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Whilst 50% of child protection workers across much of Europe and the affluent ‘West’ leave after two years, many stay and develop substantial professional careers. This paper discusses research in Italy, Sweden and England examining what factors explain ‘remaining’ for more than three years in this stressful job. Underpinned by a hermeneutic epistemology, qualitative interviews were undertaken and subject to an interpretative thematic analysis. The findings proved to be complex and multi-layered and this paper presents an overview of these. The theoretical framework for the project mainly drew on organisations and resilience, and the initial sections of the paper consider how formulations of resilience as contextual and relational can elucidate professional sustainability. Organisational issues are considered, including the impact of work management, of supervision and of allocation in different national contexts. The paper also focuses on the role of friendships and informal support at work. Threaded through these established themes are more, perhaps surprising, concepts: for example, creativity, power, reflexive spaces and interpersonal relations as explanatory of remaining in child protection work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social work profession in Albania is relatively young and social services in the country continue to develop. But over the past three decades, Albania has experienced significant growth and transformation in its social work education programmes. Nevertheless, there is very little published work on the Albanian social work education system and its implementation on the ground. Currently, the main sources of social work graduates are three Schools of Social Work in Tirana, Shkodra, and Elbasan. Programmes at the bachelor's and master's level all incorporate policy, research, and practice education. The social work curriculum, originally transplanted from the United States, has gone through reforms following the Bologna process and continues to be revised to meet local needs. Drawing from a multi-country study of the social service workforce in southeast Europe, this paper presents baseline data on social work education in Albania. 62 participants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, case stories, and focus group discussions with consensus-building exercises. The findings highlight both the opportunities and challenges of this relatively young profession in Albania. Besides increasing understandings of social work education in Albania, this research adds to emerging regional and global themes in the development of social work education and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The involvement of social workers in policy-making processes is grounded in a professional requirement for promoting social justice, however, it is inherently a political activity related to the socio-political context in which it occurs. What does this political involvement mean when it comes to minority social workers in multicultural societies, who are expected to act as policy actors in policy arenas designed by the majority group in society? This article is based on the assumption that minority social workers, whose number is on the rise in various European countries, need opportunities and motivations in a socio-political context in order to act as policy actors in cross-cultural political situations. Using insights from the literature on the political participation of ethnic minorities and knowledge in the field of public policy, we present a theoretical Minority Policy Practice model (MPP) to examine different factors that may affect the involvement of minority social workers in policy practice. These new theoretical understandings are expected to serve as a basis for advancing training programmes and designing policy procedures to increase the involvement of minority social workers as policy actors in multicultural countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this article is to present the results of an international study on outreach approaches in the private domain in social work with a focus on moral dilemmas. The reason to start the study was to investigate if a trend in Dutch social work toward outreach approaches can be recognized in other European countries and what can be learned from other outreach practices. First, a definition of outreach approaches in the private domain was discussed. Next, data were collected by interviews with social workers in four different countries, executed by social work students and researchers. Although no evidence was found that outreach approaches in other countries than the Netherlands are increasing, many similarities were found in social workers' interpretation of their outreach work. All the interviewees emphasized that outreach approaches are intended for excluded people who are at risk or a risk and who are not in contact with social services. All workers stress the importance of gaining trust and staying in touch. A dilemma is that workers often find themselves between two fires. They tend to give priority to the relation with the client and accept that this can contradict rules of organizations or society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comprehensive overview of kinship care, or as it is also known, family and friends care, paying particular attention to the UK child welfare, legal, policy/practice contexts. The aim of the article is to raise awareness, and provide information, about a hitherto largely invisible, yet expanding placement option being widely used in child welfare systems in the UK, in Europe and elsewhere. The article places kinship care within a UK and European child welfare legal context, including the European Convention on Human Rights 1998 [Articles 8 and 14] and European kinship care developments are also highlighted. It contains the main findings of a kinship care research study conducted by the author, based on interviews with children and young people living with kinship carers, as well as with the kinship carers. Following an examination of theoretical and policy issues, the article examines ways forward for developing and supporting kinship care. In the final section, and based on the research findings and literature review, a new paradigm for child welfare is introduced. It is argued that this new paradigm is necessary in order for kinship care practice and policy to develop within a supported and sustainable family support framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]