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Select an area of social work provision with children. Describe and critically analyse the social work services in that area.

This essay will examine social work with children, young people and families in relation to safeguarding and the services in this area. To start with social work in general will be explored with a sense of what social work is and how it may be defined in various ways, moving on to what exactly the term safeguarding entails and what the job of social workers in this provision includes. The essay will then look at how changes have been to law and policy in this area over time and specifically over the past few decades with a main examination of why these changes have been made and what circumstances have lead to them. The essay will mainly have concern with issues of child welfare and child protection as its deepest theme as issues in contemporary practise are mainly focused on this area in particular with relevance to a variety of enquiries into child abuse, new laws in protecting children in need and the moral panic that occurs when parts of the system go wrong.

From the start the term social work in itself poses problematic when trying to define exactly what being a social worker involves, on one hand the social worker is a professional doing a varied job which focuses on improving peoples well being, with a main emphasis on helping vulnerable people to make crucial decisions and regain control of their lives, this may be in the form of helping children or parents who are struggling in the face of deprivation, disability or abusive behaviour for example (Adams et al, 2009). An alternative way of looking at social work may be seen in exploring the reasons why social workers are involved in peoples lives,

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poverty, ill health, abuse or family breakdown for instance which appears to become an overall class specific category regardless of age, ability or ethnicity the clients are more likely to be from poor backgrounds and more likely to come from areas of the population that have the least status, security and power (Oko, 2008). A third definition may also arise when concentrating on the skills associated with the job; a social worker has to act as an adviser, an advocate, a counsellor and sometimes just a listener. They need to know how the law works and be fully up to speed with a frequently changing social welfare system. Not only do they work with families and children but also with their friends and neighbours, together in a multi-agency setting with other professionals like teachers, doctors, nurses, police and lawyers. Dealing with some of the most complex problems of human experience no matter what construction of social work is adopted the social workers themselves need to be highly skilled individuals to enhance effectiveness and promote positive outcomes (Beckett, 2007). Social work has become a professionalised occupation in recent years and since 2005 social work education has undergone a major transformation to ensure that qualified social workers are educated to honors degree level and develop knowledge, skills and values which are common and shared. All practising social workers must now be registered with the General Social Care Council (GSCC) in order to work in the profession (Oko, 2008).

When discussing the provision of social work services in regards to safeguarding children and young people it is helpful to first consider a definition of what is meant by the term safeguarding, the government have defined safeguarding as:

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The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully. (Brammer, 2010) Theory, policies and practise relating to safeguarding children and young people have been through various challenges and changes over the years which has brought social work in the area of safeguarding into the spotlight many times leading to new legislation and reform of provisions in this area.

When working to safeguard children and young people social workers must assess the needs of the child to ensure they are protected from significant harm. The social worker provides a package of help to the child and members of the family if this will benefit the child or young person (Brammer, 2010). There are many services that social workers can put in place to help benefit the needs of a child, this could be in the form of therapeutic or supportive relationships with a holistic approach to helping the child, young person and the family. This could include respite services or play schemes for siblings of children with disabilities which could benefit the child or young person, the parents and other family members. Therapy or counselling sessions could be implemented for parents to help deal with any emotional problems or alcohol and drug dependency, or the help needed could be in the form of advice for the parents on how to care for their child especially relating to children with disabilities or behavioural problems (Thoburn, 2008). The Children Act (1989) lists the services that should be in place to help safeguard children perceived to be in need. These include the provision of day care services and out of school care, and

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practical help in the home. A range of social care methods may be adopted and care needs to be taken to match the needs of the family with social work practise taking into account the wishes of both the child and the family. In cases where the family recognise help is needed a trusting and caring relationship needs to be built between the child or young person, the family and the social worker as well as addressing practical needs. In cases of intervention where families are the subject of allegations of abuse for which they deny the social workers role must include keeping both the child and the family fully informed of the protection process and giving clear information about the possible outcomes is essential (Thorburn, 2008). Social workers must assess if a child or young person is at risk of significant harm or is at potential risk of significant harm due to neglect, which can quite often be linked with the financial circumstances of the family and issues of poverty resulting in lack of food or clothing and general hygiene levels and well being. The child or young person maybe at risk of abuse, physical, emotional or sexual abuse. The area of child protection within the safeguarding realm has become the most high profile area of social work and has fallen to great criticism, major reform and moral panic over the past few decades (Adams, 2009). The laws and policies set in place today to safeguard children and young people have developed over a long period of time as responses to various crisis in child welfare which has forced governments to reevaluate, reform and devise new strategies for the way in which safeguarding is carried out for which the social services have had to follow. For childrens social service departments the tension between intervening too early or too late in child protection cases is ongoing. There is a great deal of pressure put on social workers where they have been perceived to interfere in family life or seen to be not doing enough to protect children from abuse, either scenario
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has caused uproar from politicians and the media over the years (Horner, 2005). Although aspects of child welfare can be traced far back in history with reference to the poor laws it was originally a response to young offenders and child delinquency that prompted a system of social care in British society but while juveniles where being shown moral guidance and social intervention by the state it was predominantly voluntary organisations that where caring for neglected or abused infants. These children who were in need, whether intervention came from the state or from the voluntary sector, were seen to be part of the child rescue movement set up to rescue children from bad parents which responded by separating them from family and communities altogether (ibid). In 1944, twelve year old Dennis ONeill, who was in the care of Newport County Council, died from the effects of cruelty inflicted by his foster father at an isolated farmhouse in Shropshire. A home office enquiry found that Dennis and his brother had been the victims of a system of poor record-keeping and filing, There had been confusion between the two local authorities responsible for the boy's foster placement, conflicting reports by childcare staff about his wellbeing, staff shortages and miscommunication, themes that have recurred in almost every subsequent enquiry into the abuse of children. These findings influenced the Committee on the Care of Children (the Curtis Committee), which inspired the Children Act 1948. The 1948 Children Act transferred responsibility for childrens welfare from the Poor Law Guardians, approved schools and voluntary organisations to new local authority Childrens Departments, with trained Childrens Officers. It reflected contemporary theory about the importance of attachment relationships, and recognised the harmful effects on children of separation from their families (Doughty, 2008). Britain then saw the emergence of a shift towards family support with
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preventative and rehabilitative social work with children and families in the Children and Young Persons Act 1963 which was brought about to remove conditions that might result in children coming into care or remaining in care. This was the first legal requirement for preventative social work to be put in place with an emphasis put on improving home circumstances over removing the child from the family; this was to be undertaken through the advice, guidance and assistance of the social worker (Horner, 2005). An updated legislation, The Children and Young Persons Act 1969 reflected optimism towards childrens departments and social workers. Children would come under the social workers care for a variety of reasons relating to the concern of their welfare such as school attendance, moral dangers and criminal offences. There was a shift to see delinquency with a direct link to deprivation which prompted the push to give families support and guidance over simply moving children into care homes (Corby, 2006). This new optimism within the social work and childrens department proved to be short lived though with the death of Maria Colwell in 1973, Colwell was removed from foster carers to be reunited with her mother but was then subsequently killed by her step father. This event set in motion a transition from child welfare to child protection leading to the tightening of managerial control of practise and eventual inter-agency child protection systems with the Children Act 1975 coming into effect and the formation of permanency policies being put in place (Horner, 2005). The 1980s also witnessed a procession of high profile enquiries into child deaths at the hands of parents or family. while the investigations into the deaths of Jasmine Beckford (1985) Tyra Henry (1986) and Kimberly Carlile (1987) showed a lack of early intervention, the events relating to the concerns of sexual abuse that came to light in Cleveland in 1987 which lead to the separation of children from their family, showed instance of intervention being too

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hasty with subsequent reports highlighting once again a lack of inter-agency cooperation which again brought social workers back to a fine balancing act of perceived interference or lack of action (Jack, 1997).

Social work saw a new phase of child welfare reform with legislation relating to children and families in need of review. It was seen by both the Thatcher lead conservative government and the Family Rights Group, although not routinely in alliance, felt that the current laws had fallen too far in favour of the state and that the emphasis on permanency took away support for families that local authorities should provide. This reform was significantly encouraged across all parties concerned with unification of child, family and the state for the need for changes to the law and as a response the Children Act 1989 was drawn up. This new legislation came into effect in 1991 and it was hoped it would bring about a fresh start for social workers for children and families (Johns, 2008). It was now a statutory requirement that in all matters the childs welfare should be paramount and that children are best brought up in the care of their own families. The concept of parental rights was replaced by parental responsibilities and duties to the child, with agreements of this allowing for a broader definition of parenting. There was a new anti-oppressive approach to consideration of children and young peoples wishes and feelings as well as their cultural, religious and ethnic background being taken into account when intervention was planned (Dominelli, 2009). Although the Children Act 1989 paid great new attention to family support it lacked any focus on children who were already in the care system and this was highlighted throughout the 1990s with revelations of abuse of children and young people in care homes leading to enquiries in the Kirkwood Report (1993) and the Waterhouse Report (2000). Care homes started to be closed soon after with a preference for foster care and adoption instead.
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Over the last decade social work has still been a huge balancing act with high profile cases resulting in further backlash for the state of childrens departments and the way social workers intervene with children and families. The death of Victoria Climbie in February 2000 once again brought social work to the front pages. Climbie died with a staggering total of one hundred and twenty eight separate injuries on her body after months of abuse at the hands of Marie Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning. Despite coming into contact with health, police and social services on several occasions and being admitted to hospital twice the abuse was not

discovered until her death (Laming,2003). The enquiry into this case and the report by Lord Laming (2003) raised many issues with a profound conclusion was made in the enquiry stating: Not one of the agencies empowered by Parliament to protect children in positions similar to Victorias emerge from this Inquiry with much credit. The suffering and death of Victoria was a gross failure of the system and was inexcusable. (Laming, 2003)

As a result the government published a green paper entitled "Every Child Matters" and consequently passed the Children Act 2004. The changes it put in place included scrapping child protection registers in favour of child protection plans and creating an integrated children's computer system (ICS) to ensure information was more routinely and robustly collected (Adams, 2009). Structural changes included creating the post of a director of children's services in each council who would ultimately be accountable for the safety of all children in their area. A common assessment framework was created so practitioners within health, education and the police could instigate better support for families not deemed to reach child protection

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thresholds. Local safeguarding children boards were also set up taking on the responsibility for multi-agency child protection training and investigating the causes of deaths and incidents of serious harm which may have been preventable in their area (ibid). Even after an in-depth review of services and performance and new legislation put in place it was not long before social work practise came into huge criticism once again only a few years later.

In 2008 Peter Connelly, a seventeen month old toddler, died after suffering extensive internal and external injuries over a nine month period. Despite having been seen by a range of professionals on numerous times and been the subject of a child protection plan, social services were never aware the mother had a new boyfriend who, along with a friend, was largely responsible for the injuries and the child's death. Because Connelly died in Haringey, the same borough where Victoria Climbie had also died it prompted a media frenzy, which resulted in major scrutiny of child protection procedures in England, Lord Laming was instructed to conduct a review of child protection procedures. As a result of his recommendations the Labour government's official child protection guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children was strengthened and the ICS system guidance was relaxed. The words protection and abuse had been dropped from the title, which was framed in terms of the general duty placed on local authorities by the 1989 Children Act to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area who are in need. The guidance underlined the fact that local authority social services had wider responsibilities than simply responding to concerns about significant harm and identifying child abuse This was not to say, however, that child protection had disappeared, but that it was located in the wider concerns about safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children (Parton,2011). However, much of the issues identified lay in failures of
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practice rather than policy. As part of his review, Laming recommended the recruitment, training and supervision of social workers as a key issue to be tackled (Laming, 2009). The government set up the Social Work Taskforce and later the Social Work Reform Board to overhaul the profession and make it fit for purpose. Following the election in May 2010 of a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government a report was drawn up by Professor Munro to review all child protection procedures in England on the basis that previous changes had now made the system too bureaucratic and stifled social worker initiative in making difficult decisions. Professor Munro published her first report analysing the problems in October 2010. These included issues around poor IT systems, high caseloads, limited supervision and not enough emphasis on reflective practice and decision making (Munro, 2011). Professor Munros vision or reform would allow social workers more time to spend with families and better skills in analysing cases and reflecting on practice allowing social work to return to a more holistic and caring approach towards helping children and families in need of support. Professor Munros final report insists on working towards a child protection system that is centred on the child or young person. The Government agrees that the system has become too focused on compliance with rules and procedure, there has been a loss of focus on the needs and experiences of children and young people and opportunity of providing timely, high quality and effective help to children, young people and their families (Department of Education, 2011).

In conclusion it can be seen that the safeguarding of children and social work provisions in this area is an increasingly complex and difficult one, Child protection systems have been hugely criticized and seen as the major problem in the provisions for safeguarding children. Increasing legislation and policies around the safeguarding
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of children and young people can create anxiety rather than reassurance for the social worker and some statutory guidelines seem to deny the validity of professional judgment, reducing complex work under some extremely challenging circumstances to a series of tick boxes and increasing paperwork. Moral panic in child protection cases leaves the social workers under ever increasing bad light and no attention is paid to the challenge of their work and the large amount of success stories and life changing interventions in protecting children that take place. Unfortunately in many instances the child at the centre of a tragedy had been regularly visited by social workers in the weeks leading to the death, and it is due to this that media frenzy and moral panic and fury stem from. Accordingly, after every tragedy there is a demonisation of social workers. Lord Laming made a raft of recommendations arising from his 2003 report into the death of Victoria Climbie and his 2009 review following Peter Connolly's death. These and countless other inquiries and serious case reviews emphasize that failures commonly occur due to poor communication between a variety of professionals. And blatant failures by other areas of the system have occurred not just by social workers. Once again law and policy is under reform for the safeguarding of children and young people with the Munro report pushing towards social work returning to a more caring and holistic approach but with major government decisions on public spending cuts it will remain to be seen if the support to help social workers in their role on the front line in the safeguarding of children and young people will be able to happen or if it will just be another wait for tragedy so policy and legislation is changed once again.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, R (2009) Working With Children, Young People and Families In: Adams, R. Dominelli, L & Payne, M (eds) Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates 3rd ed. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Adams, R. Dominelli, L and Payne, M (2009) Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates 3rd ed. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Beckett, C (2007a) Essential Theory for Social Work Practice. London: Sage Brammer, A (2010) Social Work Law, 3rd ed. Essex: earson Education Ltd Children Act (1989) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents [accessed 11th December 2011] Corby, B (2006) Child Abuse: Towards a Knowledge Base 3rd ed Berkshire: Open University Press Department of Education (2011) A child-centred system: The Governments response to the Munro review of child protection. https://www.education.gov.uk [accessed 12th December 2011] Dominelli, L (2009) Anti- oppressive practise: challenges of the twenty- first century In: Adams, R. Dominelli, L & Payne, M (eds) Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates 3rd ed. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Doughty, J (2008) Children in the Care of the State - Reflections on the Children Act 1948 Cardiff: Cardiff Law School Munro, E (2011) The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report A child-centred system https://www.education.gov.uk/publications [accessed 11th December 2011] Jack, G (1997) Discourses of Child Protection and Child Welfare British Journal of Social Work. 27 pp 659-678 Johns, R. ( 2008) Using the Law in Social Work 3rd ed Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd Lord Laming(2003) The Victoria Climbie Inquiry: Report of an Inquiry by Lord Laming, London, Stationery Office. Lord Laming (2009) The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report, London, The Stationery Office Oko, J (2008) Understanding and Using Theory in Social Work. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd Parton, N (2011) Child Protection and Safeguarding in England: Changing and Competing Conceptions of Risk and their Implications for Social Work British Journal of Social Work. 41 pp854875 Thoburn, J (2008) Social Work With Children and Families In: Davies (eds) The Blackwell Companion to Social Work 3rd ed Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

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