Making Decisions: Social work processes and the construction of risk(s) in child protection work

Author

Tony Stanley

Speaker

Tony Stanley

Organisation

University of Canterbury, Department of Social Work: Christchurch

Through the practices of assessment and consultation, information gathering and analysis social workers in the field of child protection build understandings about children and families. Social workers actively construct knowledge as they engage in assessments of children referred to them as potentially 'at risk'. Their work is always informed by explicit or implicit theories about risk and protection. The practices of socially constructing knowledge about 'risk' are reported in this paper, with the final section devoted to the wider implications for social work.

This research was based on an exploratory inquiry into the work of child protection in Aotearoa/ New Zealand, and took as its starting point narratives of social workers about specific cases. Through asking social workers to describe both straight forward and more complex assessments, I collected a rich and detailed range of practice narratives that provided accounts of how risk was defined, assessed and managed by social workers. This qualitative study employed a critical incident technique as a data collection method, and applied a grounded approach to the analysis of these practice stories. I am interested in how children are identified as potentially 'at risk', and how risk is worked with, managed and woven into the assessment work of social workers, as they engage in the practices of assessment in child protection social work. Importantly, I am interested in how research can inform practice, and I discuss the use of Critical Incident Technique as a method for both social work research and practice supervision.

The focus for the interviews was on the day to day work as experienced by social workers, that is, the practices of assessment in child protection. Probes were used to solicit further information when risk was discussed by the workers. This research also involved spending time in different branches of CYFS and informal conversation with social workers. Field notes made during these periods of immersion in different practice settings were also analysed to provide understandings of the contexts in which social workers engage in individual and collective knowledge production about children and risk.

Through the practice experiences of Maori, Pacific and Pakeha social workers this research makes an original contribution to knowledge because this is the first exploratory study to consider how New Zealand statutory social workers engage with and draw on risk discourses in their assessment work. The conclusions reached through this research are presented. Centrally, I found that the social workers in this research actively and strategically draw on risk discourses to legitimise decisions made.

Presentation

Paper

Biography

Tony Stanley is a doctoral student at the University of Canterbury, and part time lecturer at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT), where he teaches sociology for social work, social policy and social work research. He is researching how social workers constitute risk and the associated decision making in child protection. He has most recently worked with Child Youth and Family, based in Christchurch. He is a registered social worker and full member of the Aotearoa/ New Zealand Association of Social Workers. Tony has practised in the areas of child protection, mental health and HIV/ AIDS, in Australia and more recently Aotearoa/ New Zealand.