Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Editor’s Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction: What is the Future of Social Work?
- 1 Austerity and the Context of Social Work Today
- 2 Contemporary Developments in Child Protection in England: Reform or Reaction?
- 3 The Slow Death of Social Work with Older People?
- 4 Mental Health Social Work: The Dog that Hasn’t Barked
- 5 Learning Disabilities and Social Work
- 6 Social Work by and for All
- 7 Anti-Oppressive Social Work, Neoliberalism and Neo-Eugenics
- 8 From Seebohm Factories to Neoliberal Production Lines? The Social Work Labour Process
- 9 Social Work and the Refugee Crisis: Reflections from Samos in Greece
- Conclusion: The Road to an Alternative Future?
- References
- Index
2 - Contemporary Developments in Child Protection in England: Reform or Reaction?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Editor’s Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction: What is the Future of Social Work?
- 1 Austerity and the Context of Social Work Today
- 2 Contemporary Developments in Child Protection in England: Reform or Reaction?
- 3 The Slow Death of Social Work with Older People?
- 4 Mental Health Social Work: The Dog that Hasn’t Barked
- 5 Learning Disabilities and Social Work
- 6 Social Work by and for All
- 7 Anti-Oppressive Social Work, Neoliberalism and Neo-Eugenics
- 8 From Seebohm Factories to Neoliberal Production Lines? The Social Work Labour Process
- 9 Social Work and the Refugee Crisis: Reflections from Samos in Greece
- Conclusion: The Road to an Alternative Future?
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
This chapter argues that a dangerous disconnect has become increasingly apparent since 2010 in England allowing successive governments to claim they are improving child protection while simultaneously promoting and implementing policies that increase the numbers of children living in poverty, reduce the support services available to them, and reinforce the inequalities that limit their potential.
Key developments in the current policy climate will be discussed, locating these in a historical canvas; and alternative understandings drawing from research on the relationship between poverty, inequality and the harms children and their families suffer will be provided. The chapter will explore why a social model of ‘child protection’ is needed, outline its main features, and address how it might offer progressive possibilities for families and those who work with them as well as wider society.
Contemporary visions
We want every child in the country, whatever their background, whatever their age, whatever their ethnicity or gender, to have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Children's social care services have an essential role to play – whether by keeping children safe from harm, finding the best possible care when children cannot live at home, or creating the conditions that enable children to thrive and achieve. To make that happen, it is essential that everybody working within children's social care has the knowledge and skills to do their jobs well, and the organisational leadership and culture to support and challenge them to keep improving. (DfE 2016: 3)
In 2016 the Department for Education (DfE) articulated its vision for child protection, identifying activity in relation to three areas: people and leadership; practice and systems; governance and accountability. It highlighted initiatives to bring the ‘best’ people into the profession, give them the ‘right’ knowledge and skills and develop leaders equipped to nurture practice excellence. It stressed the importance of creating the right environment for excellent practice and innovation to flourish, using data to show strengths and weaknesses in the system, and developing innovative organisational models with the potential to radically improve services.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- What Is the Future of Social Work? , pp. 23 - 38Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2019