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Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Drawing on findings from a psycho-social qualitative doctoral study, this paper considers the intimate and extraordinary emotional intensity, ambivalence and pain associated with the experience of mother social workers engaging with mothers and their infants in the context of child protection work. In this yearlong study undertaken with a group of female Irish child protection social workers, their role as mothers was an unanticipated emergent theme and was found to be inextricably linked to their work and their capacity for realistic decision-making. We consider the wider contexts of societal ambivalence about motherhood, mothering and social work itself, as a way of locating these experiences as fully psycho-social. The work discussion seminars offered as part of the research study afforded a rare opportunity for workers to talk about predicaments, failures and worries, in conditions of containment for anxiety, support for their learning, and a confidential reflective setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial research evidence alludes to concerns, practical impediments, inefficiencies and injustices in Child Protection and Welfare (CPW) work with children with disabilities. Meanwhile, individualised perspectives and bio-medical discourses that have traditionally monopolised social work practice with disability are increasingly viewed as inadequate and reductive. In this context, particularly instrumental is the complexity and non-materiality that disability entails. As a cross-cutting intervention into these predicaments, this paper explores the practicalities of tentative links between CPW social work with children with disabilities, and the theoretical innovations of Critical Disability Studies (CDS), alluded to elsewhere. The proposition is, that three conditions of possibility may foster space for the effective integration of CDS conventions into CPW social work. These are instructive and refer respectively to: opening space for integration; application as an aid to reflective practice; and sensitising to nuanced and immaterial forces of disablement. The intention is, that abstract theory and non-materialist insights from CDS may be productively disruptive, and repurposed, for CPW students and practitioners seeking new ways to think through the present predicaments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst even minimal social work intervention entails judicious planning and strategic oversight, existing literature alludes to persistent concerns, inadequacies and challenges in safeguarding work with disabled children. In this context, critical commentary on the literature selects two influences on social work intervention for more in-depth consideration. The sustaining proposition of the paper is that barriers to optimum Child Protection and Welfare (CPW) social work intervention with disabled children in Ireland, are encountered at both structural and epistemological levels. On a structural level, it is proposed that social work intervention pathways must negotiate problematic and indistinct lines of demarcation between disability services and statutory CPW services. On an epistemological level, the utility of evidence-based and rights-based approaches for overcoming shortfalls in perceptions, attitudes and culture alluded to in current literature, is arguably substantial. Notwithstanding other impediments to effective practice such as time and resource constraints, the refined focus of analysis on these two aspects, pursues further detail within existing and limited knowledge on the subject matter. In concluding, to operationalise insights from the former review towards improving future practice, a conceptual framework derived from the Hardiker Model (1991) is applied to discuss lessons learned, moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits core family support messages for social work practice in working with children and families, linking to findings from high-profile child protection cases in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on a comparative study where these identified practice messages were explored through the lens of testimony of family support workers in the UK and Ireland, these core messages are examined. Operating with hard-to-engage children and parents, we hear how families and family support worker colleagues now view the core functions of child and family work across both jurisdictions (Ireland and England). The authors argue that by naming a more detailed set of practices that are deemed as most useful by families, based on the benefits and challenges of intensive family support work, key messages arise that have major resonance for social work and multiagency practice into the future. A basic message from this study is that valuable lessons on engagement and intervention with families can be drawn for professionals by examining the practice elements of this group of paraprofessionals in the child and family arena. This paper adds to debates on the role of support and intervention in social work and family support work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on UK data from an international, comparative project involving eight countries. The study examined how social workers' conceptions and definitions of family impact on the way they engage with complex families, and how social policies that frame social work context impact on the way social workers engage with families. Focus groups were held in which social workers from four service areas (child welfare, addictions, mental health and migration) were asked to discuss a case vignette. Several factors were embedded in the vignette to represent a realistic situation a social worker may come across in their day-to-day work. Social workers clearly identified the complexity of the family's situation in terms of the range of issues identified and candidate 'causes'. However, typical first responses were institutional, looking for triggers that would signify certainty about their, or other agencies' involvement. This resulted in a complicated story, through which the family was disaggregated into individual problem-service categories. This paper argues that understanding these processes and their consequences is critical for exploring the ways in which we might develop alternative, supportive professional responses with families with complex needs. It also demonstrates how organisational systems manifest themselves in everyday reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professionals working with families in difficulty require a structured space to consider their work. As organisations and the systems within and across them become more sophisticated it seems that less attention is being paid to the emotional and psychological aspects of working with families than to the paperwork and processes that surround the work. Systems psychodynamic theory and the methodical reflective practices it underpins offers a suitable framework in which to consider practicing and researching in this emotionally complex field. This paper describes one aspect of a small doctoral study designed to provide a sustained reflective space (Work Discussion Group) to Irish child protection social workers in order to closely explore the reality of their practice experience. This paper explores one worker's experience of bringing a written account of her work with a family to the WDG. Findings suggest that her work was undertaken in a climate concerned with efficiency, certainty and the reduction of risk. This climate evoked anxiety and reduced opportunities for reflective and considered practice. The work discussion group provided containment for this worker's anxiety and allowed her to make sense of this anxiety and its accompanying defences and to move closer to working with this family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The topic of institutionalisation and child welfare in Ireland has garnered increasing national and international public and scholarly attention over the past twenty years. This is not an Irish phenomenon. Governments internationally have utilised commissions to investigate a range of historical abuses against children and young adults, many in an institutional setting (see Age of Inquiry, ). One of the most recent shocking historical revelations opens the paper – the discovery of the burial of 796 children in a septic tank in a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway (). Following this, the historical approach – a history of the present – is explained. A number of questions about the past use of institutions in Ireland are posed to help illuminate the importance of this issue to the present day. We consider the nature of institutionalisation and the development of law and policy prior to and after the Second World War. Our questions lead us to a discussion of three themes: the role of economics; parentage and gender; and the relationship between the State and the Church. We conclude with a commentary on why such interrogation of institutional care is important in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical commentary on researching social work in transition to make the case for why history is important at crucial moments of change. The present transition of child protection and welfare practice from a Health Services Executive Structure to an Independent Child and Family Agency (Tusla) is focused on for illustration. This development signifies a major transition of services within the country influenced by a number of factors, most notably a number of high profile cases of child abuse within institutions in the past and child deaths/neglect cases in the present. In particular, a discourse of prevention, early intervention and the promotion of children's rights are most dominant in light of a quest to purge the mistakes of the past. Supported by a history of the present approach, the author argues that while the existence of a ‘discursive shift’ typified by the establishment of an independent agency is arguably conclusive, the evidence of changes in practice, culture and underpinning analytical approaches is much more vague and complex. The paper concludes with reflections on implications for a wider European and global context and a call for the need for more critically informed approaches to history to inform present transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports on the outcomes of a research study on the early implementation of a strengths-based family-centred model of practice in Ireland known as the Meitheal model. The paper aims to translate the key messages from this research to practice with families involved in the child welfare system. This is done by highlighting the process by which intervention focused on support and prevention using a strengths perspective has begun to occur in practice. Using data collected from stakeholders involved in the implementation of the practice model, the research provides insight into the opportunities and challenges involved at macro and micro-levels of practice. The discussion links this development in Ireland to the wider international context, using three broad frameworks informed by the ecological model; a framework for determining thresholds in children’s services and the continuum of intervention between support and protection to inform system change aimed at enhancing family support and better outcomes for children and families. Underpinning this is an emphasis on how Meitheal as a strengths-based approach can influence the achievement of the principles of early intervention, prevention and family support in the child welfare system in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: This paper reports on a research study to inform the development of a specialist role to support front line public health nurses (PHNs) working with vulnerable families and at risk children in Ireland. Aims: This study aimed to investigate the position of a leading role and explore the implications of such change. Methods: Focus group and semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with ten purposively selected participants in public health nursing, social work and a nongovernmental children's organisation working in disadvantaged areas in Dublin. Results: Assistant directors of public health nursing are in a key position to inform decisions regarding the children's services. Conclusion: Access to support and appropriate supervision are fundamental resource requirements for PHNs who work with vulnerable families and at risk children. The introduction of a specialist-leading role to support these PHN's is essential to sustaining best practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the topic of child protection in Irish primary schools, and reports on a recently completed survey of newly qualified teachers' knowledge of and familiarity with their school's child protection policies and procedures. The study was undertaken by means of a questionnaire survey, and conducted with 103 teachers from different schools. The child protection roles and responsibilities of schools are clearly spelt out in national guidelines. However, the findings from this research indicate that compliance with the requirement to inform new staff about the guidelines and ensure that they have read them is weak. This is evidenced by the data concerning the teachers' reported knowledge of, and familiarity with, their school's child protection policies. Half of the respondents did not know if their school had a child protection policy or not. Of those who were aware of their school's child protection policy, only just over half had read it. Well under half of the respondents knew if there was a Designated Liaison Person (DLP) with responsibility for child protection in their school. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of respondents reported uncertainty or lack of confidence in being able to identify suspected child abuse. The paper draws on international research on child protection in education to provide the context for a discussion on the factors that influence schools' motivation and willingness to collaborate as key protectors of children's safety and welfare, and makes recommendations for policy makers, school managers and frontline staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an exposition of Michel Foucault's 'history of the present' in order to make the case for its relevance to the study of social work history. It sets out the general principles underpinning this practice and considers its application to a particular research question relating to history of child welfare and protection social work in the Republic of Ireland. The paper seeks to highlight the challenges involved in its use and illuminate its potential value as an approach for researching the history of social work. It is concluded that this exposition offers one appropriate approach that could be employed within the growing field of social work history research across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disabled children experience increased risk of abuse and neglect. Concurrently, serious concerns and practical impediments persist regarding the capacity of statutory child protection and welfare services to respond adequately to their needs. Specifically, the focus in this article is on the assessment stage of the social work process within child protection and welfare teams in the Republic of Ireland. Within this, critical commentary on the literature in this article sets out barriers to professional assessment. These include those associated with interviewing children with cognitive and linguistic impairments, negotiating resource constraints, and overcoming knowledge impediments. Following a thematic overview of literature, theoretical vantage points associated with ableism and derived from the broad field of disability studies, informs concluding analysis with focus on lessons learned for future practice. The proposition is, that theoretical perspectives associated with ableism may aid practitioners in seeking to overcome knowledge, attitudinal and social equality barriers to effective child protection, that existing literature alludes to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a comparison between child welfare and protection social work in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland by considering some key aspects of its historical development. It is argued that social work must always be understood within its specific genealogical context that provides the profession with legitimacy and space to operate. In relation to Northern Ireland, the particular way in which child welfare and social work developed over the thirty years of the 'Troubles' is considered. Similarities and differences between social work in Ireland and the rest of the UK are also presented. For the Republic of Ireland, the way in which the profession struggled to gain legitimacy and recognition within a medically dominated health board system is explored. The impact of a number of inquiries over the 1990's is also addressed. In addition to recognising the differences between social work in both jurisdictions, possibilities for recognising 'dimensions of commonality' are also considered (McDonald, et al ., 1993). The shared challenges to social work on both sides of the border at micro, mezzo and macro levels are explored. The paper concludes with some suggestions as to how we can take forward our dimensions of commonality at a time of reform and expansion of social work education in both jurisdictions. It is argued that attention must be paid, not only to our genealogical context, but also to our own archaeological construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a research project that was developed between a cohort of child protection social workers in the Republic of Ireland and the authors. The focus of the research was on researching participants’ experiences of developing peer support groups (PSGs) in child protection social work. Eleven participants formed two PSGs; one group had six participants, the other had five. This qualitative research study involved focus groups with each of the peer groups at the beginning, middle and end of the 12-month period. Data from the focus groups were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).Findings from the research indicate that the organic development of a PSG involves negotiating a range of practicalities which, working together, help to promote reflective practice and to advance the development of the professional self. A number of important and interconnected subthemes emerged within the texts of the focus groups. These included: the establishment of PSGs as a work activity; consideration of logistical matters in forming PSGs; identification of the influence of group dynamics in structuring and negotiating PSGs; PSGs as a conduit for integrating personal and professional values and as a context for facilitating and enabling an increased consciousness of self in practice. Drawing on these findings, the authors consider the implications for integrating PSGs within child protection agency services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is a reflective exploration of the emotional encounter between social workers and Irish Travellers in child safeguarding cases in the UK, the unconscious defences that may be triggered for social workers, unfamiliar with Travellers, and how these can impact on the relationship and outcomes. It raises concern about how pervasive societal disapproval towards Travellers may be absorbed by social workers, at the expense of a curiosity about historic marginalisation, the contemporary cultural and social context and a recognition of the strengths of the community. Drawing on psychoanalytical insights into ‘race’, it comprises a literature review which highlights themes of marginalisation in research on Irish Travellers in the UK. It also includes a narrative interview with a Traveller woman who reflects on the fear that social workers invoke in Travellers, and sets up the key question: what might the emotional state of the social worker be in this scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Disclosure of childhood sexual abuse is a process that is often laden with boundary testing, decision-making and, at times, risk. Disclosures tend to be delayed, often into adulthood and later life, with disclosures to authorities remaining relatively low. In the Republic of Ireland adults who disclose experiences of childhood sexual abuse are directed towards child protection services due to an interplay between jurisprudence, child protection policy design, and mandatory reporting obligations, requiring social work practitioners to balance the social and the legal. This article compares Foucault's concept of the confessional to current social work practices of engaging with adult victims and survivors of abuse. It is argued that thinking about these interactions as a confessional-like system highlights a process of knowledge creation that is taking place when a personal narrative of abuse is shared, willingly or via mandated reporting, with a child protection agency under the auspices of a modern state. This 'confessional-lens' helps us identify a tipping of the balance in this area of social work practice, away from provision of care and person-centredness, across a boundary, to legalistic practice. Narratives of childhood abuse are transformed into knowledge deemed necessary to assess current risk to children. A process that places the adult on the periphery, leading to a potential for harm and re-traumatisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the role of youth workers' confidence in Meitheal: an Irish model of prevention and early intervention in child welfare. This study had an exploratory mixed methods design. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with youth workers to analyse their knowledge of prevention, early intervention, Meitheal and partnerships in child welfare. These were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Additionally, youth workers completed a questionnaire to explore the levels of confidence in their role. Due to the small sample only descriptive and non-parametric statistics were used to analyse the data obtained. Youth workers see support and advocacy of young people as their primary role in Meitheal, despite this, participants described explaining what they do with other child welfare agencies as a challenge which was understood as a possible insecurity on the part of youth workers, alongside a presumption that their role and profession is not understood. Overall, this study found the need for youth workers to be more confident when engaging in Meitheal to facilitate their role and ensure that young people and their families are appropriately supported by the discipline of Youth Work specifically but also as part of the overall Meitheal model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of child welfare in Ireland and other western countries, the period during the First World War coincided with a time of international attention on poor and working-class families and children. As this occurred at a time of 'revolution' as well as a time of war, the efforts of voluntary and state services were often driven by a variety of motives, including genuine concern for poor mothers and children, sectarianism, class bias and international child welfare developments. This article addresses the extent to which the lives of working-class and poor mothers in Ireland were affected by the war--primarily through concern expressed by child protection agencies (such as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), directly connecting the history of child welfare with the history of motherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the turn of the twentieth century, the infant mortality rate in Dublin city was higher than that of London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Political concerns about the health of nations coupled with the work of child protection campaigners gave rise to a sense of panic across the Anglophone world and caused an increase in the surveillance of the body of the child. While a combination of poor sanitation and inadequate feeding could account for the majority of deaths, single motherhood and the fringes of childcare were treated as flashpoints by local authorities, police and philanthropists, as well as religious, medical and legal personnel alike. Sensationalised newspaper reports played a crucial part in raising public awareness about the infant crisis, and it is for such reasons that this article focuses on the extraordinary case of Mrs Sarah T., who was accused of what was colloquially known as 'baby-farming' in Dublin in 1905. The case is used as a prism to examine how the infant life protection campaign contributed to the shaping of 'medico-legal literacy' in Ireland. The article focuses on post neonatal infants, aged over one month, to question the degree to which lower socio-economic circumstances precipitated excess mortality or if Church/State encroachment on family life and parental rights exposed already vulnerable infants to more pernicious risks associated with micro-epidemics, particularly in relation to tuberculosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the process of dealing with historic child abuse in the Republic of Ireland. The addressing of many decades of hidden abuse within residential child care has been a traumatic experience for both survivors and for Ireland as a whole since the late 1990s. The article analyses the process that was adopted, namely the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. It does so in order to explore the complexities of using a commission to deal with such abuse. It also seeks to locate the different objectives of the Commission within the wider context of abuse inquiries undertaken in other countries. In doing so, it provides an account of the Irish process that will hopefully be of use, not only for those concerned with the Irish case, but also for those dealing with similar elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a very personal series of reflections on the current debate on risk and accountability in child protection and child and youth care as the former strives to come out of a period of volunteerism and professionalize itself (McElwee, 1998; Share & McElwee, 2005). Irish culture has grown more individualist as has the work environment. An on-going theme is that of accountability, which has emerged in child and youth care throughout the Western world (Causon, 1997; Kendrick, 1997). Whether it be accountability in terms of fiscal management, specific populations served (Charles, 2001 ; Maier, 2001), treatment outcomes (Waterhouse, 2000), or even accountability in terms of direct practice actions (Garfat & McElwee, 2004; Parton et al., 1997), the "age of accountability" or "risk society" has certainly descended upon us. The relationship between the risk culture, actual cases of malpractice, the scapegoating Culture, the collective sense of non-responsibility, and media sensationalism is becoming more dominant and complex (Fewster, 2002; Mitchell, 1999). In the middle of it all are the families in distress and youth at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article sets out a policy agenda for safeguarding children on a cross-border basis developed by Barnardos Northern Ireland, Barnardos Ireland, the Irish society for the prevention of Cruelty to children (ISPCC) and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). The agenda was presented at a major conference organised by the four organisations in Dundalk in September 2002 entitled 'Protecting children on the Island of Ireland'. The article sets the conference theme in a wider context and draws on the conference speeches and workshops to develop the argument for the importance of cross-border co-operation in the four key areas of child protection, vetting, management of sex offenders and improved structural arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]