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All you need is love (plus a good evidence base, a healthy dose of scepticism, and patience and perseverance in working with families!)

All you need is love?

Our latest issue of Child Abuse Review, now available online, explores some of the dilemmas in working with violent fathers and their families. Positive affirmation and support is a central part of such work, but is it really all that is needed? Can violent men really change?

In our first paper for this issue Timothy Broady and colleagues report on an evaluation of a men’s domestic violence intervention programme, using a qualitative analysis of interviews with 21 participants (Broady et al., 2017). Perhaps the most striking finding of this research was the universal expression, by these fathers, of love for their children, and how that was ‘motivating them to stop using violence and to develop positive relationships with all family members’. Broady and his colleagues suggest that ‘the frustrations reported at not having contact with their children emerged as a particularly powerful experience that could be harnessed to encourage men to acknowledge the severity of their behaviour and to find alternative ways of relating to family members.’

 

It is not sufficient to put all the responsibility for keeping their children safe on mothers who themselves are victims of the violence and controlling behaviour perpetrated by their partners. If we are going to bring about any meaningful change in families affected by domestic violence, the perpetrators of that violence need to take responsibility for their attitudes and behaviours, and to take genuine steps towards changing not just the violent behaviours themselves, but also the deeper attitudes of power and control which underlie those behaviours.

 

Picking up on these findings, it seems imperative that intervention programmes seek to understand and work with what motivates violent perpetrators to change. If their love for their children can help motivate change, that must surely be a good thing. However, it is essential that practitioners, while showing compassion and a supportive attitude to their clients, are not naïve about the challenges involved. Change does not happen overnight, and the manipulative, controlling attitudes of many perpetrators of domestic violence mean that a degree of scepticism is important, along with patience and perseverance in working with these men.

As with so much of our safeguarding practice, we need to hold on to the hope that children’s lives can be better.  We need to maintain high expectations of parents in their care of their children; provide them with the support that will enable them to meet those high expectations; and keep our focus on the child, so that we are prepared to challenge and act when those expectations are not met.

 

Balancing support and scrutiny

The difficulties in achieving a balance between support and scrutiny are brought into a different perspective in a paper by Louise Caffrey (2017), specifically in the context of volunteers working in supported child contact centres. Caffrey’s research is an excellent example of how systems methodology can help get beneath the surface of individual behaviours to understand the context, values, and organisational systems which may underlie those behaviours. Pertinently, she found that while the volunteers were aware that child safety and protection were everyone’s business, and were knowledgeable about their responsibilities to refer child protection concerns and how to do so, there were other emphases that could ‘stand in tension with their safeguarding commitments’. In particular, she found that workers emphasised a need to provide a welcoming service, to be non-judgemental, and to be neutral. Indeed, practices such as listening in on conversations, recording observations, or finding out about the background case histories, which were felt to jeopardise the aim of creating a welcoming environment, or that could be perceived as biased or judgemental, were actively avoided or viewed negatively by these workers.

 

‘You have to dance, not wrestle’

That was how one midwife described how she approached addressing child protection concerns with vulnerable pregnant women in a study from New South Wales by Louise Everitt, Caroline Homer and Jennifer Fenwick (Everitt et al., 2016). In a qualitative interview study, the authors identified four core themes that reflected some of the complexities of working with women and their unborn babies. Central to all of these was the dilemma caused by a partnership model of care, when potential child protection concerns are identified. The statutory power carried by community services could be seen as daunting by these midwives, and a potential threat to their relationship with their clients. Indeed, what comes across strongly in reading this report, is the emphasis these midwives place on maintaining a relationship with the mothers with whom they are working, and to do everything possible to support these mothers and enable them to take their babies home and care for them safely. One key aspect of this was the emphasis on being open and honest with these mothers, not going behind their backs, but providing them with support to try and change. Once again, this study highlights just how challenging such work can be, requiring perseverance, time and energy to achieve a good outcome.

 

Along with these studies of working with parents, other papers in this issue explore the impact of neglect and abuse on young people’s resilience and psychosocial adaptation, including a paper from Extremadura in Spain reporting on young people placed in residential care because of neglect (Moreno-Manso et al., 2017), and one from Jeff Moore, Christine Thornton and Mary Hughes (2017) reporting on a study with 22 Irish emigrant survivors of institutional abuse. In contrast, Duncan Helm (2017) reports on a thought-provoking ethnographic study of a social work team in Scotland. Helm identified high levels of case knowledge, along with exploration, curiosity and hypothesis generation, without the need to necessarily identify solutions. Practitioners were able to share knowledge and resources that supported critical thinking. However, He also identified an absence of challenging dialogue and dialectic debate. Helm’s findings emphasise the importance of both physical and emotional ‘secure space’ for practitioners, but highlights the need to promote ‘working team cultures which facilitate challenging yet supportive dialogue as an aid to sense-making’.

 

Love, challenge, patience and perseverance

Despite John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s assertion, in 1967, that ‘all you need is love’, the research reported in this issue of Child Abuse Review suggest that this is not the whole picture. ‘Love’, expressed in these papers as affection, empathy, compassion and support, for parents, children and young people, and colleagues, is a crucial component of safeguarding practice. Love of their children may indeed be a strong motivator for violent fathers, or vulnerable mothers, but expressions of love, by themselves, do not guarantee a child’s safety, and need to be accompanied by genuine and sustained changes in attitudes and behaviours that clearly promote the child’s needs. For practitioners, empathy and support towards the parents with whom they are working need to be balanced with professional curiosity and challenge, and attitudes of patience and perseverance in working with these families.

For those affected by abuse or neglect, compassion and understanding is clearly needed from those to whom they turn for support; that compassion and understanding needs to be grounded in empowering approaches of sharing control and helping the individual to build resilience.

 

 

Child Abuse Review Issue 26:5

Table of Contents

All You Need is Love (Plus a Good Evidence Base, a Healthy Dose of Scepticism, and Patience and Perseverance in Working with Families!) (pages 323–327)

Peter Sidebotham

 
‘I Miss My Little One A Lot’: How Father Love Motivates Change in Men Who Have Used Violence (pages 328–338)

Timothy R. Broady, Rebecca Gray, Irene Gaffney and Pamela Lewis

 
The Importance of Perceived Organisational Goals: A Systems Thinking Approach to Understanding Child Safeguarding in the Context of Domestic Abuse (pages 339–350)

Louise Caffrey

 
Working with Vulnerable Pregnant Women Who Are At Risk of Having their Babies Removed by the Child Protection Agency in New South Wales, Australia (pages 351–363)

Louise Everitt, Caroline Homer and Jennifer Fenwick

 

Psychosocial Adaptation of Young Victims of Physical Neglect (pages 364–374)

Juan Manuel Moreno-Manso, Mª Elena García-Baamonde, Eloísa Guerrero-Barona, Macarena Blázquez-Alonso, José Manuel Pozueco-Romero and Mª José Godoy-Merin

 

On the Road to Resilience: The Help-Seeking Experiences of Irish Emigrant Survivors of Institutional Abuse (pages 375–387)

Jeff Moore, Christine Thornton and Mary Hughes

 
Can I Have A Word? Social Worker Interaction and Sense-Making (pages 388–398)

Duncan Helm

 

 

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Thinking creatively about safeguarding children

 

Over the past few weeks I have been in a number of conversations which have highlighted the complexity of work around safeguarding children, the commitment of those professionals engaged in such work, and the huge impact of the work on children and families.

I have been very aware of the challenges practitioners face in balancing their supportive and protective roles, and also how both survivors of abuse and families who come into our protective systems can feel excluded and victimised by the very services set up to support them.

So I am really very excited by next year’s BASPCAN child protection congress taking place at the University of Warwick in April.

The theme of the congress, Thinking outside the box, captures our desire to think creatively about how we safeguard children.

For the first time ever, we will be bringing together practitioners, survivors of abuse, researchers, trainers and policy makers to learn from each other, reflect and consider how we can improve services to support families and protect children and young people.

We have an exciting line up of keynote speakers, and some really inspiring abstracts already being submitted. The call for abstracts ends soon, so if you have a good idea, some original research or innovative practice that you can present, or if you are able to draw on your own experience as a survivor of abuse or someone who has been involved with family support services, do get online now to submit an outline (abstract) of your presentation.

And do take a look at our all-new website (click here) where you will find lots of information and inspiration, including our latest poem of the month from our poet in residence, Clare Shaw, and some tasters from our artist in residence, Harry Venning.

Artwork: Harry Venning
Artwork: Harry Venning

 

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In praise of social workers

 

I was interviewed today by ITN news in the wake of the tragic death of 21 month old Ayeeshia Smith, and found myself getting really frustrated with yet another news reporter once more berating social services for not learning the lessons. ‘Why’, they ask, ‘after so many Serious Case Reviews, do social services keep failing our most vulnerable children?’

But the reality is that social services – and all the other agencies working to support children and families – have learned lessons. And children in this country live far more safely than they did a generation ago.

Every year in England, social services departments deal with over 600,000 referrals of children in need. Over 50,000 children are made the subject of a child protection plan. Nearly all of these are protected from further serious harm, and in the majority of cases, social services, health professionals and others work hard to ensure that these children can stay with their families.

In our recent triennial review of Serious Case Reviews[1] we found that around 26-30 children each year are killed by their parents – far fewer than in the 1980s and 1990s. The majority of these children died in spite of, not because of, all the good work that social care professionals are doing.

Child protection is not a simple job that you can just carry out by following a protocol or just spotting the signs and responding appropriately. Every day child protection professionals are dealing with complex, challenging issues, juggling and appraising the information given to them, and trying their best to find a positive way forward to protect the children, while seeking to support and work with their parents.

So yes, when an innocent child like Ayeeshia Smith is cruelly murdered by her mother, we are right to feel outraged. We are right to ask that lessons be learned – and, as with the current case – there always will be lessons to be learned. But let’s not take it out on the social workers, health visitors, police officers and other professionals without whom many more children would be harmed and many more families would be torn apart by the stresses, grief and turmoil of our complex, messy lives.

 

[1] Sidebotham P., Brandon M., Bailey S., Belderson P., Dodsworth J., Garstang J., Harrison E., Retzer A., Sorensen P. (2016) Pathways to harm, pathways to protection: a triennial analysis of Serious Case Reviews 2011-2014. DfE RR545. London: Department for Education. ISBN: 978-1-78105-601-1. Available at www.seriouscasereviews.rip.org.uk

 

 

 

 

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You are teaching your daughter to swim

You are teaching your daughter to swim

 

in open waters

though you don’t know the depth

of the lake at its centre; who might have died there,

whether the pike will scare her or bite her,

if the current will pull her down.

 

At the level of water, the mountains are higher.

The cold is a world she will walk to and enter

where deep mud is softer than skin.

Let the pebbles swim under her feet!

All the darkness beneath her

 

is answered by birds

and the trees will be tall and kind.

The sun will light up the water above her.

When there’s no ground left to stand on,

then she’ll fly.

 

Though the cold makes her teeth ache

she can take it. The rain cannot soak her,

the swan will not harm her.  No dead man

will reach out his hand. You will watch her

leaving the shore behind

 

and the current will flow

the right way. That day,

the water will hold her

and take her far from you.

Now let her go from you. Let go.

 

 

A poem by Clare Shaw,

Poet in Residence for the

BASPCAN 2018 International Child Protection Congress

 

To read more of Clare’s poems and to find out more about the Congress see our website:

BASPCAN Congress 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the water holds you

and carries you

it stops you from going down

 

and occasional sun

 

Y Living things scare you –

their dark little nudges

you imagine them,

 

snake-like and toothy and eyeless.

 

there’s nothing makes sense

but your arms

 

the rhythm of you moving forwards

beat and stroke

and sun on the surface

 

ou are leaving the shore behind.

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Safeguarding children across the globe

Child maltreatment is a reality that affects children throughout the world – in all cultures and across all continents. How different countries respond to this varies. From countries adopting a strong and often punitive protection focus, to more supportive models of working in partnership with parents, through to areas where corruption, indifference or a lack of infrastructure can compromise efforts to safeguard children, the complexities of responding to this need are huge.

‘the type of model adopted within a country can have a significant impact upon the response subsequently made to children with safeguarding needs’

 

Our latest special issue of Child Abuse Review presents a series of papers which demonstrate how different models of child protection have been developed and implemented in different countries and consider the implications for the treatment and protection of children. It provides examples of cross-national learning and examines the policymaking context behind child protection models and where such learning has not always had positive outcomes for children. Accounts of child protection practice within Africa, Taiwan, Finland, Norway, the UK, the USA, Suriname, Sweden and China are presented.

In an accompanying editorial, our guest editors, Louise Brown, Jie Lei and Marianne Strydom explore some of these issues and highlight the research presented in this issue. They argue the case for areas that are developing child protection systems to draw on learning from elsewhere, but to temper this with more locally-based practical responses developed in partnership with local communities.

How effectively we are able to safeguard and protect children depends not only on the systems and structures we have in place to respond to child abuse and neglect, but also on the underlying cultural values affecting how we perceive children and families. Two papers in this special issue – from Suriname and from Finland and Sweden – present very different cultural contexts and make for interesting reflection.

 

‘This special issue brings to our attention issues relating to the different models of child protection that have been adopted by different countries and the complexity in the process of adapting models to fit different cultural contexts. It questions the usefulness and validity of attempts to impose international standards, and how different models can result in different responses to children’

 

You can access the editorial for free, along with the full table of contents, earlier issues and early view papers on the Child Abuse Review website:

 

Child Abuse Review Special Issue 26:4 Table of Contents

Comparing International Approaches to Safeguarding Children: Global Lesson Learning (pages 247–251)

Louise Brown, Jie Lei and Marianne Strydom

 

The Practical Sense of Protection: A Discussion Paper on the Reporting of Child Abuse in Africa and whether International Standards Actually Help Keep Children Safe (pages 252–262)

Karen Walker-Simpson

 

Policy Assemblage in Taiwan’s Child Protection Reforms: Policy Mixture, Policy Regime Change and Shifting Policy Challenges (pages 263–274)

Yei-Whei Lin

 

Perceptions of Corporal Punishment among Creole and Maroon Professionals and Community Members in Suriname (pages 275–288)

Inger W. van der Kooij, Josta Nieuwendam, Gerben Moerman, Frits Boer, Ramón J. L. Lindauer, Jaipaul L. Roopnarine and Tobi L. G. Graafsma

 

Parents’ Self-Reported Use of Corporal Punishment and Other Humiliating Upbringing Practices in Finland and Sweden – A Comparative Study (pages 289–304)

Noora Ellonen, Steven Lucas, Ylva Tindberg and Staffan Janson

 

A Cross-Country Comparison of Child Welfare Systems and Workers’ Responses to Children Appearing to be at Risk or in Need of Help (pages 305–319)

Jill Berrick, Jonathan Dickens, Tarja Pösö and Marit Skivenes

 

 

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My mother was a verified miracle.

My mother was a verified miracle.

A poem for July by Clare Shaw, Poet in Residence for the BASPCAN 2018 International Child Protection Congress

 

My mother was church door where millions entered.
My mother was tower where four kestrels roosted –
my mother was hooded, she plunged and she hovered.
She flew at the speed of the wind, oh
my mother had wings and her voice was an organ,
she was seraph and cherub and throne and dominion.
My mother was bright with flame.

My mother was saint and my mother was martyr
and she was the light floating over the water.
My mother was whale and I rode safe inside her –
I was blessed and I came out clean
for my mother was sermon and she was the mountain
and she was the tree and the nails and the Roman
and her rafters were oak and her stone was all golden.

My mother said Let there be light
and she was the light. My mother was fruit
and we peopled the earth in her name
for my mother was sun and my mother was thunder.
My mother would get at the truth if it killed her –
she laid waste to the nations for me did my mother
and I could not run from her love

for my mother was choir, she was every bird singing
and she was the song and will not be forgotten.
My mother was angel, my mother was fallen.
She suffered the children and fed them on nothing.
My mother was bread
and my mother was broken
and she was the ark. She was darkness. The ocean.

 

To read more of Clare’s poems, to find out more about the congress and how you can participate, please take a look at the congress website:

BASPCAN Congress 2018

 

 

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Making an Impact: Child Abuse Review

2016 Journal Impact Factors

The 2016 journal Impact Factor results were released on Wednesday and we were really pleased to find that the Impact Factor for Child Abuse Review has increased from 0.941 to 1.543. This is fantastic news and it exceeds our strategic goal which was 1.2 by 2017.

2016 impact factors
The journal now ranks 19/43 in Family Studies and 9/42 in Social Work.

We are really proud of the progress we have been able to make with the journal. Ultimately, that comes down to the quality of the papers that are submitted, the hard work of the editorial and publishing teams, and the support of all our readers, reviewers, editorial board, and Diane our tireless manager.

 

Inspiring Research

Looking back over the past couple of years, we have been able to publish some extremely important research which is clearly having an impact, not just on journal metrics, but on policy and practice in the UK and around the world. Highlights for me have been

However there are so many more of relevance to academics and practitioners alike. Many of our papers are freely available online through our virtual issues, so do take a look at the journal website and be inspired!

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Child Protection

Child Protection

A poem by Clare Shaw for the 2018 BASPCAN child protection congress

Once, everything felt like threat.

Only my body

 

could keep yours alive.

We’d get up to check your breathing:

 

it was shallow and warm

on my cheek.

 

The whole world swam

in its tide.

 

I gazed into the dark

where no monsters were;

 

built fences to keep you

safe;

 

put the matches

up on the highest shelf.

 

I took on the wolf

with my own weak teeth

 

Never

will you not be my child,

 

would I not hold you,

wrap you in blankets of stars,

 

sweep stones from your path

so you won’t fall.

 

I will hold your hand by habit

on the road.

 

and you ask would I die for you –

a thousand times over

 

but the fences are growing smaller

and you should climb them.

 

I am giving you the matches.

Now make fire.

 

 

Clare Shaw, Poet in Residence

Clare Shaw photoClare Shaw is an educationalist and a writer. Her work is explicitly grounded in academic and professional knowledge, and also in her own experiences of self-injury and using mental health services. She is the author of “Otis Doesn’t Scratch (PCCS 2015); co-editor of “Our Encounters with Self-injury” (PCCS 2013); and has published numerous articles and book chapters.  Clare is also a Royal Literary Fellow at the University of Huddersfield. She is “one of Britain’s most dynamic and powerful young poets” (Arvon Foundation), and as such creativity and performance are an important element of her work.

 

Clare writes about her poetry:

“Part of the alchemy of poetry is not knowing what you’re going to write until it is written. I don’t have a road map for the poetry I’ll write over the coming year. Child protection, abuse and harm are huge topics to address; that’s why poetry is a perfect way to approach them. Once I started writing, I knew that I wanted to begin by deconstructing some of the language we’re all familiar with when we work in this field – by bringing it back to the ordinary and extraordinary experience of caring for a child”.

 

Thinking Outside the Box: BASPCAN Congress, 2018

Click here to find out more about the 2018 BASPCAN Congress

BASPCAN: For Child Protection Professionals
BASPCAN: For Child Protection Professionals