Overview
In response to widespread and persistent concern over the ability of social services for children and families to safeguard the wellbeing of the most vulnerable children, UK governments, particularly in England, have in recent years introduced some of the most far reaching changes ever encountered in this field. However, this book argues that in England especially, despite the best intentions of those driving these changes forward, the approaches to reform which have been adopted have substantially diminished the capability of children's social services to respond effectively to the complex challenges which they face. In this book, leading authors in the field of social work explore the impact of the reform agenda on key areas of children's services practice including child safeguarding, youth offending, children in care, family support, ethical practice and child welfare law. They describe an oppressive, managerialist environment within which process and procedures are prioritised over outcomes and objectives, targets and indicators over values and professional standards, and compliance and completion over analysis and reflection. Key themes include failures of analysis, lack of effective engagement with research, and the proceduralisation, technicalisation and deprofesionalisation of the social work task. This book argues that effective practice requires research-informed, reflective, confident and critically challenging practitioners supported by management systems which promote rather than undermine their effectiveness. Leaning on more positive developments elsewhere in the UK, it challenges ministers and senior managers to commit to the significant change of direction, both practical and conceptual, which is required if children's services are to escape from the vicious spiral of declining performance into which they currently lie in danger of descending.
Full Product Details
Author: Patrick Ayre ,
Michael Preston-Shoot
Publisher: Russell House Publishing Ltd
Imprint: Russell House Publishing Ltd
Weight: 0.312kg
ISBN: 9781905541645
ISBN 10: 1905541643
Pages: 144
Publication Date: 30 June 2010
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: Out of stock
Author Information
Patrick Ayre is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire where he teaches and researches in the fields of social work and child safeguarding. He has worked in child protection and child welfare for over 30 years and was a social worker and manager of child protection services for some 17 years before taking up his present post. In recent years, he has been heavily engaged in the preparation of Serious Case Reviews, and is active as an expert witness in children's services negligence cases. Michael Preston-Shoot is Professor of Social Work and Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at the University of Bedfordshire. He has worked as a social worker, groupworker, team leader, family therapist and psychotherapist. He was Editor of Social Work Education: The International Journal between 1993 and 2006 and was Managing Editor of the European Journal of Social Work between 2003 and 2007. He is one of the Founding Editors of the journal Ethics and Social Welfare. He is the Independent Chair of a Local Safeguarding Children Board and of a Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Board.
