Understanding Child and Family Welfare: Statutory Responses to Children at Risk

Abstract

One of the main changes affecting social work with children and families in the UK over recent decades has been the move from a concern with child welfare to a narrower concern with child protection. This is despite the recent emphasis on ‘safe-guarding’. As David Howe (1992) noted, it was a move away from a role that involved therapy and welfare to one of surveillance and control. From a radical perspective, it was a move from social workers being the ‘soft cops’ of the welfare state to being more akin to ‘hard cops’. It is with such a sentiment in mind that it is gratifying to see a new book that features ‘child welfare’ prominently in the title. Drawing on a range of English-speaking jurisdictions, the authors look at the ways in which child welfare systems respond to the needs of children and families. Rather than comparing these jurisdictions, the book aims to explore innovative frameworks, approaches and key ideas. It begins by examining the nature of child welfare practice and the ways the state responds to children at risk. Chapter 1 discusses changing attitudes to children and childhood, child rearing and parenthood, including the stress factors that impact on children and their families such as the often-linked poverty and parental conflict. Two important orientations to child and family welfare—child protection and family support—form the basis of Chapter 2. Chapters 3 and 4 explore innovative ways that have sought to strengthen services for children and families, one example being family group conferencing.