How and why children become invisible in child protection work: Insights from ethnographic research into social work practice
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This document summarizes research into how children can become invisible in child protection work. The researcher observed 87 home visits by social workers. In most cases, the social workers paid some attention to the children, but in a minority of cases, the practice lost sight of the children. The researcher identified organizational pressures like limited time and targets that can lead to superficial practice. Emotional defenses and sensory overload can also cause social workers to lose focus on the children. The researcher concludes that for children to remain visible, social workers need meaningful engagement and intimate practice, which requires enough time, knowledge, personal skills, and organizational support.
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How and why children become invisible in child protection work: Insights from ethnographic research into social work practice
- 1. How and why children become invisible in child protection work: Insights from ethnographic research into social work practice Professor Harry Ferguson University of Nottingham @harr_ferguson BASPCAN, 14th April 2015
- 2. ‘Invisible children’ • ‘At times, Daniel appeared to have been “invisible” as a needy child …’ • “But if professionals had used more enquiring minds, and been more focused in their intentions to address concerns, it’s likely that Daniel would have been better protected from the people who killed him.” (Daniel Pelka Serious Case Review, 2013)
- 3. Day to Day Practice • What happens in day to day social work? • What goes on in SWs’ minds, bodies, lived experience? • Do children become invisible? • What does child-centred practice look like? • Beyond individualised explanations • Psycho-dynamic and systemic theory.
- 4. Researching Child Protection Practice • Research needed to get as close as possible to practice • Shadowed practitioners on home visits, in the car, in schools • Observed & recorded their encounters with service users • Only when consent given by all parties.
- 5. • In most of the 87 cases observed the workers gave at least some attention to the children. • In a minority the practice lost sight of the children.
- 6. Degrees of (in)visibility • Some workers knew when they hadn’t done what they felt they should • Some acknowledged that it was difficult, messy & that their practice was not rigorous & was unfinished • Some did not know what they did not do – full invisibility.
- 8. The process of invisibility • Organisational: Limited time / targets – Systemic pressures towards superficial practice • Lived experience: Emotional defences – against parental anger, atmospheres of menace, distraction of ‘friends’, dogs, children’s suffering.
- 9. • Workers flooded / overcome by anxiety • Sensory overload • Limited organisational help to make sense of experience • Without talk, reflection on feelings, children stay out of mind, ‘unthought’ about • The child remains invisible …
- 10. Making children visible • A child who is “seen” with the eyes – from a distance - can still be invisible • “Visibility” = meaningful engagement, ‘intimate practice’ (Ferguson, 2011).
- 11. Enablers of good practice • Organisational – do need enough time to develop relationships • Knowledge – enough theory, skill • Personal – worker’s own style • Personal – bearing of suffering • Organisational – quality support, emotional containment, CPD.
- 12. Ferguson, H. (2014), What social workers do in performing child protection work: evidence from research into face-to-face practice, Child and Family Social Work, published on Early View, doi:10.1111/cfs.12142. Twitter: @harr_ferguson
Editor's Notes
- 40 years of child death reports Professionals not getting close enough to children to identify harm when in their presence.
- Quality of some of the practice debateable, but some attention to child
- Would be easy to blame them and hang it all on poor practitioners. But we need to view it in terms of a process of invisibility – interaction of organisational and lived experience In terms of the shaping of social work, the office and organisation are just one aspect of a more total process that I call the Practice Cycle. Practice in each case is a product of the interaction of several variables: Time available, role definition, help with planning How worker uses journey to home to prepare Emotional impact of streets, dogs, strangers Degrees of parental co-operation, resistance Atmosphere in & state of the home Impact of friends & other potential distractions Service User’s capacities & preparedness to relate The quality of de-brief, support & challenge on return to the office. And at the heart of all this, the constant through it all is the particular self of the social worker. Different patterns of practice emerge out of the interactions between these variables and processes.
- Would be easy to blame them and hang it all on poor practitioners. But we need to view it in terms of a process of invisibility – interaction of organisational and lived experience Worker had spent from 8.30 til 3pm on the duty desk. The Team manager was very pessimistic and cynical about the mother, saying that on past evidence she was likely not even to be there. So the worker was not launched into it with any vigour. On the journey she was very preoccupied with talking about how hard it is to find time to even read the referral before you leave the office. Even with me asking her questions on the way about her approach she didn’t seem to use the journey to calm herself and get out of her duty head. Systemic pressure to get back to the office - In general small amounts of time spent with children, on individual interviews Shortest 2 mins; norm 5-15 minutes Some children become invisible because of the limited time practitioners have to make any children they see ‘visible.’ Stepped into a hostile tense atmosphere. The mother’s ‘simmering’ anger got into her and pushed her already defended self even further in. The effect was that the social worker emotionally disassociated from the people in the home, especially the children. She did not – or could not – think about them clearly or hold them in mind. Adopted an avoidant defensive strategy. Was emotionally and intuitively absent.
- The quality of close up engagement is crucial.