Editorial

Abstract

The extent to which social workers are able to delve into the depths to protect children and explore the deeper reaches and inner lives of service usersthe degree to which they feel able to get up and walk across the room to directly engage with, touch, and be active with the child or follow through on seeing kitchens and bedroomsis directly related to how secure and contained they feel in separating from the office/car. They can only really take risks if they feel they will be emotionally held and supported on returning to the office that their feelings and struggles will be listened to. Workers' state of mind and the quality of attention they can give to children is directly related to the quality of support, care and attention they themselves receive from supervision, managers and peers. Ferguson (2011, cited in Munro, 2011 More than a decade ago, Professor Eileen Munro's (2011) review of the child protection system highlighted how, to practise well, social workers need to work in organisations that recognise the uncertainty inherent in child protection work, understand the impact of the work on staff and families alike, and take active steps to support staff and foster their professional development. Although written with a focus on social work, the points made by Munro (2011) andFerguson (2011) still have clear resonance across the range of disciplines involved in the complex and emotionally taxing work of child safeguarding. As the current move towards trauma informed practice and service provision gathers momentum, there is increasing recognition that whole system change requires effective leadership that takes account of staff wellbeing and service user involvement alike. This edition of Child Abuse Review reiterates this message through four themed papers focusing on the organisational context of safeguarding.Based on an extensive review of literature, our first article by Miriam Bowman (2022) underscores the organisation's role in mitigating staff burnout and proposes a model for workplace wellness in child welfare organisations. Agency funding for wellness and health promotion programmes, additional staff to reduce caseloads and time for additional supervision, health promotion engagement and training, are all identified as necessary organisational inputs to reduce staff stress. Bowman (2022) also highlights how an agency emphasis on worker self-care alone is insufficient to address the pervasive stress that workers face. She emphasises the need for organisational support to create an environment in which social workers can engage in self-care during working hours.Our second article by Antonio Garcia, Ibekwe-Okafor and Wasch (2022) examines the organisational and systemlevel characteristics that affect efforts to prevent or intervene in child fatality and near fatality cases. It reports on perceived stressors and sources of support, client and perpetrator risk factors, system-level risk and protective factors, case descriptions and lessons learned. In keeping with previous research, high caseloads, cou...