183 TEN The capability approach: what can it offer child protection policy and practice in England? Brid Featherstone and Anna Gupta Introduction The capability approach (CA) has been used to assess individual wellbeing and the evaluation of social arrangements, and to develop policies and practices to effect social change. In recent years, the CA has gained attention and influence in a broad number of public policy areas and across academic disciplines. This chapter explores child protection policy and practice in England, an area of social policy that
147 TEN now you see them – now you don’t: institutions in child protection policy Tuija Eronen, Riitta Laakso and Tarja Pösö long history notwithstanding In Finland, residential institutions for children began to be separated from those for adults at the end of the 19th century and their number began to grow. Gradually they acquired a strong, though by no means uncontested, position in Finnish society and child protection. Institutions began to dominate social welfare in general. From the 1960s onwards, however, it was increasingly criticised for being too
461 Key words evidence-informed policy • research into policy • child welfare • family welfare © The Policy Press • 2010 • ISSN 1744 2648 re se ar ch Evidence & Policy • vol 6 • no 4 • 2010 • 461-82 • 10.1332/174426410X535855 The role of research in child protection policy reform: a case study of South Australia Kerry Lewig, Dorothy Scott, Prue Holzer, Fiona Arney, Cathy Humphreys and Leah Bromfield Governments across Australia are struggling to address escalating child protection notifications, increasing numbers of children in state care, decreasing numbers
155 Children growing up in the proximity of violence TEN Neglected issues in Swedish child protection policy and practice: age, ethnicity and gender Keith Pringle The creation of the welfare state in Sweden as an idea (in the 1930s/ 1940s) and then as practice since the 1950s has undoubtedly been a huge achievement. It is remarkable that a country with a relatively small population and only recent industrialisation could create one of the most comprehensive welfare systems in the world. However, Sweden’s welfare system is not, and never was, paradise (Pringle
The state is increasingly experienced as both intrusive and neglectful, particularly by those living in poverty, leading to loss of trust and widespread feelings of alienation and disconnection.
Against this tense background, this innovative book argues that child protection policies and practices have become part of the problem, rather than ensuring children’s well-being and safety.
Building on the ideas in the best-selling Re-imagining child protection and drawing together a wide range of social theorists and disciplines, the book:
• Challenges existing notions of child protection, revealing their limits;
• Ensures that the harms children and families experience are explored in a way that acknowledges the social and economic contexts in which they live;
• Explains how the protective capacities within families and communities can be mobilised and practices of co-production adopted;
• Places ethics and human rights at the centre of everyday conversations and practices.
Why has the language of the child and of child protection become so hegemonic? What is lost and gained by such language? Who is being protected, and from what, in a risk society? Given that the focus is overwhelmingly on those families who are multiply deprived, do services reinforce or ameliorate such deprivations? And is it ethical to remove children from their parents in a society riven by inequalities?
This timely book challenges a child protection culture that has become mired in muscular authoritarianism towards multiply deprived families. It calls for 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, who have over three decades of experience as social workers, managers, educators and researchers in England, also identify the key ingredients of just organizational cultures where learning is celebrated.
This important book will be required reading for students on qualifying and post-qualifying courses in child protection, social workers, managers, academics and policy makers.
In the context of the ‘cross-cutting’ policy ambitions of the current Labour government, Working together or pulling apart? examines the contribution of the NHS to the multi-agency and inter-professional child protection process. Applying the insights of policy network and inter-organisational analysis, the text:
provides detailed information on the current role played by a range of health professionals within child protection;
investigates the nature and operation of the central policy community and local provider networks;
considers the tensions arising from differences of professional power and knowledge, organisational cultures and agendas, and governance and regulation;
examines the impact of wider socio-political changes on the operation of the child protection process, at both central and local levels.
Working together or pulling apart? will be essential reading for all those working in child protection, at both strategic and frontline levels, within the NHS and other agencies. In addition, it will be of interest to staff and students on undergraduate or postgraduate courses in health, social work, public and social policy.
Exploring the current and historical tensions between liberal capitalism and indigenous models of family life, Ian Kelvin Hyslop argues for a new model of child protection in Aotearoa New Zealand and other parts of the Anglophone world.
He puts forward the case that child safety can only be sustainably advanced by policy initiatives which promote social and economic equality and from practice which takes meaningful account of the complex relationship between economic circumstances and the lived realities of service users.
This comprehensive international study provides a cross-national analysis of different understandings of errors and mistakes, as well as lessons to avoid and how to handle them in child protection practice, using research and knowledge from 11 countries in Europe and North America.
Divided into country-specific chapters, each examines the pathways that lead to mistakes happening, the scale of their impact, how responsibilities and responses are decided and how practice and policy subsequently change. Considering the complexities of evolving practice contexts, this authoritative, future-oriented study is an invaluable text for practitioners, researchers and policy makers wishing to understand why child protection fails – and offers a springboard for fresh thinking about strategies to reduce future risk.
Children and families are at the heart of social work all over the world, but, until now Nordic perspectives have been rare in the body of English-language child welfare literature. Is there something that makes child welfare ideas and practices that are in use in the Nordic countries characteristically ‘Nordic’? If so, what kinds of challenges do the current globalization trends pose for Nordic child welfare practices, especially for social work with children and families?
Covering a broad range of child welfare issues, this edited collection provides examples of Nordic approaches to child welfare, looking at differences between Nordic states as well as the similarities. It considers, and critically examines, the particular features of the Nordic welfare model - including universal social care services that are available to all citizens and family policies that promote equality and individuality - as a resource for social work with children and families. Drawing on contemporary research and debates from different Nordic countries, the book examines how social work and child welfare politics are produced and challenged as both global and local ideas and practices.
"Social work and child welfare politics" is aimed at academics and researchers in social work, childhood studies, children’s policy and social policy, as well as social work practitioners, policy makers and service providers, all over the world who are interested in Nordic experiences of providing care and welfare for families with children.
