Insights

The focus of this Insight is pre-birth child protection assessment and care planning, and more specifically, the lead social work role within this work.

History and evidence around relationship-based practice in social work.

Electronic monitoring (EM) is a generic term that encompasses a number of monitoring technologies and approaches. It can be used with different people for diverse purposes in youth justice and adult criminal justice systems (Nellis, Beyens and Kampinski, 2013). For the last 30 years, numerous western countries have predominantly used EM to monitor adult offenders’ compliance with curfews and other restrictions.

The value of participation by service users in shaping and improving practice and services is well recognised in much existing guidance and practice, but less so in relation to contact with families of children referred on child protection grounds.

How we think about and understand fathering has changed. Active ‘fathering’ is now an accepted role for men at home and fathers are visible outside the school gates, in parks and playgrounds and in the streets and shopping centres. Fathers’ involvement in child care increased from less than 15 minutes a day in the mid-1970s to three hours a day during the week by the late 1990s, with more at the weekend. This trend of increasing involvement has continued…

Families where one or both parents have a learning disability can often have very complex needs as a result of a range of issues including poverty, discrimination, depression, poor self-esteem, and unemployment. These families are often over-represented in care proceedings due to a perception that the parent(s) do not possess the skills and knowledge necessary to parent effectively rather than them being purposefully neglectful or abusive.

Examines how women’s narratives of their experience of domestic abuse and social work intervention in cases of child protection could inform practice in Scotland.

Gypsy Travellers have an important place in modern day Scotland with a heritage and culture that should be celebrated and valued. The fact that they are often not, points to deep seated prejudices that should be positively challenged.

This insight presents what research tells us about social workers’ communication with children and young people in everyday practice. It also introduces key findings from a UK-wide study of social workers’ communication with children and young people.

Appreciative inquiry is an action research approach that offers a powerful contribution to meeting the appetite for real change that is evident across public services in Scotland.