This revised edition details organisational systems and structures that are part of the assessment and planning process for looked after children. This is closely interwoven with discussions about their emotional development, educational, health and cultural needs and how these needs can be met through social work and a range of other services. The views of looked after children are highlighted through case studies and summaries of research findings, and the range of skills and knowledge necessary to support looked after children through the key events they experience, including loss, change and the development of new relationships, are explained and illustrated.
Working with children in foster care is a demanding and rigorous aspect of social work practice. Difficult decisions in fast-moving and often complex situations have to be made, and for students and practitioners alike, there is a vast array of legislation, law and social policy to understand. This book is written to help social workers and social work students get to grips with the complexity of foster care. The child is placed at the heart of the text and there are substantial chapters on law, policy frameworks and the overreaching theoretical and research evidence to support good practice. There is also a strong focus on practical skills such as empathy and relationship-based practice. This is an essential text for experienced social workers or those currently in training.
′An excellent introduction to social work with children and families. It links practice with legislation and highlights relevant research findings′. - Mr Dan Burrows,Cardiff School of Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University Working with children and families is one of the most challenging, skilled, but ultimately rewarding, areas of social work practice. Social workers need to be able to work with a diverse group of children and their families: from babies to teenagers, single parents to two-parent families and multi-carer families, as well as with a diverse group of professionals, such as the police, schools, hospitals, health centres and various community organisations. They need to be able to understand the law, policy and legislation that surrounds social work with children and families, while continually developing their own skills. Such skills include communication, preparation and planning, intervention, recognition, identification and assessment of significant harm, recording and report writing, managing oneself and the work, problem solving, research and analysis and decision making. This fully revised new edition aims to guide you through all of these areas and more. There are chapters on safeguarding, substitute care for children, family support for children and families, life story work and direct work with children.
A diverse range of practitioners, researchers and educators present a variety of perspectives on what counts as direct work. Is it the undertaking of certain tasks with a child, or building a relationship that matters most? Is it more about what is done with a child or about how it is done? Is it a set of planned activities or spontaneous approaches? And what counts as effective communication, given the diversity of both children and practice roles and contexts?
Covering a core topic on the curriculum, this book provides students with the key knowledge and skills that they need for practice and is fully up-to-date, incorporating the findings of the Munro Report (2011).
Children and young people in care who have been traumatized need a therapeutic environment where they can heal and which meets their emotional and developmental needs. This book provides a model of care for traumatized children and young people, based on theory and practice experience pioneered at the Lighthouse Foundation, Australia. The authors explain the impact of trauma on child development, drawing on psychodynamic, attachment and neurobiological trauma theories. The practical aspects of undertaking therapeutic care are then outlined, covering everything from forming therapeutic relationships to the importance of the home environment and daily routines. The book considers the totality of the child's experience at the individual, group, organization and community levels and argues that attention to all of these is essential if the child is to achieve wellness. Case material from both children and carers are used throughout to illustrate both the impact of trauma and how children have been helped to recovery through therapeutic care. This book will provide anyone caring for traumatized children and young people in a residential setting with both the understanding and the practical knowledge to help children recover. It will be essential reading for managers and decision-makers responsible for looked after children, child care workers such as residential and foster carers, youth workers, social workers, mental health workers and child welfare academics.
Active Social Work with Children with Disabilities provides a comprehensive social worker’s guide to working with children with disabilities, exploring current issues from the perspective of both the social worker and the family. Many people are afraid of working in this field of social work and this book dispels the myths and fears about working with children with disabilities and build the social worker’s confidence in an area that is often left behind within the social work world. The book will help you to: undertake a social work assessment with a child with a disability consider the holistic needs of the child and the family explore the impact of grief and loss upon the family build emotional intelligence and resilience within families. communicate with children with disabilities communication techniques. The new SEND legislation and issues around Safeguarding of Children with Disabilities and Transition to Adult Social Care for the young person are explored, and activities and scenarios help you to critically reflect and explore theory and practice further
This introduction to social work with children and young people who are looked after (in care or accommodated) by statutory or voluntary agencies is the only textbook on the subject which addresses this area of work across all four nations of the UK. Providing a clear theoretical and ethical basis, it introduces and develops a set of core themes, reflective of contemporary developments including: • the influence of, and tensions between, dominant discourses that shape the social work service (relationship-based practice, early intervention and prevention, social innovation, evidence-based practice and outcomes) • the use and abuse of concepts of ‘children’s needs’ and ‘best interests’; • ideas of parenting and parental responsibility, and the relationships between children, families, communities and the state; • the importance of recognising that children and young people have rights and considering their views; • trauma, trauma-informed practice, transitions and resilience. With chapters addressing a sequence of topics – assessment and planning, residential and foster care, leaving care, and permanence – there is a specific focus on working with disabled children, children from minority ethnic communities, and marginalised groups of children and young people including refugees and asylum seekers, LGBTQIA+ children and those who have been trafficked. Packed full of useful pedagogical features including material on the legal and policy context, summaries of research evidence, notes for good practice, group teaching exercises, references to legislation and guidance, and guides to further reading, it will be core reading on any child and family care modules, general preparation for practice courses, Frontline, Step Up, as well as for all social work practitioners.
This new edition has been fully revised and updated to provide over 1,800 A-Z definitions of terms from the field of social care, concentrating on social work as a significant area within this field. Covering social work theories, methods, policies, organizations, and statutes, as well as key terms from interdisciplinary topics overlapping with health and education, this is the most up-to-date dictionary of its kind available. It also provides extended entries on specialisms such as children and families, domestic violence, and residential care, and has been extensively updated to include new legislation. Useful appendices include a glossary of acronyms and a Table of Legislation, Regulations, and Codes of Practice, cross-referenced to Dictionary entries. Entry-level bibliographies and web links provide further resources and the web links are listed and regularly updated on a dedicated companion website. Written by two leading figures in the field, and a team of eleven contributors, A Dictionary of Social Work and Social Care is a must-have for students of social work, social care, and related subjects, as well as for qualified social workers undertaking continuing professional development programmes.
Contributors analyze how economic, political, and cultural changes over the past several decades have reshaped the experiences and representations of children and youth in the United States. From publisher description.
