‘Child in Need’ Plans: Tools for Family Empowerment

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Social work practice invariably means attention to both human and non-human aspects of the work. It is now widely argued that spending time on computers and bureaucratic requirements comes at the expense of direct work with families and children. But this is a simplistic dualism. This paper advocates a move beyond this dualism through three broad aims. First, this paper argues that social work has been rather slow at rendering non-human ‘things’ of interest to practice debates, and the literature is reported on to show how this has happened. Second, a theoretical model is presented in order to overcome this. Actor Network Theory is offered as a theoretical and practical method where ‘things’ in practice can be conceptualised as partners in the work. The third aim of the paper illustrates this method in action in one local authority setting through a brief anonymised practice illustration. ‘Child In Need’ plans are drawn on to show that for empowerment to be successful social work must draw on its non-human partners. A related aim is to add to the ‘child in need’ practice literature.