A Practice Framework for Assessments at Tower Hamlets Children's Social Care: Building on the Munro Review

Stanley, Tony; McGee, Paul; Lincoln, Helen

doi:10.1080/09503153.2012.712677

Cited by 10 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…According to Lonne, Parton, and Thomson (2009) we are in a troubled state for social work because managerialist dominance has culminated in 'conveyer belt practice' (Stanley, McGee and Lincoln 2012). Forrester (2010) calls it 'a profound crisis' for social work as we struggle to define and articulate what social work does.…”

Section: An Invitation To Practice Differentlymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tragic and well-documented death of 17 month old Baby Peter Connelly in August 2007 again exposed this, with health and social care services criticised for working within their separate spheres of professional practice. What should invite a rethink of how we work as inter-agency systems seems unlikely because at every tragedy more rules, procedures and bureaucracy, however well intentioned, get introduced (Stanley, McGee and Lincoln 2012). The impact for health and social care staff is acute with rising demand on services and a lack of inter-service forums to consider and debate our risk practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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‘Signs of Safety’ Practice at the Health and Children’s Social Care Interface

Stanley¹,

Mills

2014

Practice

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Good practice for safeguarding children by health and social care means having the individual confidence to take considered risks in practice and the institutional support that encourages it. Yet, this is not easy to achieve or widely promoted across health and social care organisations. The pressure to 'get things right' very much dominates health and social care and this perpetuates a risk aversive culture. Risk measurement regimes based on actuarial methods influences the 'get things right' emphasis, with a focus on certainty and knowing 'for sure', leaving socially determined or socially constructed notions of risk at the practice margins. In an everyday practical sense, this can mean families being subjected to professional definitions about risk and need, rather than them being part of a working relationship where risk definitions are worked out together. In this paper, we argue that definitions of risk are best conceptually and practically mapped at the interface of health and social care practice, with families, to strengthen the case analysis and social work plans about what needs to happen next. We show how we have adopted the 'signs of safety' approach at Tower Hamlets to do just that.

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Section: An Invitation To Practice Differentlymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

‘Signs of Safety’ Practice at the Health and Children’s Social Care Interface

Stanley¹,

Mills

2014

Practice

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“…The risks identified by police and school staff were presented in "catastrophic terms" with coming into care as the inevitable solution and this was difficult to argue against prior to the entry to care panel. We have introduced a range of practice tools informed by the "signs of safety" approach to child protection to support risk analysis work (Stanley et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is a practice lore widely held across child protection and mental health practice (Warner & Gabe, 2004). It is indisputable that increasing rules, procedures and bureaucracy, however well intentioned, have followed tragedies in practice (Stanley, McGee, & Lincoln, 2012). The nationally prescribed Integrated Childrens System (ICS) best illustrates this.…”

Section: Child Protection In Englandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The social worker is given license to engage openly with risk and at its most dynamic the panel is form of social work intervention in each case. Key components are presenting the child's narrative, a genogram and family eco-map supported by a succinct précis of the social work analysis to date, see (Stanley et al, 2012). The worker engages the panel, and the case is discussed in "risk terms".…”

Section: How the Entry To Care Panel Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Practice Needs to Be Braver: The Role of Entry to Care Panels

Stanley¹,

Lincoln²,

McGee³

2014

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The English child protection system is a professionally orientated one. It is a system in which notions of risk and need are determined by professional child protection workers and managers, with significant decisions made about children known to be at risk. This includes decisions about fostering or alternative care. Yet, families tend to be left out of the various forums and debates where risk determinations and practice decisions actually happen. In this article, we examine how we have tried to address this imbalance by introducing an entry to care panel system. The panel can offer a helpful pause to rushed and pressured decisions to use care as an alternative to working with situations of risk. Child protection workers and their managers are invited to take a discursive look at how risk operates in each case. This has resulted in better child protection practice. We show how the type of panel we introduced played a significant part in evening out of the care numbers in two English local authorities. Our argument is for the panel to be seen as a practice initiative-An example of purposeful bureaucracy, where decisions reached or ratified are informed by risk and need discourses. We argue that this practice initiative has helped our workers to adopt a more critical approach to risk discourses in their child protection work. Practice based tools were introduced alongside of the panel to support this way of working. We show the gains for our practice, and importantly for the families we work with, as we work differently and more expansively with risk discourses.

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Positive Leadership in Child Protection

Miller¹

2017

Beyond the Risk Paradigm in Child Protection

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A Practice Framework for Assessments at Tower Hamlets Children's Social Care: Building on the Munro Review

Cited by 10 publications

References 6 publications

‘Signs of Safety’ Practice at the Health and Children’s Social Care Interface

‘Signs of Safety’ Practice at the Health and Children’s Social Care Interface

Practice Needs to Be Braver: The Role of Entry to Care Panels

Positive Leadership in Child Protection

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