From Child Welfare to Child Protection/Safeguarding: A Critical Practitioner’s View of Changing Conceptions, Policies and Practice

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Since the 1970s, dealing with child abuse has been an increasing feature of social work with children and families in the UK. Terms such as ‘battered child syndrome’, non-accidental injury and now child protection and safeguarding have increasingly dominated practice, rather than child welfare. In turn, practitioners have become increasingly embroiled in bureaucracy and subjected to managerial constraints aimed at rationing resources and assessing/managing risk, rather than meeting need. Rather than support being offered to children and families, the emphasis has become one of changing their behaviours and life styles so they become ‘responsible’ citizens. These developments have coincided with a move for the social democratic consensus of the initial post-war decades to the neoliberal consensus of the present, this involving the dismantling of the welfare state and a more authoritarian role for social work. This article looks at such changes in what is now child protection/safeguarding, arguing that, despite challenges, some opportunities for critical practice remain.