Interesting research from Ireland

A report in the Irish Times neatly summarises research led by Prof. Bairbre Redmond of University College Dublin.

The study identifies high rates of stress among social workers.

Although high levels of personal commitment were found, burnout also occurred, especially among children’s social workers. This involved chronic stress, exhaustion, and depersonalisation. The effect of violence and aggression from families was an important factor in some cases.

However, the respondents wanted greater autonomy in decision-making. They were increasingly burdened with administrative work and found they had less time to spend with children and families. There was less scope for professional practice and more pressure to be efficient.

Many social workers described the system as “dysfunctional”.

I think this research points to the twin evils that many child protection social workers face. On the one hand they encounter the sheer difficulty of building constructive relationships with people who may be suspicious, angry, hostile and even violent. On the other hand their ability to meet complex needs is constrained by systems, regulations and procedures that are often unmanageable and invariably dispiriting.

No wonder so many leave the profession.

More on those silly scorecards

Hard on the heels of my last post on the adoption scorecards comes a report from Children and Young People Now that Hackney’s director for children’s services, Alan Wood, has said that the critically important thing about adoption is getting the placement right first time.

According to Wood, Hackney, which came bottom in the Government's scorecard table, has experienced no adoption placement breakdowns in the last three years, compared with a national average of seven per cent.

Wood believes that the higher success rate justifies doing things more slowly. I agree. As I said in my previous post - it seems very likely that some authorities may be quicker, but have a lower success rate, while other authorities might take longer and get it right more often.

Unbalanced Scorecards?

It is hard not to feel some unease about the publication of the Government’s ‘adoption scorecards’. Looking at the data it is very hard to see how different local authorities compare, and it offers no insight into the causes of the delays.

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2012/05/adoption-scorecards-are-not-credible-say-councils/

There is also insufficient data to perform any satisfactory analysis. It seems very likely to me that some authorities may be quicker, but have a lower success rate, while other authorities might take longer and get it right more often. But we won’t find that out from the crude figures available.

I think the scorecards approach has been wrong. To speed up the adoption process we need to know where the delays are occurring and why. The scorecard just gives us unhelpful comparisons between different areas.  

An empty chair would help us think harder

I can heartily recommend Mark Kingwell’s article in the Guardian yesterday.

 Mark writes:

Gatherings of PEN, the international freedom of expression group,  always feature an empty chair for a missing writer, in prison or under house arrest elsewhere in the world. Somewhat less sublimely, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos apparently insists on having an empty chair at every company meeting: the chair represents the customer, according to Bezos "the most important person in the room".

Now that’s a thought that could be taken into child protection and, more generally, into children’s social work. What about an empty chair for the child at every meeting that s/he cannot attend personally: a strategy meeting, a team meeting, a supervision session?

24/7 Expertise

Among the new standards proposed by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health for the emergency care of children and young people is one that is very welcome:

• All staff in emergency care settings are able to access child protection advice 24 hours a day from a paediatrician with child protection expertise

Frankly it is difficult to see why this is not already mandatory.

8,750 new foster families are needed across the UK in 2012

The Fostering Network keeps saying it - and those in power still seem to be ignoring it. 

As Fostering Fortnight approaches, the shortage of foster parents in the UK continues apace with an estimated 8,750 new foster families needed across the UK in 2012.

A child needs a foster family every 22 minutes according to the Fostering Network. Government needs to come up with an urgent plan to ensure that an appropriate placement is always available.

The re-abuse of children returning from care

In a new report the NSPCC reminds us that nearly 40% of children who leave care return home to a parent or relative and of these research has found that between 40% and 60% suffer further abuse.

Following up on these findings, the NSPCC conducted interviews with 200 looked after children and found that more than 70% said they were not ready to return home.    

Social workers told the NSPCC that budget cuts are a factor in returning children home before it is safe to do so. They also said that the courts often order the return of children home when social workers believe it is not safe.

There must be no doubt that these figures are very worrying. Thousands of children every year are being re-abused, despite the intervention of the public authorities. That is tragic and unacceptable. Government, courts, professionals and other practitioners need to give urgent attention to how these children can be given urgent help.And urgent thinking about how to improve outcomes needs to be put in hand.

The NSPCC makes a series of recommendations.  Three which appear quite sensible are:

• Central government should publish data about outcomes for children returning home from care
• Local authorities should use this information to monitor support and assess their performance
• Outcomes for children who return home from care should form a central part of Ofsted’s assessment of the performance of local authority children’s services

However, there would need to be careful thinking about how to ensure that publication of this type of data does not become part of some future performance indicators or targets, which may result in unintended and unwelcome consequences.