Family Support as Reflective Practice
| Pages | 80-84 |
| Published date | 01 December 2006 |
| Date | 01 December 2006 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466660200600035 |
| Author | Jill Madge |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
These statements, and others like them, provide a
highly concerning historical critique of social work
practice. Given the government’s attention to
adoption in recent years – the introduction of the
Adoption and Children Act 2002, performance
indicators, adoption standards and so forth – it is
tempting to suggest the situation has changed, but
has it? Would better practice have resulted in better
outcomes for the adopted children? Further research
is required to answer these and other important
questions raised by this study.
In the end, unsurprisingly, this book has not been
able to deliver on its own challenge. It was unable,
due to a lack of information, to identify costs beyond
those incurred by Social Services departments. It
would also be interesting to include the costs in
respect of birth parents as, in my experience, many of
these do not remain cost-neutral. However, this is not
to detract from an impressive example of scholarship,
which provides much-needed information on the
outcomes and costs of non-infant adoptions whilst
providing a critique of social work practice and a
challenge to social workers, family placement
officers, their managers and policy-makers.
Reviewed by: Hugh McLaughlin
Director of Social Work and Social Policy
University of Salford, UK
Book reviews
80 Journal of Children’s Services
Volume 1 Issue 4 December 2006
©Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
Family Support as Reflective Practice
Edited by Pat Dolan, John Canavan and John Pinkerton
London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006
303pp, £19.99 paperback
ISBN 1 843 10 320 6
Having spent the past two years teaching social
work at a university and, prior to that, seven years as
achildcareresearcher undertaking inter-agency
needs assessment and evaluation work, this book
was of great interest as it provides a bridge between
two connected but somewhat competing intellectual
territories – reflectivepractice and evaluation. It is
aimed, ambitiously,at ‘social workers, carestaff,
teachers, community development and police
officers, students, policy makers, evaluators and all of
those working in all areas of family support’,and, in
my view, it will succeed in being helpful and relevant
to this diverse readership.
An international cast of nearly 30 expert
contributors cover an impressive range of topics,
including using the school as a base for family
support, supporting families with disabled children
and developing an outcome evaluation framework.
Readers are invited to select chapters according to
their role and interests, although I would advise that
it is helpful to read Chapters 1 and 18 initially. In the
first of these, the editors articulate a challenging and
inspiring working definition of family support, arguing
that it is a style of work and a set of activities that
reinforces positive social networks, invariably takes
place in people’s homes and the community and
involves early intervention activity across a range of
levels of need. They also advance a set of practice
principles against which family support might be
evaluated, for example, that it should be needs-led,
strivefor the minimum intervention possible, adopt a
strengths-based perspective and involve service
users. In Chapter 18, John Canavan evaluates this
definition, arguing that it has core validity since the
diverse chapters – which were not selected to fit the
definition – reflect its elements.
Two further excellent chapters exemplify the
strengths of the definition and practice principles as
well as areas for further exploration. Robert Chaskin
(Chapter 3) focuses on the possibilities offered by
community capacity-building in recognition of the
impact on children’s well-being of factors such as
violence, poverty and social disconnection. He makes
the point that it is not enough to address
environmental factors (housing, employment, safety
etc.) but that, in addition, the organisational capacity
of provider agencies needs developing through
technical assistance, and stronger ‘social organisation’
requires concerted efforts to strengthen informal
networks. He draws mainly on US research but,
arguably, these lessons are equally relevant elsewhere.
John Pinkerton’s discussion of reframing practice
for adolescents leaving out-of-home care as family
support(Chapter 12) is located in the context of the
‘difficult relationship between state and family’
(p181). He suggests that unless there is greater clarity
about what family supportmeans in practice it will be
undermined as a policy goal. He goes on to show how
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