The role of child care social work in supporting families with children in need and providing protective services—past, present and future

Abstract

This article examines the way in which child care social work with deprived families has changed and developed since the inception of Children's Departments in 1948. It is argued that between 1948 and 1970 child care social workers enjoyed a fair measure of social support. A variety of reasons are considered for explaining this—specialization, smallness of size, privacy and a consensus about the needs of children. From the early 1970s it is argued that broader societal changes, including a shift away from social solidarity towards individualism, organizational changes and the advent of child abuse as a public concern, resulted in conflicting demands on child care social workers and a subsequent loss of credibility and confidence. The 1990s have seen a return to emphasis on family support policies which has been further accelerated in the new millennium by New Labour's stated commitment to eliminating child poverty and creating better life opportunities for all children. The implications of these new developments for child care social workers engaged in meeting the needs of children living in highly disadvantaged families are considered. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Congruence and co‐operation in social workers’ assessments of children in need

“…The study focused on social work practice in the context of changes promoted by the UK refocusing initiative of the late 1990s. These changes involved attempts to move away from a forensic approach to child protection, towards more supportive responses (Corby 2006). The aims of the research were expressed in terms of the following question:…”

“…The research examined social work practice in the context of the refocusing initiative of the late 1990s in the UK, and has been written up in more general terms elsewhere (Platt 2005, 2006). The refocusing initiative was an attempt to move social work practice away from child protection towards family support, a dilemma that remains evident in practice, despite subsequent policy developments (Corby 2006). The present paper reports on findings with regard to the concepts of congruence and co‐operation.…”

Assessment of the developmental needs of children in need: Estonian child protective workers' case reflections

“…Saar () points out that assessment is considered to be difficult in Estonia as there is no common understanding of assessment principles, nor is there a clear, agreed‐upon framework guiding assessment. Several authors (Corby ; McPherson & Barnett ) argue that making informed choices requires specialized knowledge, and lack of skills and knowledge might lead to insufficient or even non‐existent assessments. Even with the most comprehensive framework and guidelines, professionals will still need training and supervision of their practice (Crisp et al .…”

Assessment or referral tool: the unintended consequences of a dual purpose common assessment framework form

“…Following this, within the Children Act (2004) there were a number of key proposals primarily designed to reduce child poverty. One of these was the need to produce guidance about how to respond to and monitor safeguarding referrals, including the development of common assessment frameworks (Corby, 2006). Along with this, the previous Labour government introduced many family orientated initiatives, including prevention and early intervention programmes, believing that more established problems are more difficult to deal with (Social Exclusion Task Force, 2007;DCFS, 2009;DfE, 2004).…”