A rapid literature review of evidence on child abuse linked to faith or belief

This publication from the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre, funded by the Department for Education (England and Wales), is a small scale review of previous research conducted to collate information for future policy. The review looked at the incidence and characteristics of child abuse linked to faith or belief in the UK and some other countries, looked to identify good practice in the identification and reduction of such abuse and sought to define gaps in the evidence base where further research may be helpful. The main sources of information were Stobart’s analysis of Metropolitan Police cases (2006; 2009) and the more recent (as yet unpublished) research from La Fontaine (2012). The review includes evidence on "witchcraft and spirit possession" related cases and also "ritual and satanic abuse".

10 Skills Every Social Worker Needs

A succinct article for social workers from the University of Southern California. All skills transferable across the big pond.

Childhood Adversity and Adult Brain Function

My attention was drawn to the Neuroscience 2012 conference, held in New Orleans this week, 13th-17th October, by a report in the Guardian newspaper 16 October 2012, summarising some of the presentations for the lay reader. One presentation from Eric Pakulak, University of Oregon, found that children from poorer homes grew into adults with poorer working memory adverse conditions in childhood. Work by Pakulak on the mechanism involved in this has been used to devise teaching interventions which can help to improve bahaviour and cognition of school pupils.
I include a link to the abstracts section of the Conference website for further information.

Intergenerational transmission of worklessness: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort and the Longitudinal Study of Young People In England

"This research report presents the findings from a study that investigated the extent of parental worklessness in families with young and teenage children, and determined how parental worklessness impacts on children’s cognitive ability, education attainment, behaviours, attitude to school, academic aspirations and experience of the transition from school to work.
Drawing on evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), the research included a focus on children in primary education (MCS) to gauge early potential scarring effects from household worklessness and on young people (LSYPE), to consider the transition from school to work and to identify any inter-generational link between parental worklessness and the young person’s likelihood of being Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)."

Family Group Conferences

Todays Guardian online contains an articles on How Family Group Conferences Have the Power to Change Lives. prinicpally by gathering extended family groups together in an informal setting to find solutions for children's problems within the family. Problems addressed might include the finding alternative accomodation for children rather than being fostered by social services, help with education, substance misuse or getting into trouble with the police. Although the article makes reference to services in England, facilitated by the voluntary organisation Daybreak, Family Group Conferences, also known as Family Group Meetings are also facilitated in Scotland by Children 1st among others. For further reading see Examining the Use and Impact of Family Group Conferencing (2007),  research project conducted by researcher's from Stirling University on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The Kilbrandon Lectures - reflections on Care and Justice for Children in Scotland

The Kilbrandon Child Care Lecture series was set up to commenorate the Kilbrandon Report (1964), which led to the establishment of the Children's Hearings System.This publication brings together the first ten lectures exploring the children's hearings system, children's rights, families and processes in other countries.

The lectures (links to full list) are:
Sandford J. Fox (1991). Children's hearings in the international community. 
Fred Stone (1995). Advent of the Children (Scotland) Act in 1995.
Donalds Dewar (1997). Justice for Scotland's children.
Anthony Clare (1999). The Lost Boyhood of Judas.
Neil MacCormick (2001). A Special Conception of Juvenile Justice: Kilbrandon's legacy.
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio (2003). Justice for Europe's Children.
Trond Waage (2005). Modern Childhood: The image of the child in our society .
Bjorn Cronstedt (2007).Children in Conflict with the Law: An International Perspective.
Kathleen Marshall (2009). Children's Hearings and the Love that Binds: Reflections on Community, Discipline and Exile. 
Harry Burns (2011). Healthier Lives: Better Futures. 

Social Care Student Week

This week the Guardian Online Social-Care-Network has been focusing on students, with a raft of articles relevant to new trainee social workers:
What advice would I give to my younger self on social work by Blogger Ermintrude,
Top tips for social work students from a variety of professionals,
What kind of social work student will you be (Quiz),
How Nana Mary inspired me to start my social work MA by Tara Reynolds,
Busting the myths about social work by Louise Tickle, 
Should UK universities take social work education more seriously? by Claire Burke, comparing the Finnish model,
Social work is an extremely hard fight. But it's a worthy one, by newly qualified soical worker Rebecca Novell.

Fostering in Scotland unfair?

Sarah Lurie, director of Fostering Network Scotland writes in the Guardian, crticising the current lack of regulation by the Scottish Government in fostering, which has left local authorities and independent fostering providers to set their own fostering allowance rates, and foster carers potenitally being asked to care for higher numbers of children than in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, where the limit for unrelated placements is 3 at one time. This year the Scottish Government conducted a consulation exercise for the proposed Children and Young People's Bill. The new bill will hopefully bring Scotland into line with the rest of the UK in the above areas. Additionally Lurie is hopeful that proposals for payment for foster carers in line with the remuneration of staff in residential children's care will increase recruitment and retention of foster carers.

Into the Unknown - Children's Journeys Through the Asylum Process

This week the Children's Society published a report Into the Unknown, on the experiences of unaccompanied children seeking asylum on arrival in the UK. THe report is critical of the UK Border agency, with the Children's Society maintaining that the UKBA fails to ensure that children fully understand the process they are entered into and that children who may already be traumatised, having fled from violence, have to contend with a culture of disbelief. Many children reported that when being interviewed by the UKBA, there was no responsible adult to act on tehir behalf, and that interpreters often lacked the specific regional dialect or language to do the job properly. The Children's Society concludes that better training is essential for interpreters involved in this work and that an independent feedback and complaints system needs to be established to keep children fully informed of the process of their claim.

Alcohol and Older People

BASW have published a guide on Alcohol and Older People which attempts to explain some of the reasons why  older people may use alcohol and drink more than the recommended limits. Old age may bring social isolation and fears of ageing, or alcohol may be used as self-medication to cope with age related illness. Often older people may become involved in “drinking networks” simply to have some company. Older people may be more likely to be misdiagnosed by health services as alcohol related symptoms may present in conjunction with other age related conditions.
On the same subject, a BBC Panorama broadcast Old Drunk and Disorderly, examines why those over 65 are more likely to drink every day, and drink alone, than anyother age group, leading to more alcohol related hospital admissions for older people than for the often assumed to be heavy drinking 16-24 year old age group.

Hogewey - the happy home for residents with dementia

Hogewey, 30 minutes from Amsterdam, is a village residence for those with dementia. Services have been designed to provide a home like environment, as an alternative to the previous institutional incarnation of the service, with large buildings, locked wards uniformed nurses and heavy medication. Residents now live in small group houses, with two carers on duty in a house for 6 or 7 residents. The varied home like environments help to ease the confusion and anger residents with dementia can experience, with the different houses being tailored to echo the earlier lifestyles or residents. Read more in the Guardian 27 August.

Protecting Disabled Children

OfSted (England and Wales) have issued a report Protecting disabled children: thematic inspection. The report examines how well local authorities and Local Safeguarding Children Boards work in evaluating the work done by the multiple professionals and agencies involved in provision of services to disabled children. Most children and their parents/carers were offered multi-agency support at an early stage, which was keenly received. However in the work with children in need, plans were often found to lack detail of focus on outcomes and reviews often failed to include all the professionals working with children and in some cases the planning or review process was absent. The report concludes that these gaps may cause delay in  identifying child protection issues with disabled children. Additionally, not all staff from the different agencies working with disabled children were adequately trained in their safeguarding responsibilities.

Joined Up Thinking

I'm sure we all suspected it already, but a report this week from the Kings Fund Explaining variation in use of emergency hospital beds by patients over 65 gives us an explicit statement that areas where there are well developed integrated care services for older people have lower emergency hospital bed occupancy, and in areas where there are larger than average proportions of older people in the community, hospital bed occupancy by this demographic is lower. This is possibly because the development of integrated services is more advanced in these locales, having developed in response to the needs of the population. The corollary of this is that in areas of high bed occupancy tended to have overly long lengths of stay related to older people transitioning from hospital back to supported home or social care living. The wide spread introduction of more joined up services would reduce hospital costs considerably and one would hope improve the lives of service users.
In Swindon services for a different demographic group have also shown that inter-professional working can improve the efficacy of health and social services. A formal partnership between NHS Swindon and Swindon Borough Council to work with Participle, reduced the number of different contacts with outside agencies with families who participate, with integrated teams. The results have seen  increases in adults returning to work or training, children returning to school and  reduction in numbers of children on child protection plans, as participating families were supported in making changes. See Guardian 10 August for more information.

Social Work/Social Care & Media

I have just stumbled across the Social Work/Social Care & Media Blog - and it looks really interesting. Participants SWCS Media bills itself as "a knowledge community of practice that brings Social Work and Social Care practitioners, organisations, academics, researchers, students, policy makers, users of service and other allied professionals, stakeholders or enthusiasts and interested parties together, to discuss issues, innovations, opportunities, dilemmas and challenges as well as relevant developments in relation to Social Work and/or Social Care.". They regularly conduct live twitter debates on issues and case studies in social work and social care, (@SWSCmedia  #SWSCmedia) and collect together the posts in each debate on the blog. Well worth reading.

Child Neglect in Scotland

The Scottish Executive have published a new report, conducted by researchers at University of Stirling, on the current scale and nature of child neglect in Scotland. Daniel, B., Burgess, C. & Scott, J. (2012). A review of child neglect in Scotland, provides statistical information but also delivers information from focus groups on how well professionals across disciplines are performing in recognising and helping neglected children.

Designing and delivering older care in Glasgow

A new report from IRISS, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Sciences, has been published on an innovative project: Shaping the choreography of care & support for older people in Glasgow. This partnership project, working with diverse agencies from social work, to health, to Glasgow School of Art, collaborated on future support for older people's well being and service delivery.

Custody versus the alternatives

Those working in criminal justice/probation may be interested in recent and possibly conflicting reports in this area. A report from the Ministry of Justice (2012), Process evaluations on intensive alternatives to custody, which assesses the efficacy of Intensive Alternatives to Custody in seven pilot areas of England and Wales. Initial finding indicate that the IAC orders were welcomed by both persistent offenders and seen as positive and effective by those working in sentencing and probation.
Meanwhile Civitas: Institute for the study of Civil Society have published Acquisitive Crime: imprisonment, detection and social factors which argues that longer custodial sentences are effective in reducing the number of future offences. Paul McDowell, chief executive of Nacro, argues that the Civitas analysis is flawed in todays Guardian .

IRISS FM - social work podcasts

Last month IRISS - The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services launched their IRISS FM service - giving access to Social Service Podcasts on diverse social work topics. To listen online or download to you MP3 device of choice go to http://irissfm.iriss.org.uk/

Social Working Independently

Kelly Hicks, Social Worker of the Year 2011, left employment with Doncaster Council and to move in to independent work in the community. Hicks then founded Personalisation Forum Group, a peer support community network for people with mental health problems, whose action has helped to support members and help avoid emergency psychiatric admissions. Group action by the PFG has subsequently forced Doncaster Council to live up to it's statutory obligations in social care assessments for people with mental health problems. You can read more about Hicks work in the Guardian, 12 June 2012.

Apps for Independent Living

The June/July issue of Learning Disability Today has a short article on how everyday technology including phone and tablet apps are helping people with daily challenges like using public transport and communication. Learning Disbability Today can be accessed via CareKnowledge.

Cushen, M. (2012). Getting technical. Learning Disability Today. June/July 2012, 14-15.

Returning Home

The NSPCC have published a report Returning home from care: what's best for children, which examines family reunification and how children returning to the family home can be best supported and protected, as  research reveals that half of all the children who come into care because of neglect or abuse who return home, will subsequently come into care again having suffered further abuse or neglect.

Therapeutic Approaches in Residential Child Care

SCIE have produced a new report 58: Therapeutic approaches to social work in residential child care settings .
Accompanying this they have also released a film on Social Care TV: Therapeutic Approaches to Residential Childcare in Northern Ireland.

Being a "Case"

This week Careknowledge issued a special report in which Pauline Ormond, who spent 11 years in care and subsequently helped found Who Cares? Scotland, details her experiences in relation to accessing her own care files and the ways in which record keeping affects service users and their subsequent understanding of their experiences in care.

Social Pedagogy vs Corporate Parenting

In a Huffington Post Article this week to mark World Social Work Day, Hayley Meachin laments the state of Corporate Parenting in the UK through which looked after children leave care disadvantaged, with higher rates of criminal offending and teenage pregnancy, and lower educational achievement. Meachin suggests we should look to other countries, particularily Germany and Denmark where the social pedagogy model predominates and the outcomes for young people in need of state care are correspondingly improved.  For further reading see Petrie, P. (2006). Working with children in care. Open University Press.

Action on neglect in schools

Interprofessional working and awareness and action by schools and health professionals is essential if children suffering neglect or abuse are to be reached as quicky and effectively as possible. A article in this weeks Guardian highlights how some schools are working to help children being neglected.

Children's experiences of care and destitution

Two documents have been published recently giving voice to the experiences of children and young people. The first, from the Children's Society focuses on refugee children and families in the UK and their experiences of destitution. Pinter, I. (2012). I don't feel human. Children's Society.
 The OFSTED (2012). Children's care monitor 2011 has also been published reporting the views of looked after children on the state of social care in England.

Speech and Language Therapy in Youth Offending work.

The Youth Offending Team in bolton is currently benefiting from the services of a speech and language therapist, employed via the local NHS Trust. Ian Warriner works with young offenders, an estimated 60% of whom have communication difficulties, making it difficult for them to work with the services which aim to keep them from reoffending. Read all about it in the Guardian, 7 February 2012.

Helping parents of looked after children

This month's issue of Children in Scotland has an article on  a unique group-based intervention in West Lothian, working with the parents of looked after children, many of whom had  discrupted childhoods themselves. The intervention groups have had some success in mixing psychotherapeutic approaches with cognitive behavioural techniques; there have been improvements in parent-child interactions and several children have been able to return home, an outcome which was not expected previous to the intervention.
Rogers, J. (2012). "Fix us parents so we can fix our kids". Children in Scotland. 129, 10-11.
Find it at Serials 362.7.

Child Protection on TV

You might want to set your +box or program reminder to watch the new BBC2 series Protecting Our children, first episode to be screened Monday 30.1.12 at 9pm. Following child protection staff in Bristol, the programme also shows interprofessional working with NHS, Family Courts and the police. The series has been made in partnership with the Open University.

Getting the most from practice supervision

I found this blog post from How Not to Do Social Work most enlightening and thought that social work students approaching practice and supervision for the first time might find it useful: Reclaiming Good Supervision

Incarceration, but no treatment, for children

Johnson, M. (2012). It's time to treat drug addicted children as adults. Guardian, 17.1.12. Mark Johnson's article expresses concerns over the situation in which drug addicted children can be sent to secure units for committing addiction fueled crimes, yet secure units do not cannot pursue a remedial detox course with there residents, but merely manage addition via methodone. Nowhere in the UK is there residential drug treatment available to under 18's.
For more information on children and young people in prisons see Bromley briefings prison factfile., 2011 from the Prison Reform Trust.