child protection: towards humane social work with families
- Authors:
- FEATHERSTONE Brid, WHITE Susan, MORRIS Kate
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- Publication year:
- 2014
- Pagination:
- 256
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
The authors approaches to child protection policy and practice. It calls for a family-minded humane practice where children are understood as relational beings, parents are recognized as people with needs and hopes and families as carrying extraordinary capacities for care and protection. The authors also identify the key ingredients of just organizational cultures where learning is celebrated. Chapters discuss: re-imagining child protection; ethics; research mindedness and learning cultures; designing humane social work organisations; and living with poverty. (Edited publisher abstract)