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• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Child- and family-centred social work
• 1 Hearing children’s voices and respecting children’s wishes and feelings, part 1 Trust, communication and support
• Keeping the focus on the child, not the tasks
• What do adults mean by ‘listening’ to children, and what do children mean when they say they want to be listened to?
• The child’s right to privacy in child protection enquiries
• Narratives and trust
• The purpose of a conversation, or a conversation with a purpose
• Making space to listen, and support for social workers too
• Concluding comments
• 2 Hearing children’s voices and respecting children’s wishes and feelings, part 2 The legal framework, and putting it into practice
• The legal basis of the duty to seek and respect children’s wishes and feelings in international law
• The legal basis of the duty to seek and respect children’s wishes and feelings in the UK
• ‘Competent’ children and young people
• Ascertaining children and young people’s views
• Identity, development, security, and forming an opinion
• Concluding comments
• 3 Reflection Theory, knowledge, identity and power in working with children and families
• Definitions of reflection and critical best practice
• The Munro Review of Child and Family Social Work
• Evidence, knowledge, illusion and reflection
• Cognitive dissonance
• Reflecting on power and individual perspectives
• Hypothesising in reflective social work practice
• Concluding comments
• 4 Assessment of parenting Constructing meaning from detail
• Organising principles for thinking about parenting
• Engaging parents
• Uncertainty and applying rules
• Thresholds for compulsory intervention
• Thresholds: an integral part of assessment practice or a problem in practice?
• Setting the context for assessment of parenting
• Going beyond ‘good enough parenting’
• Time and relationships in social work
• Flexibility and order
• Putting it all together
• Concluding comments
• 5 Narrative and understanding the family’s world Questions and stories in working with children and families
• Introduction
• Narratives, the self and social work
• The value of narratives for social work
• Three reasons for asking people to tell their stories
• Narratives, autobiographical reasoning, and working with children and young people
• Problematising, reflection and the (co-)creation of narratives
• The process of co-constructing and (re-)constructing meaning
• Power, stories and conversations
• Concluding comments
• 6 Social work and poverty A complex relationship
• Introduction: what is poverty?
• Children’s views of poverty, and some views from parents
• The pattern of poverty in Britain
• Poverty as an issue of gender and ethnicity
• Poverty as a challenge to parental coping mechanisms
• Poverty and coping behaviour
• Congruence and co-operation
• Conceptual gaps and practice wisdom
• Is there an association between poverty, and child abuse and neglect?
• The Child Poverty Act 2010
• The Child Poverty Strategy 2011
• Conclusion: poverty and social work
• Social work and the management of risk, and support for colleagues
• 7 Risk in child and family social work, part 1 The idea of risk and uncertainty in social work
• Introduction: risk assessment and ‘changing the odds’ for vulnerable children and young people
• Different ways of thinking about risk assessment: actuarial and clinical risk assessment
• How do people think about risk, and why do we sometimes get it wrong?
• Making judgements about risk: taking the wider context into account
• What do we mean by ‘risk’?
• Integration of information, interpretation and reflection in risk assessment
• Risk, complexity and messages from Serious Case Reviews
• Concluding comments
• 8 Risk in child and family social work, part 2 Probability and different levels of prevention
• Risk and prevention of harm
• Prevention and mitigation: risk at the proto-prevention, first and second tier of intervention
• Socially constructing risk and the limitations of rules
• Signs of Safety
• Risk reduction and risk to organisations
• Concluding comments
• 9 Working with resistance The challenge of working with involuntary service users
• More overt resistance: parents who are threatening or aggressive
• Knocking on the door in child protection cases
• Three different perspectives: an advisory model from the US, the European Directive approach, and the Newham Protocol for addressing violence and aggression in the workplace
• Supervision and the avoidance of ‘pitfalls’
• Working with and around resistance
• Assessing risk: a checklist of things to consider
• Why might people use threats and intimidation against social workers?
• Concluding comments
• 10 Drugs and alcohol and child and family social work
• Defining the problem
• The extent of the problem – alcohol
• The extent of the problem – drugs
• Problem substance misuse and parenting
• A problem that can start before birth, and continue into adulthood
• Interventions that alcohol- and drug-related research suggests may be helpful for children: resilience and stress
• Gender of significant adults in the child’s life
• The ‘elephant in the room’ and the problem of talking about drug and alcohol problems in the family
• Specific questions that practitioners should seek to answer when carrying out an assessment under the Framework for Assessment (DH 2000) in cases of parental substance misuse
• Substance misuse and the extended family
• Empathy, interviewing, engaging and reflecting
• Avoiding resistant responses and working towards engagement: good practice in interviewing in cases where parents misuse drugs or alcohol
• Concluding comments
• 11 In care and going home Working with parents towards reunification
• Introduction
• Time to go home?
• Children’s rights while in care, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Interdependence and the ‘ethic of care’
• Parents of children in care
• Stigma, threatened identity and parents of children in care
• Assessing when the time is right, and what is required to make reunification work
• Children with disabilities: the ‘reverse ladder of permanence’
• Preparation for successful return
• Concluding comments: minimising the risks associated with reunification
• 12 Supporting others in their professional development
• Being ‘a professional’: the context for professional development
• Different ways of supporting others in their professional development
• Continuing professional development
• Reflective practice and preparation for the role of the teacher
• Trust and the environment for learning
• A model from the education literature – learning communities
• Putting learning into practice and getting feedback
• Emotion and learning
• Reflection as a tool for learning: evaluating the experience of putting it into practice
• Social work as a creative activity
• Outcomes
• Concluding comments – and the start of another reflective process
• Conclusion
• Notes
• 1 Hearing children’s voices and respecting children’s wishes and feelings, part 1: trust, communication and support
• 2 Hearing children’s voices and respecting children’s wishes and feelings, part 2: the legal framework, and putting it into practice
• 3 Reflection: theory, knowledge, identity and power in working with children and families
• 4 Assessment of parenting: constructing meaning from detail
• 5 Narrative and understanding the family’s world: questions and stories in working with children and families
• 6 Social work and poverty: a complex relationship
• 7 Risk in child and family social work, part 1: the idea of risk and uncertainty in social work
• 8 Risk in child and family social work, part 2: probability and different levels of prevention
• 9 Working with resistance: the challenge of working with involuntary service users
• 10 Drugs and alcohol and child and family social work
• 11 In care and going home: working with parents towards reunification
• 12 Supporting others in their professional development
• References
• Index