Baby brain: Neuroscience, policy-making and child protection

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the co-opting of neuroscientific findings into social work practice with infants at risk of harm. The value of neuroscience to our understanding of infants and infant care remains contested. For ‘infant mental health’ proponents, neuroscientific findings have become a powerful tool in arguing for the importance of nurture and care in the early years. However, critical perspectives question the selective use of neuroscientific evidence, and the impact that the ‘first three years’ agenda has actually had on families. In social work, much of our involvement with very young children is centred around risk. It is also concentrated on children born into families and communities experiencing multiple disadvantages. The emphasis on the vulnerability of infants and very young children has changed child protection social work in significant ways. Many of the children subject to child care and protection measures are very young, or not yet born. This paper draws upon findings from a study which followed families through the process of pre-birth child protection assessment. It is argued that it is necessary to engage critically with the ‘first three years’ narrative that has become dominant in Scottish policy making and the impact this has had on child protection practice and the lives of families. The paper argues for a broader interpretation of ACEs focused on community and public health across the life course.

Giving up the ghost: Findings on fathers and social work from a study of pre-birth child protection

“…The exclusion of fathers from child protection processes increases the responsibilisation of mothers for the risks and difficulties in the family (Critchley, 2020b; Stewart, 2020). In only a small minority of cases did the working relationship that the social worker made with the father have anything like the strength and purpose of the working relationship that the expectant mother was expected to form with professionals.…”

Risks and representations: Creating consensus narratives about risk with pregnant women involved with child protection systems in Aotearoa New Zealand and Scotland

“…The ways risk concepts are operationalised in child protection institutions take particular forms, drawing on both professional and scientific ideas. These concepts relate to perceptions of parenting capacity, and ideas about attachment theory and the developing infant brain (Beddoe and Joy, 2017;Critchley, 2020b;White et al, 2019). Identified risks are processed through complex institutional structures that comprise a combination of highly bureaucratic processes, specific assessment frameworks and tools, and are often pressured environments that can in themselves shape how risk 'plays out' in practice.…”