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sources of information were Stobart’s analysis of Metropolitan Police cases (2006; 2009) and the more recent (as yet unpublished) research from La Fontaine (2012).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.