22 welfare rights and book reviews

children

welfare rigHTs

The families who will be 1,400 a year worse off under universal credit
he proposed introduction of universal credit, replacing income support, tax credits and housing benefit, from 2013 could massively affect social work practice, writes Gary Vaux (pictured below). One particular change will cost some families with a disabled child up to 1,400 a year and these families are already more likely to be in poverty and

Vaux: Danger to families from universal credit

using social services support. The Welfare Reform Bill is now going through parliament so these proposals could change but this seems unlikely, despite furious lobbying from disabled childrens charities and parents. At present, children who receive any rate of disability living allowance (DLA) are also entitled to up to two additional sums of money from child tax credits (CTC). Under universal credit, however, families will be entitled to only one additional sum of money. For the most severely disabled children this will still equate to a similar amount. Those with severe visual impairments may even gain significantly. But those who do not receive disability living allowance care at the highest rate will have their current payments frozen for years until universal credit catches up with the benefits they now receive. Worse still, families with a disabled child entering the benefit system after universal Dr North maintains that the best way to help troubled children is to show that you are aware of and can manage your own thoughts and state of mind, which demonstrates you can help them manage their own. She provides exercises to help carers recognise and reflect on their own emotional triggers and how they can practice more helpful and controlled respones to childrens behaviour. Dr North also explains the relevant aspects of a number of theories such as attachment and cognitive behaviour therapy and applies them to examples of childrens challenging behaviour. Carers are encouraged to recognise when they need more support and she points out some children need a long time to feel safe enough to change their own behaviour.
Lynn Baxter is a senior social work

Having a disabled child puts a family at greater risk of poverty

credit is introduced will find themselves up to 1,400 a year worse off than current claimants. Over the course of a childhood that could total 22,000 for each disabled child. The charity Family Action estimates that about 100,000 families could lose support as a result of this change. Having a disabled child puts a family at much greater risk of being in poverty and many families in that position rightly make use of social services support to relieve the emotional and practical strains they face.
lecturer at Greenwich University and panel chair for Supported Fostering Services.

If the income of such families is frozen, as a result of transitional arrangements or reduced those pressures will be greater than ever. It is therefore imperative that we encourage as many families with disabled children as we can to submit their DLA and CTC claims as soon as possible.
Go to www.hertsdirect.org/docs/ pdf/e/cwithd for a free benefit guide Gary Vaux is head of money advice at Hertfordshire Council. Please send any questions for him to judy.cooper@rbi. co.uk

Book reviews

Troubled children and foster parents

How to Think about Caring for a Child with Difficult Behaviour

Understanding and working with Parents of Children in long-Term foster Care

Gillian Schofield and Emma Ward, 2010 Jessica Kingsley Publishers ISBN: 9781849050265

Dr Joanna North Watershed Publications, 2009 ISBN: 9780952871330

I wish I had written this book. It is an excellent handbook for foster carers and adoptive parents in particular, but all child care workers and parents would benefit from it.

More relevant for less experienced workers or students, there is nothing in this book that empathetic and experienced social workers would not know already. It details the many difficulties faced by birthparents that may lead to child abuse and neglect, such as domestic violence and substance misuse, and features

interviews with 32 birthparents before and after their children were taken into care. Much of the book is direct quotations from parents and as such features a lot of the negative experiences that parents naturally go through in these situations. This bothers me because focusing too much on the views and feelings of birthparents may distract from the need to protect children. The final chapter goes some way to counteracting this by promoting a fostering triangle that includes the parent. I would hope this is already common practice in social work departments.
Louise Hollick is senior practitioner, Fostering Agency Community Cares book reviews can be found at www.communitycare. co.uk/bookreviews
www.communitycare.co.uk 17 November 2011

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