This paper takes an ecological approach to understanding engagement of parents with services when children may be at risk of abuse/maltreatment. Gaining parental cooperation is a fundamental factor affecting social work interventions, treatment and decision‐making. Based on a review of current literature, the paper adapts the Multifactor Offender Readiness Model to the child welfare context, using insights from other theoretical and empirical work. Parental engagement with child welfare services is portrayed as having behavioural, attitudinal and relationship components, and is determined by internal (service user) and external (policy, programme and worker) factors.

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His previous posts include working as a lecturer at Northumbria University, and as a social worker and front line manager in both the statutory and voluntary sectors in England. His interests are in social work education, child protection, family support, child and family assessment, and parental engagement with services. Danielle Turney is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. Before taking up her present post, she worked at Goldsmiths College, University of London and at The Open University. Her main research interests are in child neglect and broader issues of child welfare and protection, assessment of children and families, and relationship-based practice.

This paper examines the concepts of congruence and co‐operation in social work practice with children and families. It describes findings from the author’s own research and attempts to deconstruct the interaction of the two phenomena. Using material from other published research, the paper proposes a model and suggests methods for analysing congruence and co‐operation in the practice context. The key implication is that the depth of a social worker’s understanding of a family situation may affect his or her assessment of parental co‐operation.