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Studies are largely optimistic about the ability of standardized procedures to constrain decision-makers' biases and produce more equitable results across fields. However, work that embraces standardization as an equalizing force stands in contrast to research on standardization and street-level bureaucrats, which asserts that standardized procedures are not self-actuating and cannot be understood apart from the environments in which they are used. I examine how frontline workers vary in their approach to an actuarial-based tool intended to standardize judgments. In a highly controlled decision-making environment, child welfare workers whose racial and sex characteristics afford them higher status report subverting the tool; conversely, workers in the same position whose ascriptive characteristics yield them lower status in terms of race and sex describe following the rules. In an environment where the same tool is adopted only ceremonially, all workers experience decision-making as unconstrained, regardless of their ascriptive characteristics. This work fills gaps in knowledge about how social status and organizational context intersect to affect rule abidance. Examining these dynamic relationships advances understanding of how organizations reproduce inequality and the limits and potential for standardization to transform social hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including a paper by Greg Mantle, Tina Moules, and Ken Johnson on the tension between protection and empowerment in welfare, the second paper by Nina Biehal, discusses key issues emerging on reuniting children in public care with their families, while a third paper, by Marie Connolly, focuses on the development of a practice framework for child welfare in New Zealand.

The authors discuss the fresh thinking needed for child and family social work in the 21st century. Topics mentioned include international debate on the frameworks of child welfare, contribution of social work in trying to understand the needs of children and parents in contact with services, and the usefulness of attachment theory in child welfare in the light of its dominance in England.

The authors discuss the role of the journal in exploring the social work profession's many dimensions. They state that a journal should reveal the ambiguities and conflict in relationships between social work, the state, politics and civil society. They inform that the British Journal of Social Work publishes papers that help in understanding how social work research can be enhanced through innovative methodologies and new theoretical ideas. An introduction to the issue is also provided.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses the various topics within the issue, including foster care, special guardianship orders (SGO), and social work.

Family group conferences (FGCs) in child welfare share decision-making with family members by bringing the immediate and wider family together to make a plan to meet a child's needs. This paper reports survey findings on FGC provision in the UK in 2022 and explores whether in England the presence of an FGC service and the rate of FGC provision is associated with the rate of children in care, entering care, in kinship foster care and leaving care. Seventy-nine per cent (n  = 167) of local authorities in the UK provided FGCs to families, and 14 per cent (n  = 29) did not. Services that were more established offered a more diverse range of FGCs. The introduction of FGCs in English local authorities was associated with a higher rate of children in care, but also higher rates of kinship foster care, a key goal of FGCs where it is not possible for children to stay with their parents. Higher rates of FGCs were associated with more children leaving care, possibly due to reunification with birth families. To understand in more detail, the circumstances of children in and leaving care in local authorities with FGCs, individual data linkage studies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. The author highlights the achievements of the "British Journal of Social Work" during the author's tenure as periodical editor. The author reflects on the range of publications on the field of social work and the total number of works published as well as on the individuals involved in helping the journal achieve its goals. The largest group of articles published touched on topics related to children protection and child welfare. Of special notice, are papers published that discussed ethnicity, anti-discriminatory practice, values and ethics,and anti-oppressive practice of social service.

The Department of Education and Science, led by then Secretary of State Margaret Thatcher, published a White Paper in December 1972 calling for a dramatic expansion of public nursery education, so that it might be available within a decade to all families with 3- and 4-year-old children who chose to utilize it. While this failed policy is seldom remembered today, and Thatcher's efforts to promote the care and education of young children are not considered part of her considerable legacy, the White Paper's policy propositions challenge understandings about the formation and consistency of both Britain's child care policy and 'Thatcherism'. During this period, Thatcher believed that extending the frontiers of the state was appropriate to promote child welfare during the crucial first years of life. She conceived of nursery education as serving a developmental and educational purpose for all children, quite separate from welfare provisions for poor families or work supports for women. It is this crucial, albeit arbitrary, distinction which explains how nursery education was envisaged as an exception to her advocacy of cutting welfare spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers published within the issue including "Career Preference 'Transients' and 'Converts': A Study of Social Workers' Retention in Child Protection and Welfare," "Introducing 'Deviant' Social Work: Contextualising the Limits of Radical Social Work Whilst Understanding (Fragmented) Resistance Within the Social Work Labour Process," and "Religion in the Lives of Unaccompanied Minors: An Available and Compelling Coping Resource."

This article is a commentary on the Green Paper for children's services in England: Every Child Matters. The focus of the discussion is the lack of gender analysis in the document. The article highlights the gendered character of contemporary parenting, and the failure of some of the proposals in the Green Paper to address this. There is also discussion of the need to appreciate the gendered character of childhood, and the implications of this for children's services. The authors also argue the importance of using a gendered perspective to engage adequately with the causes and consequences of child maltreatment. The article ends with some recommendations for strengthening the gender analysis in the Green Paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including social pedagogy, ultra-orthodox people in Israel and cultural sensitivity in social workers.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue including child protection, food insecurity and social problems related to the delivery of adult services.

This paper argues that contemporary child and family social work in England and some other states in Europe needs an ethical 'turn'. This paper considers the facts in the Re W judgment and identifies certain features in the case that can be understood as products resulting from a particular paradigm of social work in contemporary practice. National and international implications are considered and hopeful ways forward are proffered: epistemic humility, inner dialogue and cultivating our humanity. The key message of this paper is that Re W indicates that contemporary child and family social work is dominated by an 'automatic' thinking that tends not to 'hear' the voices of actual human beings and a refocusing on ethics work is needed to put humane practice back at the heart of the social work profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child-protection social work is a stressful occupation that results in workforce concerns about poor levels of staff retention and high levels of inexperience. This paper presents results from a cross-sectional survey and reports findings from a sample of 162 Northern Irish social workers. The sample were measured for 'resilience' (acceptance of self and life and individual competence, RS14 Resilience Scale), 'burnout' (emotional exhaustion EE, depersonalisation DP, personal accomplishment PA, Maslach Burnout Inventory) and organisational subscales (work-load, community, values, equity and control, Area of Work Life Scale (AWLS)). Pearson zero-order correlations showed that higher resilience was associated with lower EE and higher PA. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to identify unique demographic and work-specific predictors of resilience in addition to the AWLS subscales of control and values. The final model significantly accounted for 27 per cent of the variance in resilience scores, providing increased knowledge about resilience enhancing factors. As resilience is not an apolitical concept, the wider debates and politics of resilience are acknowledged. Specifically, contextual concerns are addressed that relate to the organisational factors that impact on social workers. The paper concludes by calling for organisational interventions to support resilience in social workers and maintain expertise in child-protection services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editor emulates variety of actions including practice, research and competing for better outcomes and an introduction in which he discusses various reports within the issue on topics including qualitative study of the practice of children rights’ workers and social workers, the retention of social workers, and social worker interventions in situations of domestic violence.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one on the use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) in child welfare, another on government initiatives concerning early childhood in Great Britain and their implications for the social work profession, as well as a report on ethical challenges in social work.

Aims Many parents in contact with children's social care services misuse alcohol however do not meet the threshold for specialist alcohol treatment, and typically do not receive appropriate support for their needs. Brief alcohol interventions have been found to be effective in healthcare settings, however, it is unknown whether the brief intervention structure delivered within health settings would transfer well into children's social care. This paper aims to examine the characteristics of brief intervention for alcohol misusing parents which social care practitioners consider to be important and acceptable to implement in this sector. Methods We assessed preferences for, and acceptability of, brief alcohol intervention with parents in contact with children's social care using a discrete choice experiment. We recruited 205 children's social care practitioners from London and the North East of England. Data were analysed using mixed logit which accounted for repeated responses. Findings Six attributes showed statistically significant coefficients, suggesting that a brief intervention with these attributes would encourage implementation. These were: level of alcohol-related risk targeted; intervention recipient; timing of intervention; duration of sessions; number of sessions and intervention structure. The attribute of most importance identified based on the attribute with the largest coefficient in the conditional logit model was risk level. Conclusions Brief alcohol interventions delivered to parents in social care should focus on the impact upon children and the wider family, they should be a flexible part of on-going casework and should be more intensive and less structured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uterine transplantation (UTx) is a programme of treatment aimed at providing a unique solution to absolute uterine factor infertility, enabling patients to have children as a result of their own pregnancies. As a transplant procedure performed for fertility purposes it may be thought obvious that the welfare of any children created should be assessed prior to treatment provision. However, major concerns about the breadth and scope of such requirements, and the potential threat they pose to patients' reproductive autonomy, have been raised. In this paper, I analyse novel questions regarding the role of the pre-conception welfare principle in UTx. After outlining traditional critiques of the principle, I focus on the unique issues raised by its application in the two areas of medicine occupied by UTx. As a treatment for a particular form of infertility, I explore whether law and policy regulating traditional assisted reproductive technologies applies equally to the case of UTx, and whether a distinction (in welfare terms) does and should exist between fertility treatment involving gametes and embryos and gynaecological surgery for fertility purposes. As a quality-of-life-enhancing transplant, I consider and reject proposals in favour of using pre-conception welfare considerations to inform patient listing and the allocation of deceased donor uteri on the grounds that such assessments may both compromise patient autonomy and lead to unjust discrimination against particular patients or groups of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent reforms to the Australian child-protection sector have widened its scope from solely a statutory child-protection system to a public-health model to increase the number of agencies involved in the provision of services for children who are deemed 'vulnerable' or 'at risk'. Nevertheless, the number of Aboriginal children in the sector continues to increase. This paper argues that the reflective basis of social work practice in Australia contains a lack that evades consideration of the 'projective identifications' informing practice. Social workers are more likely to achieve safety outcomes for children when such projections are acknowledged and tendered to in their reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the major reforms and reviews of social work in the UK that followed the death of Baby P in 2007, significant attention has been paid to the relationship between social work and the media. The College of Social Work, established in 2012, has created a media centre, commissioned and published research into media ethics, and produced a media guide for social workers. Whilst The Munro Review of Child Protection explicitly addressed the responsibilities of politicians in relation to media stories about social work, there has been little detailed analysis of their role. This paper presents findings from research undertaken by the author involving the analysis of ‘moral talk’ in political and press accounts of the death of Baby P. I argue that politicians, in conjunction with the press, actively mobilised public anger towards social work through their responses. The paper further suggests that politicians and the press have a shared mutual interest in the co-authorship of ‘bad’ stories about social work. This paper is timely given the continuing impact of the social work reform agenda and the potential implications of the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This discussion paper explores the state of contemporary child protection and the role of social work in England. Criticisms of the current approach to child protection social work are identified. It is argued here that there is an underlying debate between models of social work, which is reflected in contemporary child protection. An alternative approach to child protection (a public health model) is suggested which may provide a way forward beyond these debates. Child protection social work is contextualised within the wider context of social work in England. The key message of this paper is that contemporary child protection adopts a narrow approach to child welfare and the role of social work. A public health model of child protection provides a more comprehensive understanding of child welfare and links to a broader conception of the role of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family Team Conference (FTC) has been suggested as a promising practice model to effectively reduce racial disproportionality and disparities in child welfare. However, previous studies have noted ongoing challenges to promoting cultural responsiveness in FTC. This study analysed caseworkers' survey data (n  = 736) to explore the role of racial matching between caseworkers and children as an effective practice to strengthen the high fidelity of FTC associated with child well-being. The results of the extended regression model indicate that high FTC fidelity was a necessary condition to improve child well-being. However, racial matching was neither a significant factor of child well-being nor a moderator that strengthened the positive association between FTC fidelity and child well-being. Instead, a follow-up analysis showed that caseworkers' competencies for facilitating FTC were a significant moderator to promote the positive effect of FTC fidelity on the well-being of all children regardless of their race. This paper concludes with research and practice implications to make FTC more culturally responsive to achieve its intended outcomes especially for children of colour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores key conceptual frameworks for measurement in child-protection (CP) services and considers their application in the English statutory system. After introducing some of the debates surrounding the use of measures in CP, three different perspectives are considered: performance-based accountability, evidence-based approaches and socio-technical systems design. The paper outlines the main principles of each perspective and their implications for measurement, drawing on examples from the relevant literature. It is argued that the merits and drawbacks of different measures are dependent on the conceptual frameworks in which they are used, and these in turn reflect the contested nature of CP and its institutional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Walter Lorenz on social care to social work and another by Mirja Satka and Timo Harrikarri on child welfare in Finland.

This article comments on the articles in this issue and presents information about developments and future plans for the "British Journal of Social Work." Information about the number of articles published over the past year for each of the new categories instituted for the 2007 publications. The categories with the highest number of articles were Families, Children and Young People and Social Work and Social Workers. Lorraine Waterhouse is thanked for her service as she completes her term as a member of the Editorial Board. Four new members are welcomed to the editorial board: Jim Campbell, Sally Holland, Mark Lymbery, and Joy Trotter.

Large-scale reform of statutory child protective services in the Republic of Ireland is underway, prompted by adoption of the national strengths-based and safety-organised practice approach, known as 'Signs of Safety' (SoS). Despite the radical change it impels, critical commentary from the academy on the conventions of SoS remains conspicuous by its absence. One reading of the ecological systems approach is that to appreciate implications of SoS for children and families at risk, we must surpass a sequestered concern with child protection and welfare alone. To substantiate this, and embed a reconceived Signs of Safety, human scale development theory is critically deployed through an augmented, rather than exclusive focus, on the axis of protection needs within the typology of fundamental human needs. To aid this, critical application of theory is partially reworked and appropriated through a life course perspective, to better account for lifespan positioning. Overall, the sustaining proposition of the paper is that academic interrogation of SoS is both a practical and ethical imperative, and a necessary complement to large-scale organisational change underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, 260 children entered secure accommodation. Of these, 51 per cent were placed because they were on remand or sentenced for committing a serious offence. Thirty seven per cent were placed by social services for their own protection under a child welfare order and the remaining 12 percent were placed under both categories concurrently. Secure accommodation is therefore used to simultaneously hold children sentenced for punishment with those who are 'saved' from tragedy by welfare professionals. This paper highlights findings from an ethnographic study conducted with girls in secure accommodation. The research used participant observations and in-depth interviews to explore girls' experiences of being secured and found that all thirteen of the girls admitted from local authority care felt that they were perceived as 'bad kids'--regardless of whether they had committed a crime or not. These feelings were exacerbated by the prominence of case files which followed children between care placements and were described as a source of anxiety and worry for young people. This paper hopes to inspire social work practice to be more inclusive of young people and to be aware of the impact of shrouding the information contained in case files. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a recurrent recognition in inquiry reports following high-profile deaths of children known to welfare services of shortcomings in social workers' analytical and assessment skills. There is an urgent need to explore what might help supervisors and practitioners 'think about their thinking'. This paper draws on cognitive interviewing (CI) and examines its applicability/transferability to the professional domain of child-care social work supervision. Focusing on how practitioners make sense of their practice, this approach homes in on cognitive understandings but, in so doing, heightens practitioners' awareness of the emotional and affective dimensions of practice and of their thinking. The integration of cognitive and affective ways of knowing resonates with psycho-socially informed ideas about the interrelationship between thinking and feeling and the importance of emotional containment for effective thinking. This paper suggests that combining the psychological underpinnings of CI with psycho-socially informed concepts, such as containment, creates a more robust and holistic theoretical framework for supporting the application of CI in practice. The paper proposes that the adoption of a cognitive and affective approach to supervisory practice has considerable potential for enhancing practitioners' critical thinking skills and decision-making capabilities, to the benefit of the children and families with whom they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, domestic abuse has shifted from the margins to the mainstream, and is now firmly established as an important public policy issue. This paper is concerned with how domestic abuse is constructed in public policy, particularly in the realms of safeguarding children and public health. These issues are examined through a Foucaldian theoretical lens which draws attention to the discursive constructions of social problems and how they are managed under conditions of governmentality, and presents a line of analysis rarely applied to domestic abuse. The paper illustrates how health and social care professionals come to know about domestic abuse affecting women and children through techniques of surveillance; this includes routine inquiry in health care, police notifications to children's social care and risk assessment used by MARACs (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences). The emphasis upon identification has increased awareness of the problem, but questions remain on whether the safety and support of women and children affected by domestic abuse has improved. Moreover, these developments have taken place amidst resource constraints which create a challenging context for delivering effective services for women and children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper summarises approaches to space in social work literature so far and shows that, while such work has developed important insights, it has not generally engaged with conceptualisations of space that have been developed in social and cultural geography. The paper introduces Henri Lefebvre's concept of a spatial dialectics, which has been highly influential in geography and which, the paper argues, enables a critical consideration of the ways that space is produced or constructed in social work practices and representations. The paper employs Lefebvre's dialectics to examine data from a number of ethnographies of children's social work which, while generally not explicitly concerned with space, offer rich descriptions of how social workers talk about and move through spaces. Analysis of this data reveals recurring themes: a narrow focus on certain spaces, the employment of restricted scales for understanding space in practice contexts and a conceptualisation of social work as combining features of outsider status and insider knowledge. The paper then moves to discuss how space may be produced in other ways in social work which, while less likely to be apprehended or recorded, may be significant for understanding the unexpected and unpredictable nature of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This conceptual paper explores the notion of professional curiosity within child protection practice considering the barriers that can inhibit social workers invoking curiosity. The authors contend that definitions of professional curiosity are lacking in clarity and transparency; at the time of writing, we are not aware of any other endeavours to create a definitional reference point or analysis of this concept. Furthermore, invoking professional curiosity is challenging when the social work task is pressurised, stressful and operates within a system that is stretched to breaking point. Drawing on messages from Serious Case Reviews in the UK which identify social work failings in context of a lack of professional curiosity, this paper initially focuses on constructing some definitional reference point, moving on to explore factors that may inhibit curiosity in practice. We cement connections between the emotional dimension of child protection practice, organisational context and the wider neo-liberal political climate, constructing these as potential barriers to invoking curiosity. We contend the interplay of such complicated relational dynamics has the potential to distort professional judgement, including enacting curiosity. Finally, we consider realistic mechanisms by which social workers could be supported to generate creativity and curiosity in their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of trust in relation to social work, child protection and work on domestic abuse. Trust is a complex notion. Borrowing from the arguments of Behnia that trust is the outcome of a process, the paper uses the talk of women who have experienced social work in the context of domestic abuse and child protection to consider the barriers to trust building. The evidence is gathered from three focus groups which formed part of an evaluation of a 'Freedom Programme'. The findings highlight issues with trust building that start with the context of living with abuse and work outwards to considerations of professional power, social work systems and wider inequality, suggesting an ecological approach to the trust-building process. The key argument is that social workers will struggle to gain trust within a system that sees domestic abuse as a hurdle that mothers must overcome, rather than a trauma through which they should be supported. The experiences of the women in this research, however, do show that trust and respect for voluntary service are achievable and that practice which builds alliances with the voluntary sector and service users could develop more trusting relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work with adults with learning disabilities or intellectual disability may be organised as a discrete or specialist area of practice in the UK. Little is known about contemporary social work practitioners’ views of their work with adults with learning disabilities and whether these differ from those of social workers in practice with different user groups or working in other specialities. This paper reports findings from a national survey of UK social workers undertaken in 2015 that measured burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, across three domains: Emotional Exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation and personal accomplishment. A total of 1,359 social workers responded to the invitation to participate, of whom seventy-seven reported predominantly working with adults with learning disabilities and 358 reported working in child protection social work. Comparisons are drawn between responses from social workers working in these distinct practice areas showing high levels of EE co-existing with high levels of personal accomplishment in both areas of practice. Other important distinctions and similarities are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk-assessment models are widely used in casework involving vulnerable children and families. Internationally, there are a number of different kinds of models with great variation in regard to the characteristics of factors that harm children. Lists of factors have been made but most of them give very little advice on how the factors should be weighted. This paper will address the use of risk-assessment models in six different Danish municipalities. The paper presents a comparative analysis and discussion of differences and similarities between three models: the Integrated Children's System (ICS), the Signs of Safety (SoS) model and models developed by the municipalities themselves (MM). The analysis will answer the following two key questions: (i) to which risk and protective factors do the caseworkers give most weight in the risk assessment? and (ii) does each of the different models ensure a holistic assessment (which is required by law in Denmark)? The study contributes to the discussion about the use of risk-assessment models and whether these newer models have actually made a difference in what is assessed when looking at families at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a preliminary attempt to construct a theory of children's rights which could plausibly be adopted by interpreters of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It takes child support as a test case and, by way of example only, looks at the recent Child Support Scheme in Australia. The theory put forward in the paper is a consequentialist one with the goal of maximizing welfare. Specifically, it encompasses the welfare value of a community of people who have not been let down by adults in the past ('the good of non-betrayal'). It differs from most recent theorizing about children's rights which proceeds from a priori concerns with liberty, autonomy or respect. Whilst similar conclusions on many matters might be reached on either approach, one advantage of a consequentialist theory (it is argued) is that it lends itself readily to a transformative political strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports qualitative findings from a mixed-methods evaluation of an intervention for families affected by substance misuse and child protection concerns. The study involved twenty-seven families, including eighty-four children. The data illustrate the various impacts of substance misuse on family life, including neglect, instability and physical and sexual abuse. During semi-structured interviews, many of the parents went some way to counter highly stigmatised identities through confessing previous parental failings and demonstrating the distance they have travelled since then. A small minority maintained that they have been wrongly labelled as inadequate parents. Additionally, parents vividly recalled hardships and abuse, underlining the challenging material realities of their lives. For most, domestic abuse was a particularly dominant factor. Implications for practice are outlined in the conclusion of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cash transfer programs are widely used in settings where child labor is prevalent. Although many of these programs are explicitly implemented to improve children's welfare, in theory their impact on child labor is undetermined. This paper systematically reviews the empirical evidence on the impact of cash transfers, conditional and unconditional, on child labor. We find no evidence that cash transfer interventions increase child labor in practice. On the contrary, there is broad evidence that conditional and unconditional cash transfers lower both children's participation in child labor and their hours worked and that these transfers cushion the effect of economic shocks that may lead households to use child labor as a coping strategy. Boys experience particularly strong decreases in economic activities, whereas girls experience such decreases in household chores. Our findings underline the usefulness of cash transfers as a relatively safe policy instrument to improve child welfare but also point to knowledge gaps, for instance regarding the interplay between cash transfers and other interventions, that should be addressed in future evaluations to provide detailed policy advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'rule of optimism' has been a key feature of child protection discourse in the UK since being introduced as a theoretical construct over thirty years ago. It has continuously been drawn upon to explain professional action and has been most notably utilised as a powerful explanatory device within Serious Case Reviews (SCRs). Yet, despite its longevity, the deployment of the construct has been subject to very little critique. This paper seeks to redress that balance and will explore how 'the rule' as an explanatory device has become rearticulated and repositioned as an individualising psychological construct which has almost invariably focused attention on the practices of individual social workers at the expense of an analysis of the structural conditions which frame these practices. In doing so, this paper traces the origins of the rule and explores the integrity and thrust of contemporary applications. Evidence from recent SCRs will be drawn upon to suggest that 'the rule', albeit in its psychologically distilled form, retains currency. Drawing on the work of Berlant, 'the rule of optimism' will be reconsidered alongside an exploration of the 'role of optimism'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a Freedom of Information request with data from 75 per cent of all English children's services departments covering over half a million children, this paper shows that 22.5 per cent of children born in the 2009-10 financial year were referred to children's social care before their fifth birthday. Three-quarters of them were at some point assessed, almost two-thirds found to be in need and a quarter formally investigated. These findings show the full extent of children's involvement in children's social care before the age of five. One in every nine children born in 2009-10 was suspected by social workers of being abused and this high level of involvement is only justifiable if it is demonstrably reducing harm and promoting well-being of children-- an outcome which is contested. Early Help's introduction was associated with high proportions of children being referred and assessed and rapidly increasing numbers of investigations, thus questioning its ability to prevent entry to the child protection system. The paper calls for a change from the current emphasis on individualised and investigative approaches to child protection in order to provide an effective and humane response to children, the majority of whom live in families affected by high levels of deprivation and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports findings from a qualitative research inquiry into child sexual exploitation (CSE) involving young people with experiences of CSE. The paper considers how 'care'--understood as an act, an orientation and/or set of relations (including statutory responsibilities at the level of the local state)--featured as a recurrent theme across the data in respect of the ways in which participants made sense of the problem of CSE, why they were vulnerable and at risk, and the ways in which people should respond to such risks. Findings suggest that young people who are without care and recognition from protective adults, and who are not permitted as active agents insetting the terms of their own support, are vulnerable to CSE. Not only do adult care-giving and practices of child protection feature in participants' accounts as being part of the problem, but they suggest that the instigation of these practices, made as a response to CSE, can ignore and serve to compound that which they are attempting to prevent and disrupt. There is an urgent need for care responses to address the complex underlying issues behind CSE, and to open up the possibility of interventions beyond narrow child protection responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past five years have witnessed a growing recognition of the importance of management and leadership in the social work profession. The Social Work Task Force Report has underlined the need for ‘dedicated programmes of training and support for frontline social work managers’ and the Social Work Reform Board is tasked with taking this recommendation forward. Central to these developments is the question of how such ‘dedicated programmes’ are defined and developed. Developing a reflective management model that holds in a creative tension both the reflective and relationship-based dimensions of management and the positive aspects of managerialism offers an effective way of responding to these challenges. The paper considers the contribution of psycho-dynamic theoretical perspectives to this model of management. The capacity of these perspectives to equip managers to more effectively respond to issues of risk, uncertainty and anxiety is illustrated with examples drawn from case discussions undertaken with social work managers in the context of a post-qualification social work programme. The paper concludes by outlining how complex reflective management practice is facilitated by reflective organisational contexts which embrace diverse knowledge sources, promote relationship-based skills and found themselves on reflective values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hayes and Houston's positive review of Habermas's contribution to discourse in family group conferences (in this journal) has been challenged by Garrett. In this paper, one of the authors replies to Garrett but extends the analysis through a more considered, developed and detailed examination of Habermas's thoughts on power in social life. This leads to a conceptual framework that enables the participants in the conference to exercise power in a positive manner. In developing this earlier analysis, the paper also acknowledges Garrett's argument that Bourdieu helps us to understand the nature of constraining social structures in child protection. However, Bourdieu's ideas are subsequently challenged on the grounds that they lack a competent formulation on human agency—a faculty that Habermas cogently elucidates. This enlarged understanding of agency, it is argued, offers a theoretical resource that fits better with the ethos of emancipatory social work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses growing professional discontents with the increasing formalisation of social work practice exerted through systems of risk management and audit. Drawing on an ESRC-funded study of social work practices in children's statutory services, this paper provides a critique of instrumental approaches to risk management in social work. Through the discussion of three illustrative case examples, we argue that risk management is an inherently complex, contingent and negotiated activity. Social work practitioners are obliged to comply with risk reduction technologies, but informal processes continue to play a critical role in shaping decisions and actions in this relationship-based profession. From practitioner accounts, we identify key elements of the informal logics of risk management. We conclude that the bureaucratic–instrumental bias manifest in the modernisation of children's services, in privileging metrics and administrative power leaves the informal and relational aspects of practice under-emphasised and under-theorised. Suggestions are made about how practice might be advanced in the complex world of child welfare and protection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research into social work practice and inquiries into cases in which practitioners are deemed to have failed to protect children and vulnerable adults are predominantly focused on examining and changing organisational systems and inter-professional communication. This leaves largely unaddressed practitioners' experiences of the work they have to do that goes on beyond the office, on the street and in doing the home visit. In providing such an analysis, the paper argues that we need to think about social work in terms of the walks and other bodily movements that are required on the streets and in the homes of service users and evoke the adventures and atmospheres that deeply influence how the work is carried out. The paper draws theoretically on the new ‘mobilities’ approach and on my research into social workers' experiences of doing the work, past and present. Analysis of the mobile, lived experience of practice enables deeper understandings of risk to emerge—what I call practice risks—which concern whether professionals meet the requirements of good practice by looking around homes, walking towards children to properly see, touch, hear and walk with them to ensure they are fully engaged with and safe, here and now, on this home visit, or in this clinic or hospital ward. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: While studies have been undertaken to understand the adoption of outdoor and indoor smoking bans, not much is known about why implementation of smoke-free (SF) environments differs at local levels. As most European countries remain at the level of indoor bans, we aim to translate existing evidence into practical recommendations on how to improve SF (outdoor) implementation within European municipalities.Methods: We applied six methodological steps of a realist review consistent with the RAMESES publication standards for realist syntheses. Literature search was conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE and Web of Science. In total, 3829 references were screened, of which 43 were synthesized. Studies dating from 2004 to 2015 with rigor evidence of SF implementation at the local level were selected. Implementation outcomes were SF enforcement, monitoring, nonsmoking compliance, and public support in cities.Results: The explanatory realist framework links four innovation stages with three context-mechanism-outcome (CMO)configurations. We identified "triggering trust," "increasing priorities," and "limiting opposing interests" as underlying mechanisms, when (1) establishing, (2) developing, (3) contesting, and (4) implementing local smoking bans. The CMO propositions (CMOs) support practical recommendations, such as (1) providing authorities with local data when establishing and developing bans, (2) developing long-term strategies and implementing state-funded SF programs to prioritize sustained enforcement, and (3) limiting opposing interests through the use of the child protection frame.Conclusions: This is the first realist review on the implementation of SF enviroments at the local level. The process-oriented theory explains how and why CMOs determine SF development in cities and municipalities from planning until implementation.Implications: In 2015, only 16% of the world's population lived under the jurisdiction of comprehensive SF laws. The findings of this realist review are useful to implement WHO goals of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and specifically SF environments at more local levels and to adjust them to specific contextual circumstances. This paper unpacks three mechanisms that could be triggered by SF strategies developed at local levels and that can result in improved policy implementation. Such evidence is needed to enhance SF strategies at the level of cities and municipalities and to achieve WHO "Healthy Cities Network" objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fabricated or induced illness (FII) and perplexing presentations (PPs) are the terms used by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in the UK. FII is presented as if synonymous with Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare presentation which is now known in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition as factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIoA). However, FII is not a diagnosis, and the definition is far broader than FDIoA. RCPCH admit that there is a limited evidence base for the prevalence, specificity or sensitivity of FII and the associated 'alerting signs', and yet local authorities across the UK have Child Protection Policies developed directly from the RCPCH guidelines. An increasing number of families of children with neurodevelopmental presentations (such as autism), or presentations of complex or less well-known conditions such as Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, are finding themselves being investigated for FII by Social Services, and consequently labelled as potential 'perpetrators' of child abuse, on the basis of FII guidelines. The present article discusses the issues relating to FII and PP, how current guidelines are creating implicit and explicit bias against certain kinds of families and the implications for Social Services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioners, irrespective of the service users they work with, have educational, emotional and supervisory needs. In addition, they require appropriate physical space and a safe work environment. Social workers are most likely to develop effective relationships with families if these needs are met. Therefore, it is important that managers create an organisational culture that not only recognises, but also meets, practitioners' needs. In this paper, the various needs of social workers are considered in detail with a particular focus on those of child and family practitioners. Agency responses to meeting these various needs are also explored. An argument is made that the agency approach to work environment, staff development, supervision and managing the emotional demands of the job all influence practitioners' commitment and ability to engage with families and improve outcomes for children. Drawing on a framework of different types of practitioner engagement with carers, the negative effects on practitioners of working in a 'neglectful organisation' are considered. An argument is made that the neglected practitioner, working with a parent who is not meeting the needs of their child, leads to an unhealthy alliance and in effect a 'Toxic Duo' is created. The paper concludes by considering the work culture and climate that promote meaningful engagement and questions are raised as to how managers can create this culture when services are subject to year-on-year cuts, marketisation and increased service demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defensive practice has received attention through the Munro review of child protection, which has identified that current organisational cultures increase the likelihood of defensive practice. Whilst the wider socio-political climate that gives rise to defensive practice has been explored within the literature, little attention has been paid to the everyday realities of defensive practice. This paper reports the findings of a study into final year social work students' attitudes towards defensive practice within social work. Three focus groups were completed with a total of ninety final-year students that collected qualitative and quantitative data using interactive software. This paper examines how participants perceived defensive practice, both in general and when faced with real-life vignettes. Participants distinguished between pro-active behaviour (sins of commission) and passive behaviour (sins of omission), generally regarding the latter as less serious because it was less tangible and easier to attribute to more positive motives. Whilst the literature identifies defensive practice as deliberate behaviour, the focus group discussions suggest that it is a subtler and less conscious process. Whilst there was there was a general consensus about the nature of defensive practice, there was considerable disagreement about specific vignettes and several competing explanations are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of child sexual abuse images online (CSAIO) presents new and daunting challenges for social workers who work in the field of child sexual abuse (CSA), particularly in relation to assessment and treatment approaches. This paper reports on a grounded theory study that examined the views of CSA practitioners about online abuse images. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with fourteen social work practitioners and other helping professionals in child protection and CSA treatment services from Ontario, Canada, to explore their perspectives about effective assessment and treatment for the children in the online images. All participants felt inadequately prepared in terms of their training and experience to effectively respond to these children, particularly regarding the perceived permanence of the abuse images distributed online and their global accessibility. Implications for social work training and practice are provided and the paper concludes with a call for the recognition of CSAIO as a new area in social work practice requiring additional research and specialised training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into child and family social work has largely stopped short of getting close enough to practice to produce understandings of what goes on between social workers and service users. This is despite the known problems in social worker engagement with children in cases where they have died. This paper outlines and analyses the methods used in a study of social work encounters with children and families on home visits where there were child protection concerns. It illustrates how mobile methods of walking and driving interviews were conducted with social workers on the way to and from home visits, and how the ethnography involved participant observation and audio-recordings of the interactions between social workers, children and parents in the home, revealing the talk, actions and experiences that occurred. Social workers often moved around the home, especially to interview children on their own in their bedrooms, and the paper shows how ways were found to stay close enough to observe these sensitive encounters within families' most intimate spaces, while ensuring the research remained ethical. Ethnographic and mobile methods produce vital data that advance new understandings of everyday social work practices and service users' experiences and of dynamics that are similar to breakdowns in practice that have occurred in child death cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]