Search

This report on the linkage of Children Looked After Statistics (CLAS) with data from Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) is one strand of the Permanently Progressing? study. The study is the first in Scotland to investigate decision making, permanence, progress, outcomes and belonging for children who became ‘looked after’ at home, or away from home (with kinship carers, foster carers or prospective adopters) when they were aged five and under. Phase One ran from 2014-18 and is designed to be the first phase in a longitudinal study following a large cohort of young children into adolescence and beyond. Phase One was funded by a legacy and was undertaken by a team from the universities of Stirling, York and Lancaster in conjunction with Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) Scotland.

As its name suggests, a key concern of the Permanently Progressing? Building secure futures for children in Scotland study is the question of permanence for children who become looked after away from home. The aim of permanency planning is to ensure that children have a permanent home which can provide them with the physical and relational stability, and the emotional security essential to child development. Depending on their histories and circumstances, children may find a permanent home through reunification with their parents, permanent placement with kin (or in some cases with friends) either within or outwith the looked after system, or through long-term fostering or adoption.

The relationship between children's material circumstances and child abuse and neglect raises a series of questions for policy, practice, and practitioners. Children and families in poverty are significantly more likely to be the subject of state intervention. This article, based on a unique mixed-methods study of social work interventions and the influence of poverty, highlights a narrative from practitioners that argues that, as many poor families do not harm their children, it is stigmatizing to discuss a link between poverty and child abuse and neglect. The data reveal that poverty has become invisible in practice, in part justified by avoiding stigma but also because of a lack of up-to-date research knowledge and investment by some social workers in an “underclass” discourse. We argue, in light of the evidence that poverty is a contributory factor in the risk of harm, that it is vital that social work engages with the evidence and in critical reflection about intervening in the context of poverty. We identify the need for fresh approaches to the harms children and families face in order to support practices that engage confidently with the consequences of poverty and deprivation.

This is the working paper for the journal article that was later published under a different title. See: Bywaters P, Scourfield J, Jones C, Sparks T, Elliott M, Hooper J, McCartan C, Shapira M, Bunting L & Daniel B (2020) Child welfare inequalities in the four nations of the UK. Journal of Social Work, 20 (2), pp. 193-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017318793479 With full-text available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27484 First paragraph: In the public health field, much attention has been paid to measuring and analysing differences in mortality and morbidity between and within countries. While recognising problems in ensuring that data is genuinely comparable between and within different countries, sufficient convergence is managed through the WHO Global Health Observatory for data on over 1000 indicators of population health to be gathered from 194 countries (http://www.who.int/gho/en/). There is a substantial body of work that underpins judgements about relative rates of sickness and death and discussions of contributory causal factors. It supports a focus on understanding and combatting both underlying and more immediate causes of health inequalities (WHO, 2008). Reducing health inequalities is seen as an essential element for maximising the health of populations (Acheson 1998; Marmot 2010).

BACKGROUND: Provision of health care to all in South Africa is a major challenge as a result of historical inequalities and a mal-distribution of health professionals and services. The disparity in the availability of these services is particularly apparent between rural and urban areas, with relatively few health professionals practicing in rural South Africa. Community service was thus introduced by the Minister of Health in 2003 for all graduates in the medical and allied fields as a means to retain human resources in the public sector and address the inequality of service delivery. AIM: The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence choice of placement for community service amongst occupational therapists in South Africa. METHODS: Occupational therapists completing their community service year in 2012 participated in this study. Electronic surveys were formulated to explore the factors influencing choice of placement for community service. The surveys were used to determine the relationship between graduates' attitudes and experiences when selecting a placement. RESULTS: The results indicated that the majority of the participants agreed with the statements that family contact, proximity to home and exposure/experience gained during undergraduate studies were influential in the choice of placements for community service. Urban placements were favoured over rural placements. Financial incentives were found to have minimal influence on the selection of rural placements. Experiences during undergraduate studies, including the perceptions and opinions of students towards their university supervisors, and even more so their clinical supervisors, were found to have a significant influence on choice of placement. The National Department of Health could potentially use this information to review the level of success gained in achieving the initial goals of community service.