The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The role that area deprivation, family poverty, and austerity policies play in the demand for and supply of children's services has been a contested issue in England in recent years. These relationships have begun to be explored through the concept of inequalities in child welfare, in parallel to the established fields of inequalities in education and health. This article focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and out-of-home care and child protection interventions. The work scales up a pilot study in the West Midlands to an all-England sample, representative of English regions and different levels of deprivation at a local authority (LA) level. The analysis evidences a strong relationship between deprivation and intervention rates and large inequalities between ethnic categories. There is further evidence of the inverse intervention law (Bywaters et al., 2015): For any given level of neighbourhood deprivation, higher rates of child welfare interventions are found in LAs that are less deprived overall. These patterns are taking place in the context of cuts in spending on English children's services between 2010–2011 and 2014–2015 that have been greatest in more deprived LAs. Implications for policy and practice to reduce such inequalities are suggested.

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Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: A universal challenge?

Comparative international data on patterns of inequality in child welfare interventions, for example, the proportion of children about whom there are substantiated child protection concerns or who are in out-of-home care, are far less developed than data about inequalities in health. Few countries collect reliable, comprehensive information and definitions, methods of data collection and analysis are rarely consistent. The four UK countries (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) provide a potential ‘natural experiment’ for comparing intervention patterns. This study reports on a large quantitative, descriptive study focusing on children in contact with children’s services on a single date in 2015. It found that children’s chances of receiving a child protection intervention were related to family socio-economic circumstances, measured by neighbourhood deprivation, within all four countries. There was a strong social gradient which was significantly steeper in some countries than others. Ethnicity was another important factor underlying inequalities. While inequalities in patterns of intervention between the four countries were considerable, they did not mirror relative levels of deprivation in the child population. Inequalities in intervention rates result from a combination of demand and supply factors. The level and extent of inequity raise profound ethical, economic and practical challenges to those involved in child protection, the wider society and the state.

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Child welfare inequalities in the four nations of the UK

Overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system: A systematic review to understand and better act

\n Social work literature is saturated with calls to reform social work in diverse and contradictory ways. This article argues that the profession of social work cannot be reformed and must be abolished. Specifically, the master narrative of Anglophone social work must be abandoned along with the institutions which maintain it; the professional bodies, the academic discipline and the formal title. Four reasons for this are presented: social work’s lack of coherent theory base, the problem of professionalism, social work’s historical abuses and the profession’s inability to rise to contemporary challenges. The fundamental theoretical tensions in social work theory are identified as preventing the profession from reconciling its aims of assuaging individual suffering and achieving social justice. This has also hindered social work’s aspiration to professionalism, which is both distracting and actively prevents social workers from working with people and communities. While these issues may have once been resolvable, the historical and contemporary contexts prevent resolution. Social work’s uncertain theoretical foundations, desire for professional legitimacy, past abuses and contemporary failures put the profession beyond recovery. No solutions or resolutions are suggested. What pieces are to be salvaged from the wreck of social work must be determined by the post-social work world.

The end of social work

This paper examines the interlocking roles of ethnicity and deprivation in producing inequities in the proportion of children who are subject to state child protection interventions. In contrast to the USA, ethnic inequities have had little attention in research or policy in the UK and across Europe, and administrative data are limited and methodologically weak. A study of over 10 per cent of all children on child protection plans or who were looked after in out-of-home care in England in March 2012 is reported. Children from ethnic minority categories were much more likely than 'White' children to be living in disadvantaged areas and this has to be taken into account when examining intervention rates. Controlling for deprivation and examining small subgroups of the broad ethnic categories radically alters the simple understanding that 'Black' children are overrepresented compared to White amongst children in out-of-home care, while 'Asian' children are underrepresented. While this study could not explain these patterns, it reinforces the importance of both socio-economic circumstances and ethnicity for understanding inequities in intervention rates. The evidence underlines the powerful moral and economic case for action to reduce inequities in powerful state interventions in family life, not only in England, but internationally.

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Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Ethnic Inequalities in Child Protection and Out-of-Home Care Intervention Rates

Social workers’ knowledge and confidence when working with cases of child sexual abuse: What are the issue and challenges?

In 2014, research was undertaken to examine social workers’ confidence, understanding and awareness of child sexual abuse (CSA) as it was suggested that a decline in numbers of reported incidents might be due to a decline in levels of understanding and awareness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-five first-line, middle and senior managers and two chairs of local safeguarding boards across six local authorities in England. Focus groups were conducted with fifty-four social workers. Key themes revealed a complex array of issues, ranging from the diverse forms of CSA and exploitation that social workers are required to address, the variable support and training available, and the inter-disciplinary nature of much of the work. Although social workers undertake this important work with a strong sense of commitment and concern for children, they face a number of challenges. Paradoxically, whilst their work on these cases is the source of intense scrutiny, the training, support and supervision, and role clarity required to undertake this work well are often overlooked. The aim of this paper is to discuss the research findings and to identify implications for social work practice, training, multi-agency work and future research.

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Josephine Kwhali

Papers

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Ethnic Inequalities in Child Protection and Out-of-Home Care Intervention Rates

Social workers’ knowledge and confidence when working with cases of child sexual abuse: What are the issue and challenges?

Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Knowledge, confidence and training within a contemporary UK social work practice and policy context