Nine benchmarks to test social work decision making

Andy McNicoll, writing in the Community Care magazine  Social Work Blog offers a nine point framework against which to measure decision making in social work. The nine characteristics were developed in the 1980s, but may still prove useful for reflective social work practice.

Pocket Guides from BASW

BASW have produces 5 downloadable pocket guides with basic information, hints and tips for practicing professionals and students of social work. The guides are:

• Alcohol and other drugs
• Children families and alcohol use
• Mental health and substance use
• Alcohol and older people
• Young people and alcohol

PDFs for all five can be downloaded from the link above.

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sources of information were Stobart’s analysis of Metropolitan Police cases (2006; 2009) and the more recent (as yet unpublished) research from La Fontaine (2012).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