Positive Child Protection - Softcover

This work argues that in spite of the 1989 Children Act, child protection social work in England is still characterized by high professional anxiety, political ambiugity and a feeling of "stuckness". As a result of confusing relationships among the law, the citizen, social work and the state, and also the government's ambilavence toward social intervention in families, the authors contend that: social work has been bureaucratized; social workers have been pilloried in the press and castigated by government; and that vulnerable children are no safer, while the log-jam of unallocated child protection cases has not diminished. This study examines the English child protection system through European eyes, offering a range of alternatives to the impasse which currently afflicts it. It aims to answer questions left hanging by previous analysis, such as: which system best promotes partnership with parents?, which one offers most support to social workers?, and how can relationships between social workers and judges/magistrates be improved?