I am deeply concerned about the state of social work in the 21st century. I was a Senior Practitioner in Children's Services at the end of the last century, when services seemed to be moving in the right direction. Since then the function of children's services has been expanded to the point where social workers face unrealistic expectations and suffer an ever-increasing workload. Dysfunction in the child protection system has made social workers into an easy target for abuse. Policy makers utter platitudes of mind-numbing crassness about 'early intervention'. If any progress is to be made towards a better future for child protection practice it is going to take a huge effort on the part of social workers to make it happen. My faith in social work makes me think that this is possible.

In child protection work social workers perform a difficult balancing act. The complexity of the issues they address has been well documented in high profile cases where children and young people have been failed by the system. Courts have also found examples of parents being dis-empowered through poor practice - possibly due to social workers having insufficient understanding of their statutory responsibilities with children at risk.

In recent decades a legislative framework has been created delivering a multi-agency safeguarding system around families struggling to care for children. This has given social work a strong impetus to give priority to practice models of early intervention and prevention. Recently, the promotion of the new model of practice 'Signs of Safety' has taken this to a new level. While this approach may be a useful with families willing to accept help it does not address the very serious problems currently facing social workers doing front line child protection work.

Social workers often struggle with the dilemmas of trying to balance the competing interests of protecting children from harm and promoting the well-being of family members. In my experience the Child Protection Plan (CPP) offers an appropriate framework for good child protection practice and is an essential tool for engaging families with children on the edge of care. If based on ethically sound principles the CPP offers the potential for effective inter-agency work to ensure that children deemed to be at risk of significant harm, but not in immediate danger, can remain with their families.

What is Child Protection?

'Child protection' has become a catch-all term that covers all kinds of risks that children may possibly be exposed to. Despite being an easily understood concept it is often unclear what people have in mind when they use the term. A problem for those working in the child protection system has arisen out of the lack of a shared understanding within society of what child protection is, and what it is not.

These problems have been exacerbated by a group of academics who do not believe that social work is the right profession to lead child protection. They assume social work is a full profession and have re-conceptualised social workers as 'change agents' who have skills in transforming people's lives, plus a commitment to promoting social justice. They believe that the reputation of social work has been damaged by the fact that local authority social workers are required to carry out statutory child protection duties.

I want to restore the idea of 'child protection' as a highly skilled area of work led by social workers with an in-depth knowledge of the law and good child care practice. The focus should be on sound professional judgement and the ability of social workers to think creatively about how to keep children at risk under their watchful eye so that they can remain with their families. The parents of children at risk are often people with complex problems and bad experiences from their own childhood which need to be understood and tackled if appropriate help is to be given to the family. The important point I am making is that child protection work should be recognised as a highly skilled, specialist area of work and valued more highly.

The Legal Framework

Since the introduction of the 'safeguarding' remit children's services has lost the necessary focus on 'child protection'. Political ideology opposing child protection has had a strong influence on practice. The inability of the profession to respond to this by explaining the difference between 'child protection' and 'safeguarding' underpins many misunderstandings within the profession about the legal basis of interventions. In reality, the two concepts can, and should, co-exist because each serves to support the contrasting model of practice. However, the necessary distinction between child protection investigations and other types of social work intervention has been lost in recent years.

When faced with children in immediate need social workers tend to be pragmatic. While their actions must be informed by an understanding of the law this is never straightforward and always involves professional judgement. They often have to make fine judgements in situations where facts are contested and the amount of information available is limited. Social workers may try to offer families a supportive relationship but if they find that parents are failing to provide appropriate care and protection for their children what should they do? It is not surprising that pragmatic social workers are sometimes inclined to do things that seem helpful at the time but which are later deemed unlawful.

It may well be the case that social workers find this work difficult because of an absence of a coherent model of practice and too much uncertainty about thresholds for statutory intervention. Social workers should be open and honest with parents about any child protection concerns but also try to keep their intervention as low-conflict as possible. Of course, working in partnership with parents is an important legal principle but there are often problems in establishing trust and genuine partnership.

The use of legal powers may be crucial in maintaining the momentum of work, alongside professional knowledge and insight into harmful aspects of parenting that put a child at risk. Social workers may become increasingly concerned about chaotic or inappropriate patterns of behaviour in the family that are very resistant to change. When this happens social workers need good managerial support and possibly legal advice to consider alternative strategies for change.

Child Protection Duties

The model of practice for child protection work is one that integrates care and control. Libertarian principles require social workers to use their controls with a light touch. However, on occasions decisive interventions are necessary when a professional judgement is made that a child is at immediate risk. The aim of child protection social work is to achieve the best outcomes for children who are living in families where the harms they experience may be detrimental to their development.

While bearing in mind the lack of consensus within society about the way social workers should use their powers it is essential that social workers should think carefully about what they are trying to do and not jump to conclusions. The social work task of gathering as much information as possible about the difficulties in the family and the precise nature of the risk to children should normally take place before any serious decisions are made.

Any type of child protection intervention is always stressful for family members. When parents first hear of an allegation, or suspicion, many experience shock, confusion, anger and even symptoms of acute stress. Social workers have a duty to use their powers to work with family members with as much sensitivity, kindness and respect as possible and, if possible, to reduce parental stress.

The Child Protection Plan often follows when the collaborative efforts of agencies and the family to address problems informally have been unsuccessful. A structured, inter-agency approach with a clear focus on child protection is therefore essential. The use of core groups for sharing information, planning and reviewing is considered good practice. The CPP is a document setting out what work needs to be done, by whom and how, within clear, realistic timescales. The provision of practical help is part of this and can offer something positive to the family.

It is inevitable that during this work a crucial consideration will be the psychological make-up of the parents and how they handle their own emotions when dealing with their children. In addition, consideration of any problems with regard to the child's physical and mental health is necessary to highlight the precise nature of the challenges facing the parents.

Sometimes, the level of hostility directed towards social workers by families can make them feel like 'the rabbit caught in the headlights', particularly when they realise there is nothing they can do to keep the child safe. Ongoing concerns about emotional abuse and neglect present a greater challenge in terms of decision-making compared with physical and sexual abuse. However, the presence of serious risk factors may make it necessary to move up the tariff to more coercive measures. This involves gathering evidence forensically of what social work interventions have been tried and carefully considering whether anything has changed.

The task of helping parents improve the quality of their parenting is not an easy one. It is one thing to enable them to understand how their particular circumstances have led to their difficulties but it is another thing entirely to know how to give them the emotional and practical support they need and to help them to change. Sometimes the task of giving children a lifeline by offering personal support and understanding and identifying their need for community resources seems easier to achieve.

Conclusion

The lack of understanding of child protection in the political system is one thing. However, the failure of the professional system to support and develop a consistently effective child protection service is another. Social workers can only work effectively in an organisation that has a clear model of practice for child protection work, provides a programme of continuing professional development and keeps experienced social workers on the front line by making them feel valued and supported.

Hilary Searing

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