Making Child Protection Work - by Harry Ferguson

Book Synopsis

Despite its huge public profile, surprisingly little is known about child protection work. Discussion focuses on failures that result in children dying, or on what social workers cannot do, due to bureaucratic pressures and limited time. This book examines in detail how social workers can use the time they do have to relate to children and families, make child protection work and create meaningful change.

Featuring:

- Detailed examination of real-world child protection work and family experiences based on original research;

- A new vocabulary for understanding and improving social work and relationship-based practice;

- New insights into how to provide effective staff support and supervision;

- Original integration of psychoanalytic and sociological perspectives; and

- Practical tools for navigating challenges such as working with infants and managing hostile relationships.

Sure to become a classic social work text, this book explores how helpful relationships are made and sustained, and how they can be made better. It provides a new 'forward-facing' approach, with practical and theoretical insights into how, and under what organisational conditions, relationship-based practice and child protection can be made to work.

Review Quotes

"A beautifully vivid, research-informed account of child protection practice, offering social workers guidance through the emotional, sensory and relational dilemmas of their everyday work with children and families." Laura L. Cook, University of East Anglia.

"The importance of relationships in promoting positive and effective child protection is central to this excellent book. Informed by practice wisdom and underpinned by a lifetime of research, this is an excellent resource for both newly qualified and experienced professionals." John Devaney, University of Edinburgh

"No one captures the soul and texture of child protection like Harry Ferguson. This landmark book feels, sees and hears the work - illuminating its intimacy, complexity and ethical depth. Deeply human and utterly essential." Richard Devine, social worker and author of Messy Social Work

"This book is a remarkable feat and a gift to the profession - I was engrossed from the start; where else can a practitioner learn from hundreds - nay, thousands - of hours of observations, interviews and interactions with children, families and social workers in one sitting? Ferguson so skilfully humanises not only the people that social workers serve but social workers themselves, exploring strategies to work with, not against, vulnerability and complexity but also strength. One of its most groundbreaking contributions is through the exploration of the use of the embodied self in practice - something often entirely missing in social work education. This holistic approach draws out practice wisdom from head, heart and felt knowledge, bringing social work to life through the five senses. Read and be transformed." Rebekah Pierre, author and social work campaigner

"A rich, insightful exploration of the realities of child protection - messy, complex, but always centred on children and relationships. Essential reading for students and practitioners alike." David Wilkins, Cardiff University

About the Author