Social Work and Child Protection - Essay Example

A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark. - Chinese Proverb Background It is essential that the protection, support and welfare of children entail strong communication channels between social workers and the other local authorities that they engage with during their work role (Courtney, 1998; Scottish Office, 1998). The Scottish Executive aims to improve the protection of children by way of the 2002 review of child protection services, It's Everyone's Job to Make Sure I'm Alright, which highlighted the unacceptable living circumstances in which a minority of children live in Scotland (Scottish Executive, 2002). The three-year Child Protection Reform Programme (CPRP) explored why a number of Scottish children live in unacceptable conditions despite over 20 years of child protection changes. Collaboration among social workers and other human service professionals must align with best practices stipulated by national policies, and should be reflected within the organizational culture of all agencies (Daniel, 2004). Effective and efficient collaboration requires that all stakeholders are aware of what factors comprise and influence collaborative communication skills. As such, this includes an awareness of an important factor such as conflict, which often arises during decision making processes involving an assortment of stakeholders (Bronstein, 2003). It is clear from empirical literature that social problems and professional services to clients necessitate collaboration across human service disciplines (Scottish Executive, 2004). Different approaches to problem-solving, defining concepts and determining priorities can result in conflict, misunderstandings, political and personal agendas that can either impede or positively contribute to the welfare and protection of children with specific psycho-social needs. Rational, Aims and Objectives In recent years deaths of children in care have lead to the decision to make radical changes to policy and practices of social work practices in child protection. For example, the death of Kelly Macfarlane of Scotland by her mum's partner is just one case that has prompted the review of the child protection system in Scotland (Kendrick, 2004; Hammond, 2001). Macfalane's death highlighted the critical need for evaluation of inter-professional communication channels, as well as the apparent deficiencies within clinical and professional practices of social workers and other human service workers in the child protection system. Following a review, McFarlane's death was determined to have been avoidable and that numerous opportunities to not only identify risks to the child's safety, but also for intervention to take place, were not taken up by agencies involved Scotland (Kendrick, 2004). Overall it was determined that the lack of communication between agencies, including social workers, had negated a formal child protection investigation from being initiated in the McFarlane case. New and inexperienced social workers are not the only personal to not have developed their collaborative communication skills with other agencies, as well as their coworkers within their own department (Esley, 2002). The goal of this paper is to highlight the potential for social workers to collaborate effectively with each other and other agencies to develop better aligned policies and best practices. It will be highlighted that networking between agencies and within social work departments will build sincere partnerships to provide better planning and provision of care, as well of knowledge of better service development and research. The following paper will discuss the critical issue of effective inter-professional communication to the practice of social work in the field of child welfare and protection. Firstly, the methodology for this paper will be outlined, including ethical considerations. Secondly, a review of the literature will be presented to identify the importance of conflict to inter-agency problem-solving and service provision. Next, an analysis and discussion of the findings will be provided, and an outline of the limitations of this investigation and future recommendations. Finally, a conclusion shall synthesis the main arguments to demonstrate the vital need for effective communication among agencies, and the critical part conflict has to play in this. It is anticipated that this paper will contribute to extending knowledge of communication hurdles amongst agencies and highlighting the importance of conflict as a positive and negative factor. Methodology Data Collection The critique for this paper was based on systematic investigation of secondary data with regard to communication amongst agencies in child protection. Secondary data can be defined as information collected by researchers that are used for purposes other than its original intention (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2005). Secondary data collection can be either qualitative or quantitative. Secondary data can be used as a research method for comparing studies on a given topic (Padget, 2004). In its qualitative form, data is collected from diaries, newspapers, letters, general literature and novels as well as hand-books and policy statements (Padget, 2004). In its quantitative form secondary data is sourced from published statistics such as government documents and research journals, professional bodies, data archives and the Internet. The advantages of using secondary data are that the available information in existing published studies may be completely adequate to answer the research question of another study (Charles, 2002; Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2005). This is especially ideal when primary research is unable to be undertaken. In most cases this is because collection of secondary data tends to be much more economically feasible than the collection of primary data. Also, in regards to time, it is generally more efficient to use a secondary data collection method, as opposed to constructing and disseminating a survey, or designing and carrying out an experiment, or organizing a focus group and transcription of results (Mason, 1997). Using secondary data can usually ensure that a large sample is acquired, large sample sizes tend to be more difficult with primary data. The secondary data for this research was collected using the Internet. The Internet is a global network of interlinked computers and servers (Castells, 2003). The Google search engine, as well the databases Emerald and Questia were used to source peer-reviewed journals, using key words (e.g., "collaboration", "conflict", +(social work)). The advantages of using the Internet included the ease of use of the medium, the access to current data, the speed with which data could be accessed, and the ability to source large amounts of quality data that met the research objectives. In turn, the advantage of using an online database is the ease of use and the speed at which up-to-date precise information can be sourced. A disadvantage to using the Internet is that a number of databases require subscription in order to access the journals, and these costs are not always feasible. For this reason the university's research databases were used, accessed via the library. An important disadvantage to using the Internet is that there is low reliability, validity and generalisability of results, as over time key words changes in the degree of importance, and it is unlikely that another researcher will obtain the exact results even if they use the same web browser and search engines. Ethical Issues As the literature for this investigation came from peer-reviewed sources all the studies had an obligation to maintain participant's informed consent to take part in their studies. Hence, it was not necessary for the present investigation to seek informed consent as no actual participants were directly contacted, or had information or measures contributed by them, and the literature sourced had de-identified all participants prior to publication. Literature Review Findings It is inevitable that humans will encounter conflict in their day to day life, considering that they are social beings. Most conflicts are able to be resolved in a non-violent manner. Within organizations, such as a social work environment, conflict occurs frequently and can have an affect on a range of individual and organizational processes and final outcomes (Barki & Hartwick, 2002). The definition of conflict appears to be contextual, reflecting the different forms it takes, such as; racial, ethnic, religious, political, marital, personality, gender, role, value, etc. Also, the different levels of analysis can determine the definition of conflict; within the individual, between individuals, between groups, between organizations, between nations, etc. Further definitions may encompass different situational contexts where conflict occurs; at home, within and across social groups, within and across agencies. For example, The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (CSA) states that it is necessary that all children who are in need of compulsory supervision are referred through the Reporter. Local authorities such as the police and social service workers, as well as health and education agencies, and the public are able to make referrals (Scottish Parliament, 1995). Under the same Act, the social worker may be called on to contribute information to the Reporter regarding the child's case (CSA,s56(2)(7)(b)). They may be asked to make a comprehensive evaluation (The Scottish Office, 2001, Part II - 16-18; Scottish Executive, 1999; Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, 2003-2004). This will mostly involve completing a social background report by speaking to the child's parents and guardians. The social worker would have to look at factors that are "relevant", this may mean including information about where the child's community, and their family history. This can set the scene for tensions between agencies, as many service workers from different agencies are often involved to coordinate the welfare and supervision of a single child, and they have different perceptions of what information is considered "relevant". The critical need for accurate and timely information can be negated by inter-departmental politics that are usually attributed to large case loads amongst a small handful of available workers. This is exhibited in the 2002 review of ChildLine Scotland that noted staffs were only able to answer 48% of calls which were made to them (Vincent & Daniel, 2004). It appears that many unanswered calls were from children who had called to three times already. Evidently a significant need for human service workers exists that is going unmet; in turn this implies overworked case workers etc within the system at present. It is unavoidable that conflicts and miscommunications will occur in such a high-demand context. ParentLine Scotland also reported a lack of activity among agencies contacted, and an important concern was the perceived lack of feedback from agencies (Body, Smith & Simon, 2005). A woman whose daughter had been sexually assaulted tried on numerous occasions to make contact with her case worker at the Child Protection Unit, repeatedly being told the case worker was "busy". The distressed mother was not directed to another within department worker, nor directed to another agency that could take up the call and provide information and support until the asaid caseworker was available. The result was ongoing frustration for the family, tension and guilt for the caseworker, and an overall dissatisfaction with the system with all stakeholders involved. Other instances of miscommunications come from Messages from Young People Studies, that report distress that social workers and the system had "abused them" (Scottish Executive, 2002). Such as when they were repeatedly forgotten to be picked up; phone calls not returned; being told a number of different information about what was happening with their care; not being informed in a timely manner about changes to pre-arranged plans; generally feeling ignored, not respected; and as being perceived as a "burden" when they acted out due to their disappointments with the system and workers. Turning now to the role of the local authority, social work services have statutory duties to protect children (Scottish Parliament, 1995; CSA, Part II, s16-18). When the local authority receives information which suggests that a child may be in need of compulsory measures of supervision, the social work service will make inquiries and give the Reporter any information which they have been able to discover about the child (Scottish Executive, 1999). Social service workers have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in their area and, so far as is consistent with that duty, promote the upbringing of children by their families, by providing a range and level of services appropriate to the children's needs. Local authorities are obliged to provide services designed to give such children the opportunity to lead lives which are as normal as possible, and will assess the needs of individual children when requested to do so by' a child's parent (services and support). Relationships of social workers with each other, other service providers and with the families of their clients, entails a delicate balance and flexibility in communication approaches to ensure that the child is the focus of decision-making. Conflict in Social Work Practice A key feature of social work practices is to work within a team environment (Scottish Social Services Council, 2005). The social worker may find themselves working in a team environment comprised of other workers as well as lawyers, police enforcement, doctors, nurses, volunteers, chaplains, carers and other health and human service workers (Martin, 2000). Team-work has been a traditional practice that is supported by social work philosophy and is demonstrated in a variety of its practices. It is well recognized within the social work literature of the interdependence of the physical, functional, psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of the workplace account for team member well being, as well as facilitating a multidisciplinary and so comprehensive approach to client care (Cronenwett & Redman, 2003). Disagreement is likely to occur with the different disciplines involved in the team having different ideas about how to approach a situation, or how to problem-solve a dilemma. As such there are differences in opinion and to how to achieve goals, or to undertake certain activities, and in determining what the relevant priorities are and what they are not (Barki & Hartwick, 2002). Differences of opinion that are not easily resolved or that do not hold the potential for a win-win solution can create conflict within the team, and across agencies involved with a client or social work practice. The situation is a conflict when interferences or negative emotion arises from the difference of opinions. For example, social workers may not be able to understand the mind-set of prioritizing a law enforcement approach, or to a litigation approach, to handling a dilemma of a child in care. Simply disagreeing with each other does not in itself mean conflict. Rather conflict is inevitable when the actions of one department in the team unintentionally impact on another department and so prevents the latter from achieving their goals. Also, feelings of being threatened by a lack of knowledge as to another agencies approach to a situation can cause conflict for the social worker. This indicates a need for cross-training to be exposed o the perspectives of different disciplines and to cultivate acceptance of different approaches to a situation. Finally, conflict amongst social workers themselves can arise when workers feel under-supported by supervisors, and or there are gaps in the communication network with their co-workers. In order for social workers to progress as a practice and discipline it is necessary that concepts such as social justice be seen as priority goals to the enhancement of conflict skills. Practice in the field requires theory, practice and research to parallel each other (Fast, 2002). The development of theories about structural conflict will aid in the creation of better conflict resolution practices, both within social workers organizations, across social care organizations, and extend to the public to who social care services are provided. Again, to ensure impartiality and neuturality in social work practice requires understanding and implementation of such responses when dealing with conflict. As such there needs to be an integration of conflict theory, general social work theory, such as pertains to social justice, welfare and protection, as well as research into all of these domains to culminate in positive field practices of conflict resolution. Ethics can be defined as a philosophy orientated toward the conduct of individuals with a society and the use of decision-making based on morals (Demeter, 2002). Numerous ethical decision-making models exist, however the model proposed by Steinman, Franks Richardson and McEnroe (1998) focuses on ethical strategies within an inter-professional context, so that it attempts to provide guidance for ethical dilemmas that may occur across the helping professions, such as social work, education, nursing, law and medicine (Steinman, Franks Richardson & McEnroe, 1998). Kitchener (1984) determined that these five principles formed the basis of the concepts that comprise any ethical decision; autonomy, non-malifence, beneficiance, justice and fidelity (as cited in Bradley & Hendricks, 2001). The model proposed by Steinman and colleagues is comprised of an ethical hierarchy so that different people/groups are able to be considered at different levels in the overall decision-making process. This is essential to processes such as conflict resolution. Analysis and Discussion of Findings It is clear that communication between and within agencies is critical to safeguard effective service provision for child welfare and protection. Essentially, proper protection of children necessitates agencies in sharing information in a timely and sensible fashion. Although ethical codes of conduct will determine how each agency identifies situations in which information disclosure can take place, there is a clear need for agencies to collaborate on a standard way to disclose confidential information amongst agency groups involved in the case of child protection. The Children's Hearing court presents many situations which may be considered as ethical dilemmas as issues of sexual assault and neglect may not be able to be disclosed if the child is considered to re-experience trauma from knowing that this knowledge is being shared. However, clear guidelines need to be developed to enable critical information that will contribute to the care, welfare and empowerment of the child being shared in clearly defined situations. Collaboration through effective communication between agencies evidently means better networking opportunities amongst agencies, and the provision of opportunities to meet as a group for those who are involved in particular child protection cases. This "team-focus" attitude with a person-centred approach, such as that adopted by the National Health System, will help to standardize procedures, pool resources (e.g., cars, case workers, youth mentors, carers), cut costs and improve service provision to those most in need - notably children in care. Collaboration by way of effective conflict resolution will allow agencies to gather sufficient information about a child's welfare to ensure that any allegations of abuse are followed up in a standard and comprehensive manner. Further, that each person involved in a child's welfare has up-to-date information, an understanding of the past experiences of the child, how these experiences will impact on current understandings of situations and social interactions, and a high work ethic that places the child at the centre of decision-making to constrain incidents of children forgotten to be picked up, closure of social workers no longer working with a particular child, or the provision of alternative points of contact when a case worker is not available, as just a few examples. Limitations of this Study Whilst non-experimental methods such as using secondary data can contribute a wealth of information in regards to the description of participant experiences on a more subjective level, they lack reliability and validity as they do not identify causal reasons that for the results that occur (Mack et al., 2005). Although in the early 20th century the quantitative approach to research was favoured, the 21st century has revealed the importance of combining qualitative and quantitative designs to achieve a holistic and multidimensional representation of a concept. A mixed-methodology balances the strengths and weaknesses across the different methods, utilizing each relevant to their merits. The synthesis provides a more complete picture, that can be modelled schematically and so inform changes. For example, the quasi-experiment can provide a more real-world context in that the groups are self-selecting; although a drawback of this is regression to the mean effects, so that alternative explanations of the results can be provided for results (Mason, 1997). As such, a method like semi-structured in-depth interviews of social workers and other agency personal can provide an in-depth human element to the research process (Bryman, 2004; Shank, 2002). It is a flexible method in that it uses a guide of questions as a framework, whilst allowing the participant to have a free flow of conversation. As such, it provides an opportunity for the participant to talk in-depth about a topic (Mason, 1997). Although the order of items in the question guide will not change across participants, the different responses of each participant will necessitate different promptings for additional details. This type of interview provides the researcher with insight into the experiences of participants, from the participant's point of view (Mason, 1997). The interview is a one-to-one process, usually, and allows the researcher to gauge the participant's interpretation of the relationships they see between events, people and social values (Bryman, 2004). The researcher asks neutral questions and listens actively, does not approve or disapprove of answers, and does not encourage the participant to provide particular answers, instead facilitating the participant to follow up on previous answers (Padgett, 2004). There are numerous strengths and weaknesses of this research method. Strengths include the gaining of a personal perspective as opposed to a group interpretation of experiences as would occur with a focus group (Shank, 1995). Conclusion In conclusion, it is clear that effective and efficient communication and conflict resolution amongst agencies in child protection is of critical need to meet the service standards expected of such agencies by the community. The literature reflects concern for better practices and policies across agencies including social workers to enable better communication channels, and to positively make use of conflict to provide better services. Whilst a secondary data review is of use to establish current understandings of the topic, the scope of the issue is perhaps best addressed with a multi-method research design, which incorporates a quasi-experimental design, to better access actual attitudes and behaviours of personas working within the child protection system. Overall, it is essential that inter-agencies seek to continuously improve their communication skills, policies and expectations to maintain and evaluate service delivery to children in need. References Barki, H. & Hartwick, J. (2002) Conceptualizing the construct of interpersonal conflict. The International Journal of Conflict Management, 15(3), 216-244. Body, J. Smith, M. & Simon, A. (2005) Telephone support for parenting: an evaluation of Parentline Plus. Children & Society, 19(4), 278-291. Bradley, L. J., & Hendricks, B.C. (2001) Implementing Ethical Decision-Making Models. Texas Technical University. 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