Child Care in Practice 9/1

ISSN 1357-5279
VOLUME 9 NUMBER 1
JANUARY 2003

On this page you can view the full text of the Foreword

Contents

Foreword
Anne Morrison 3

Research
Social problem-solving skills training: does it really work?
Rebecca P. Ang 5

Abstract: The impact of a Social Problem-Solving Skills Training (SPSST) program was investigated with a sample of 105 juvenile offenders. The juvenile were assigned to the SPSST intervention condition (n=58) or the wait-list control condition (n=47). The mean age of the juveniles in the intervention condition was 14.71 years (standard deviation = 0.96) and the mean age of the juvenile in the SPSST intervention condition was 14.50 years (standard deviation = 1.28). As expected, juveniles in the SPSST intervention condition improved significantly on their aggressive behaviour from pre-intervention to post-intervention compared with juveniles in the control condition. Findings will be discussed in the light of future research, and limitations of the study will be presented.

Child protection work and family support practice in five family centres
Trevor Spratt 8

Abstract: Academic interest in the work of family centres in the United Kingdom has largely been concerned with categorising the work of such centres in terms of issues of childcare ideology, working practices and degree of service user control. Meanwhile, the re-focusing of child protection services in order to develop child welfare services has largely dominated childcare social work in recent years, with scant attention paid to the role of family centres in relation to this debate. This study is concerned with examining the perspectives of staff and service users in five ‘client focused’ family centres in Northern Ireland in relation to how child protection issues are understood and dealt with. It was found that staff enter into negotiations with both referrers and service users to conceptually reframe child protection work as family support practice. This leads to the development of partnership relationships between staff and service users based upon mutual high regard. The work of such centres leaves them well placed to provide integrated services to children-in-need in line with current government priorities, but could leave some children vulnerable where child protection issues are not amenable to conceptual refraining along family support lines.

Practice
Child protection conferences: A framework for Chairperson preparation
Martin C. Calder 32

Abstract: The transition to becoming a chairperson of child protection conferences can be a scary and lonely experience. This is alarming since we know that the chairperson is crucial to good outcomes for children. The roles and responsibilities of the chairperson are many and onerous, yet there is no agreed or ‘correct’ way to chair a child protection conference. Neither is there a correct formula or checklist. What is known, however, is that chairing any meeting involves a number of interpersonal skills and complex group dynamics, and each chairperson will develop a personal approach to the task. If they are forced to repeat a script prepared by someone else, a chairperson will feel awkward and constrained and an uneasy atmosphere can quickly inhibit the contributions of other members of the conference. There are, however, some useful ‘tricks of the trade’ that can be passed an to alert chairpersons to sonic of the important and common issues that allow them to consider how you may deal with them before being faced with difficulties in the middle of an emotionally charged child protection conference. This paper provides an overview on some of the steps needed to help chairpersons address their tasks effectively.

Conferences
Identifying and dealing with emotional abuse and neglect
Dorota Iwaniec 32

Abstract: This paper provides a complete account of the author's key note address at the school of Social Work Conference ' From the Margins to the Centre', 17 January 2003. This includes discussion around the difficulties of defining emotional neglect manifests itself on a short-term and long-term basis, and how it can be identified. The presentation also briefly explores how emotional abuse affects child growth, development, welfare and well-being, and goes on to outline the different methods of intervention and treatment relevant to practitioners and managers.

The importance of stability in the lives of looked after children: A study of under-fives in Northern Ireland
Marina Monteith & Wendy Cousins 62

Abstract: This paper is based on a presentation made at the conference 'From the Margins to the Centre: Innovations in Social Work Research in Northern Ireland', 17th January 2003. The paper explores the concept of stability and its relevance to the lives of younger children who are looked after and reviews recent child care policy initiatives in relation to this. The paper also presents data from the early stages of longitudinal research project currently being carried out by the Institution of Child Care Research, examining the extent of stability in the care careers of younger looked after children (younger than 5 years) in Northern Ireland. These children come from extremely adverse family circumstances and the paper explores issues of care planning and the extent to which stability has been achieved to date at this early stage in their care careers.

Emerging patterns in adolescent drug use: The Belfast Youth Development Study 2000-2002
Patrick Mc Crystal, Kathy Higgins, Andrew Percy & Maeve Thorton 73

Abstract: This paper reports the findings from the first 2 years of the Belfast Youth Development Study. The Belfast Youth Development Study is a 5-year longitudinal investigation of the onset and development of adolescent drug using behaviours, the findings of the first 2 years from the study in relation to drug use patterns among the young people participating in the research are reported here. The findings show that while the majority of young people have not yet used an illicit substance, the study has seen a substantial increase in the number of girls using illicit drugs and more generally, an increase in the frequency of use among all those using such substances during this period.

Policy update
Update on progress in the development of children's commissioners across the UK
Elaine McElduff, Frank Roper, Nell Warner & Donald Mac Iver 84

Research update
Young people in care highlight problems in education
The LACE project 90

BOOK REVIEW
Gypsies, tramps and thieves, traveller children. A voice for themselves
Cathy Kiddle (reviewed by Calum MacLeod) 92CCiP, Vol. 9 No.1 January, 2003

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Foreword

ANNE MORRISON

At Child Care in Practice we are constantly striving to ensure the Journal reaches as wide an audience as possible, both in terms of readership and submission of papers and in this edition we have a very welcome research article from Singapore from Rebecca Ang. One of the main concerns of professionals working with children and adolescents within the Criminal Justice System must be the effectiveness of any intervention programme in preventing the development of patterns of criminal or aggressive behaviour into adulthood. Rebecca Ang’s paper explored the impact of social problem-solving skills training (SPSST) with a sample of juvenile offenders. The main aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that the juvenile offenders who participated in the SPSST group intervention would exhibit less aggression than those offenders in the control group who were not subject to this intervention. Ang’s findings indicated that the various social problem-solving skills taught in the group-based intervention programme were effective in reducing the overall level of aggressiveness as well as indirect aggression in the participants. A further aspect of the study was extending previous research in the area of skills training for aggressive children and youth by evaluating the programme within a Singapore context. Ang noted a number of limitations of the study and advocated longterm follow-up to assess whether the gains evident were maintained. She argued that it was imperative for those concerned with the instigation of policies and services for juvenile offenders that any such services are based on empirically sound evaluation studies which then allow culturally appropriate services and programmes to be developed in order to ensure more effective interventions.

The ongoing debate of child protection services vis a vis child welfare services which has dominated child care social work in recent years is highlighted in the second research paper of this edition from Trevor Spratt. This research looks at an area seldom the subject of research studies, that is the role of family centres in relation to the child protection! child welfare debate. This study is based on an examination of the perspectives of family centre staff and service users in 5 client focused family centres and examined the understanding of both these groups of child protection issues and how such issues are dealt with. Spratt found that a subtle shift of emphasis occurred in the 5 family centres whereby those families who had been officially designated by fieldwork services as child protection were becoming subject to secondary definition by family centre workers as being in need of family support services. While recognising child protection risks in the course of their work with families and accepting that part of their centre’s remit was to reduce future risk, Spratt argues this re-framing allowed family centre workers to search for family strengths as opposed to weaknesses. This led to the development of partnership relationships between staff and service users based on mutual high regard and laid the basis for the development of relationships between staff and families based on honesty, openness and trust. Spratt argued that by doing so child protection risks are assuaged as a secondary product of family support work and aspirations to partnership work with families become more real. The author noted at the conclusion of the study that re-conceptualising child protection work as family support practice needs to be made more explicit in both contract and referral negotiations, leaving less room for ambiguities of interpretation in cases where child protection risks were not amenable to redress through the provision of family support.

Martin Calder is a regular contributor to Child Care in Practice and the Journal has carried a number of timely and informative articles by him. The next article is no exception and looks at a framework for chairperson preparation in child protection case conferences. The role of chairperson is a crucial one in planning for children’s futures and those who have fulfilled this role are well aware of the lack of training or preparation in taking on this task. While acknowledging that there is no correct formula or checklist to chair case conferences most effectively, this paper proposes that there are a number of important and common issues that chairpersons need to consider prior to undertaking a conference to enable them to operate on a more effective basis. Martin Calder identifies a number of group processes which occur in most group settings and offers strategies that might allow a chairperson to manage issues that arise within case conferences.

In January 2003, the School of Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast hosted the conference ‘From the Margins to the Centre: Innovations in Social Work Research in Northern Ireland’ This edition of the journal carries 3 papers presented at this conference, the first from Professor Dorota Iwaniec looking at identifying and dealing with emotional abuse and neglect, a subject on which she has published widely. This paper was her keynote address at the conference and it looks at some of the difficulties of defining emotional neglect and how emotional abuse and neglect can manifest itself on a short and a long term basis. Professor Iwaniec goes on to explore how emotional abuse effects child growth, development, welfare and well-being and outlines different methods of intervention and treatment relevant to practitioners and managers. The second paper from the conference is from Marina Monteith and Wendy Cousins who explore the concept of stability and its relevance to the lives of younger looked after children together with a review of recent child care policy initiatives in relation to this. This article presents preliminary data from a 4 year longitudinal study carried out by the authors at the Institute of Child Care Research, Queen’s University Belfast, examining the extent of stability in the care careers of younger looked after children (under fives). The research investigates the extent to which multiple placements occur and explores issues of care planning. The authors argue that stability is not only about achieving stable placements but about providing continuity for a child in family and social relationships, education and health and social care.

The third paper from this conference comes from Patrick McCrystal, Cathy Higgins, Andrew Percy and Maeve Thornton and presents the findings from the first two years of the Belfast Youth Developmental Study. The study is a 5 year longitudinal investigation of the onset and development of adolescent drug using behaviours. The authors found that the first two years of the study saw an increase in the use of a range of both licit and illicit substances, with a clear trend of increased frequency of use of illicit substances in the second year of the study. The first year showed a gender differential in that boys made up the majority of drug users in this period but by year two the study found a substantial increase in the number of girls using illicit drugs.

We have a research update from the L.A.C.E. (Looked After Children in Education) Project who presented a paper at the Conference on Physical Punishment of Children which was published in Volume 8 No 1. This update highlights some of the research findings from a research project entitled ‘Branded a Problem’ which set out to examine why some young people in care achieve good results and enjoy school while others underachieve.

The Four Nations Child Policy Network provide a very useful update on the progress in the development of children’s commissioners across the U.K.

This volume concludes with a Book Review from Calum McLeod which explores the complex issues surrounding the education of traveller children in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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