Decision Making by Health and Social Care Professionals to Protect an Unborn Baby: Systematic Narrative Review

Elhinney, Helena Mc; Taylor, Brian J.; Sinclair, Marlene

doi:10.1080/13575279.2019.1612733

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Prenatal protocols vary in different national and regional contexts (Mc Elhinney et al, 2019). In the Scottish context for this research, the work undertaken with parents during a pregnancy to decide what child protection measures are necessary for the unborn baby is known as 'pre-birth child protection assessment'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Critchley

2021

Qualitative Social Work

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This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of pre-birth child protection, conducted in an urban Scottish setting. The study was designed to explore the interactions between practitioners and families in the context of child protection involvement during a pregnancy. This research aimed to understand the activities that constituted pre-birth child protection assessment, and the meaning attached to those activities by social workers and expectant parents. Very different perspectives on fathers and fatherhood emerged through the study. Fathers shared their feelings of familial tenderness in the context of research interviews. Yet social workers often focused on the risks that the fathers posed. This focus on risk led professionals to ignore or exclude fathers in significant ways. Fathers were denied opportunities to take an active role in their families and care planning for their infants, whilst mothers were over-responsibilised. Children meanwhile were potentially denied the relationship, care and identity benefits of involved fatherhood. This article shows how pre-birth child protection processes and practice can function so as to limit the contribution of expectant fathers. The way that fathers and fathering are understood continues to be a wider problem for social work, requiring development through research and practice. This study was not immune to the challenge of involving men in social work research in meaningful ways. Nevertheless, the findings highlight how participation in social work research can create a forum for fathers to share their concerns, and the importance of their perspective for practice.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Critchley

2021

Qualitative Social Work

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“…Systematic narrative literature review methodology is characterized by systematic and transparent processes for searching the literature to retrieve research, while retaining a more limited quality appraisal (i.e., limited to publications in peer-reviewed journals) and using a narrative synthesis (Taylor et al, 2015). This methodology has been found very useful for addressing a range of practice and service delivery questions, such as the influence of online communication and social networking on adolescent well-being (Best et al, 2014), survivors’ perspectives on intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrator interventions (McGinn et al, 2016), resilience of child protection social workers (McFadden et al, 2015), professional decision making on elder abuse (Killick & Taylor, 2009), and decision making by health and social care professionals to protect an unborn baby (McElhinney et al, 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Processes of Multiprofessional Child Protection Decision Making in Hospital Settings: Systematic Narrative Review

Alfandari

Taylor

2021

Trauma, Violence, & Abuse

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The aim of this systematic narrative literature review is to explore empirical evidence as to how a multiprofessional approach to child protection decision making is implemented in hospitals settings. Child protection cases where there is a suspicious serious injury suspected sexual abuse or serious neglect are often investigated in hospital, involving a number of relevant professions. Five electronic bibliographic databases were used for the search. To be included in the review studies had to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, report on empirical research, be available full text in English, and have used an identifiable research design. The search was restricted to 10 years, from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2019, and retrieved 6,934 studies. The review includes 26 studies undertaken in 10 countries. In all the hospital-based settings studied, child protection decision-making tasks were assigned to a designated multiprofessional team. However, there was remarkable diversity in models of team structure, regulation of workflow, structured procedures, and standardized tools through which practice was carried out. Research focused on evaluating the teams’ effectiveness in fulfilling their duties which were, first and foremost, the identification of possible child maltreatment. The analysis identifies various systemic approaches and quality improvement methods to promote effective team-based decision-making processes in hospitals. The interactional aspect of collaborative team-based practice was generally missing from the published research. This article discusses next steps for the development of practice, policy, and research to enhance useful multiprofessional child protection team working in hospitals.

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“…The individual practitioner should not be expected to create the whole of the evidential argument 'from scratch'. Their task should be to apply some consolidated, accepted review of best evidence Mc Elhinney et al (2019) to the circumstances of the case at hand. An interesting finding was that social workers need clearer, evidence-based guidance and teaching on the parameters within which particular theories are applicable if these are to be used effectively in decision-making (Ghanem et al, 2019).…”

Section: Ability and Confidence In Using Theory And Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Crucially, what is required is greater clarity about pathways from knowledge to implementation (Hammond et al, 2000;Palinkas & Soydan, 2011), beyond simply completing research reviews (Mc Elhinney et al, 2019) and providing training courses. For busy professionals, one channel worthy of greater exploration is the embedding of knowledge within assessment tools (Taylor, 2012b).…”

Section: Organisational Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in child welfare decisions: A qualitative study

Cafferty¹

2020

Journal of Social Work

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Summary Permanency decisions in child welfare are recognised as being challenging. Nevertheless, society and the profession expect that professional judgements should be of the highest quality, consistent, reliable, fully justified and informed by evidence of what works, particularly where decisions are potentially life-changing. However, barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation exist, preventing practitioners from gaining the full range of knowledge they require, leading to permanency decisions being interventionist and protectionist in orientation (author, 2020). Think-aloud protocols and semi-structured interviews, in conjunction with a vignette, were used with social workers ( N = 17) in statutory services to explore barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in permanency decisions for children in state care. Findings The main barriers to knowledge use were (1) misunderstanding or misuse of theory, (2) limitations in training and learning and (3) organisational issues. Applications By developing a real-world understanding of the barriers and listening to the views of the professionals themselves, we can begin to realistically inform policy and practice, with the aim of decreasing the barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in permanency decision-making. If we appreciate the barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in permanency decision-making more fully, then perhaps we can reduce them, thereby facilitating more fully informed decisions that best serve the individual needs of children and their families.

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Decision Making by Health and Social Care Professionals to Protect an Unborn Baby: Systematic Narrative Review

Cited by 10 publications

References 45 publications

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

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

Processes of Multiprofessional Child Protection Decision Making in Hospital Settings: Systematic Narrative Review

Barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in child welfare decisions: A qualitative study

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