319 Critical and Radical Social Work • vol 5 • no 3 • 319–34 • © Policy Press 2017 • #CRSW Print ISSN 2049 8608 • Online ISSN 2049 8675 • https://doi.org/10.1332/204986017X15029695863676 Submission accepted 08 August 2017 • First published online 25 August 2017 article The Norwegian child protection services in stormy weather Nicole Hennum, nicole.hennum@hioa.no Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway By examining children as symbols within a Norwegian context and, further, as icons in a larger Western context, the article shows how
researched. The study The aim of the study was to investigate what role pride, shame, guilt, humiliation and embarrassment play in child protection practice. A case study was chosen to investigate this specific issue in depth ( Thomas, 2011 ). While the findings cannot be generalised beyond the case study site, much can be learned about a topic from a single case that can produce knowledge that is applicable to other situations and contexts ( Flyvbjerg, 2006 ). The case was a child protection service within one local authority in England, referred to as ‘the Council
Introduction Child protection services represent a fruitful point of departure for researchers wishing to explore the complex relation between the state and parenting. One main reason for this stems from the mandate granted to these services by industrialised societies to intervene in the lives of families. In practice, the interventions made by child protection workers acting as agents of the state function to establish, as well as to reinforce, the norms defining acceptable and unacceptable parenting practices and childhoods. Discussions of criteria and
The number of children entering the child protection system has risen dramatically in the last three years with implications for children’s services and partner agencies. This timely volume takes a critical look at the impact of the Munro Review (2011) on child protection and the Government’s response. It looks at questions including how effective Local Safeguarding Children Boards are in providing the necessary scrutiny to ensure children are safe, how the early offer of help at local level might reduce the numbers of children at the critical end of the spectrum and whether reducing regulation from the centre will result in better outcomes for the most vulnerable? Moreover, it also considers those young people who traditionally bypass child protection services but remain at risk of harm. These are critical questions for both policy and practice in understanding the reforms Munro states are required. Contributions from leading experts working in the child protection system review current safeguarding policy and explore the future after Munro.
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.
Four years after the publication of the influential Munro Report (2011) this important publication draws together a range of experts working in the field of child protection to critically examine what impact the reforms have had on multi-agency child protection systems in this country, at both local and national level. With a particular emphasis on early intervention, vulnerable adolescents and effective multi-agency responses to young people at risk, specialists from policy and practice alongside academics in different areas of children’s services consider progress in improving child protection arrangements, in transforming services and the challenges that remain. Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs), the statutory bodies responsible for local scrutiny of child protection arrangements, are now subject to Ofsted inspection and this publication considers the role of LSCBs, how services should respond to the most vulnerable children and what ‘good’ services look like.
Drawing on unique access to prominent policy makers including ministers, senior civil servants, local authority directors, and the leaders of children’s sector NGOs, Purcell re-examines two decades of children’s services reform under both Labour and Conservative-led governments.
He closely examines the origins of Labour’s Every Child Matters programme, the Munro review and more recent Conservative reforms affecting child and family social workers to reassess the impact of high profile child abuse cases, including Victoria Climbié and Baby P, and reveal the party political drivers of successive reform.
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.
In 1990, disturbing television footage emerged showing the inhumane conditions in which children in Romanian institutions were living. Viewers were shocked that the babies were silent. The so-called ‘Romanian orphans’ became subjects of several international research studies. In parallel, Romania had to reform its child protection system in order to become a member of the European Union.
This book sheds light on the lived experiences of these children, who had become adults by the time the country joined the EU. Uniquely, the book brings together the accounts of those who stayed in institutions, those who grew up in foster care and those who were adopted, both in Romania and internationally. Their narratives challenge stereotypes about these types of care.
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.
