Remaking Social Work with Children and Families

by Garrett,Paul Michael

• ISBN13: 9780415298360
• ISBN10: 0415298369
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Remaking Social Work with Children and Familiesprovides a sustained examination of the 'modernization' of this area of social care. It analyzes some of the key themes introduced by the administrations of John Major and Tony Blair and provides a critical exploration of contemporary policy initiatives and issues. The author argues that political and ideological factors need to be taken into account in order to understand the dominant discourses and evolving practices of social work with children. Potential fixation with ensuring that young people are able to 'fit' into their allotted roles in a market economy and an overarching concern about children and criminality have been crucial in this respect. He concludes that while social workers and educators should be prepared to embrace change, they need to be critical agents in the process of change, recognising the ever present need to promote and foster democracy within the sphere of social welfare. This timely book will be helpful to allstudents, educators and social care professionals who are seeking to develop their theoretical and practical understanding of a changing profession.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
List of abbreviations	xiii
Introduction: thinking critically about social work with children and families in the early twenty-first century	1	(14)
The fluidity and ambiguity of `social work'	3	(2)
Reviewing the radical critique(s)	5	(1)
`No space of innocence'? Governmentality and social work	6	(2)
The approach adopted in the book	8	(1)
`Dolphins' and `sharks': the critical ethic underpinning the book	9	(2)
The organisation of the book	11	(4)
PART I Major departures? Social work with children and families, 1990--1997	15	(54)
The `blueprint' for change: the `Looking after Children' system	19	(19)
The LAC system and parenting	21	(5)
The LAC system, `children' and `childhood'	26	(1)
Assessing children and young people in public care: Action and Assessment Records	27	(8)
The LAC system and its potential to assist in the profiling of potentially `troublesome' children	35	(1)
Conclusion	36	(2)
Examining the `product champions': LAC and its continuing role in the remaking of social work with children and families	38	(13)
The tyranny of the `objective' account: the LAC system and the disqualification of criticism	40	(2)
The alliance with the powerful: the proximity of political forces determining the content of the LAC materials	42	(2)
The failure to construct an alliance with those lacking political power: the marginalisation of `looked after' children	44	(2)
Social work's expanding `toolbox': the impact of AARs on the process of social work	46	(2)
`What works' and `outcomes'	48	(2)
Conclusion	50	(1)
`Working together' to protect children?	51	(18)
The emergence of `child protection'	53	(3)
Snapshots of joint endeavour during the Major period	56	(5)
Becoming a `child protection unit thing': the voluntary liquidation of a social work identity	61	(5)
Conclusion	66	(3)
PART II Things can only get better? New Labour and social work with children and families	69	(80)
Social work and the Third Way: the Assessment Framework, New Labour and more new `tools' for social work with children and families	75	(18)
Reading the map	78	(3)
New Labour, new Framework	81	(2)
Examining `inclusive practice'	83	(2)
The ecological approach to assessments	85	(3)
Back to the toolroom	88	(3)
Conclusion	91	(2)
An `eye-catching initiative': New Labour and child adoption	93	(17)
The wider cultural significance of child adoption	93	(2)
Earlier attempts at `reform'	95	(1)
Social dynamics and adoption	96	(4)
Blair takes control: remaking the social work approach to child adoption	100	(1)
Reviewing the review	101	(2)
New Labour, old adoption	103	(5)
Conclusion	108	(2)
Viewing the world through a monochrome lens: social work with children and families and the dominant approach to `race' and ethnicity	110	(14)
Social work in a `black' and `white' world	111	(2)
Social work and the `empty' white category	113	(2)
`Problem families' and the racialisation of Irish children and families	115	(2)
Recognising Irish specificity	117	(3)
`Race', ethnicity, asylum seekers and refugees	120	(2)
Conclusion	122	(2)
Social work with children and families in a world of `emergent new professionals'	124	(15)
Dealing with the `drop-out' generation	125	(1)
The `emergent new professional': the personal adviser	126	(2)
Inspiration, exhortation and compulsion	128	(2)
Making connections	130	(2)
Connexions, surveillance and strategies of virtual control	132	(3)
`Social work -- it's all about people': Connexions and the social work recruitment crisis	135	(2)
Conclusion	137	(2)
Conclusion	139	(10)
New structures and new professions	139	(1)
Direction from the centre	140	(1)
It's in the stars: targets and social work in a `performative society'	141	(1)
Looking forwards, looking backwards: complex `modernisation'	142	(2)
New Labour, the new degree and `practical' social work	144	(1)
Social work and human rights in a `surveillance society'	145	(4)
Notes	149	(7)
Bibliography	156	(35)
Index	191