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How can front-line practitioners be helped to c a r y out their responsibilities for child protection? This paper outlines and discusses some of the findings which emerged from interviews with 20 social workers about their involvement in regktration decisions. In particular it considers obstacles io effective investigation and decision making, highlighting factors associated with the cases, the workers' knowledge base and the professional support available.Our findings suggest a scenario in which social workers face a challenge as much to their integrity as to their knowledge, skill and understanding and in which they must manage their own emotions, ethical uncertainties and knowledge-based judgements in the pursuit of wise and just decisions. In a climate in which an increasingly elaborate procedural edifice is established to direct practice, we suggest that agency systems must provide workers with a professional support network which takes seriously the emotional and ethical components of the professional task as well as encouraging the worker's ability to achieve informed and thoughtful assessments.

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Collaboration at the university level is a fundamental element needed to enhance teaching (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005) and reflection is a critical component of teacher education (Dewey, 1933(Dewey, , 1938

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