Socil Work Ethicl Dilemms - Essay Example

Socil work ethicl dilemms Public inquiries into child buse re held when society is seriously worried bout the wy professionls hndled prticulr cses. Their purpose is to nlyse wht went wrong (if nything) nd to identify lessons to prevent recurrence. Unfortuntely, public concern is bised. Child welfre services hve brod remit, rnging from supporting fmilies who re struggling to cre dequtely for their children, to protecting children from highly dngerous prents. Public interest is roused only by certin types of dverse outcomes, predominntly deths nd, occsionlly, the removl of children from their prents on wht seems insubstntil grounds. Gps in other res of service, such s filure to provide dequte preventive nd supportive services, get less public scrutiny. They led to less extreme dverse results nd these outcomes hve less cler-cut cusl connection to professionl ctions or omissions. They re concern to professionls nd, intermittently, to politicins but less so to contemporry British society in generl where prenting is seen s primrily privte rther thn socil responsibility. s result of this bised interest, the impct of inquiries hs been to prioritise the child protective functions ginst bckdrop of professionls struggling, with vrying degrees of success, to continue to meet the broder remit of child welfre. One might hve expected the impct of inquiries to hve lessened since 1991 when the strem of inquiries becme trickle s result of the new Working Together guidnce which introduced privte Prt 8 inquiries to be conducted by locl gencies, only few of which hve been deemed by the Deprtment of Helth to require further, public, scrutiny (Deprtment of Helth 1991:57). This, I shll rgue, is not the cse. lthough there ws only one inquiry yer between 1993 nd 1997, followed by silence for five yers, the thret of public inquiry hs remined mjor influence on professionl ction, encourging defensive style of work nd hmpering ttempts by policy mkers to broden the focus of the services. Professionls' fers hve been relised by three recent reports tht hve received considerble medi ttention (Luren Wright, Norfolk Helth uthority 2002; inlee Lbonte, Newhm CPC 2002; Victori Climbi, Lming 2003). To the public, the priority is still to provide child protection service; broder child welfre concerns tke second plce. These ltest reports, however, lso revel n pplling level of prctice. Public pressure, politicl policy mking, nd professionl endevour hve ll focused on improving child protection work. The opposite ppers to be hppening: morle hs fllen, the qulity of prctice hs deteriorted, nd there re mjor problems in recruiting nd retining stff. This chpter explores how this reversl of fortunes hs hppened. The history of recent yers not only revels tht the system is not re-focusing to the degree policy mkers wnt but lso tht the qulity of child protection services themselves is deteriorting. mjor government inspection report on services to sfegurd children (Deprtment of Helth 2002) expressed continuing concern for how socil services were deling with children in need: In most res there were serious concerns mongst stff of ll gencies bout the thresholds tht socil services were pplying in their children's services. Professionl stff from other gencies considered tht socil services were not providing n dequte response when they judged sitution did not involve high risk of serious hrm to children nd young people. (2002:4) The report identified worries bout the services for children t risk. They stress the importnce of the qulity of the initil socil service response, ffecting s it does the qulity of the ssessment nd the whole course of work with the fmily but found tht: Mny stff in gencies in most uthorities expressed concern bout the ccessibility nd qulity of this initil response by socil services duty systems were found to be impersonl nd unresponsive. (2002:46) review of child protection services in UK cme to worrying conclusions: The review findings suggest tht mny dults nd children hve little confidence in the child protection system nd re considerbly reluctnt to report concerns bout buse nd neglect The review findings lso suggest tht the child protection system does not lwys work well for those children nd dults who become involved in it. Forty children in the udit were not protected or their needs were not met following the intervention of gencies. further 62 children were only prtilly protected or their needs prtilly met. In 77 cses children were protected nd their needs met nd in 24 of these cses their needs were well met. (UK 2002:13) Concerns bout the qulity of prctice hve lso emerged from the three recent public inquiries. Indeed, the re-emergence of the public inquiry fter lull of five yers indictes growing nxiety bout wht is hppening. Of the three reports, the Climbi Report (Lming 2003) is by fr the most detiled nd therefore the best source of informtion bout wht is going on in front-line work. Reding the Climbi Report is disturbing experience. s someone who hs red ll the reports since 1973, I found this report in clss of its own, describing level of prctice tht ws frighteningly bd. Other reports hve reveled incompetence nd indequcies in stff but hve conveyed generl impression tht people were trying to do good job. The picture obtined from the Climbi Report is of set of professionls trying to void tking responsibility for Victori's welfre by minimising their interprettion of their own role s much s possible nd relying on someone else doing the necessry work. There were lso numerous occsions when the most bsic principles of prctice were not followed. This criticism pplies not only to socil workers but lso to police officers nd to hospitl stff. Nurses bthing Victori in hospitl sw how extensive nd vried her injuries were ( clssic presenttion of physicl buse); none recorded this or mentioned it to doctors or socil workers. Victori ws n in-ptient for two weeks with suspected physicl buse but none of the doctors who sw her did full physicl exmintion. There were only two occsions when professionls tried to tlk to Victori in ny depth but these seem hlf-herted becuse they did not tke the elementry step of speking to her in her ntive lnguge of French, using English insted, of which Victori knew only few words. (In contrst to the professionls' thoughtlessness, the child-minder who becme concerned bout Victori hd the sense to tke her to her son's school nd get the French techer to sk Victori bout her injuries. Her difficulties in explining them stisfctorily led the childminder to tke her to hospitl.) Victori ws not n unusul or complex cse but died becuse of persistent filings in the protection system. The inquiry tem were ble to identify 12 occsions in the nine months she ws in London when professionls should hve recognised the need to investigte more thoroughly. The most bsic inquiries would hve quickly led to n ssessment of high risk. Lord Lming, the Chir of the inquiry, hs forcibly nd eloquently expressed how pplled he felt by the story tht ws unfolded to the inquiry. t the beginning of his report, under photogrph of Victori, he put quote from The Little Prince by ntoine de Sint-Exupery: 'I hve suffered too much grief in setting down these hertrending memories. If I try to describe him, it is to mke sure tht I shll not forget him'. It might be hoped tht Victori's cre ws n extreme nd isolted incident, but this seems implusible given the number of gencies involved: four socil services deprtments, three housing deprtments, two specilist police tems, two hospitls nd voluntry sector specilist fmily centre. The probbility tht the deteriortion in services is more widespred is incresed by the evidence of ntionl crisis in recruiting nd retining stff. There hs been shrp drop in the number wnting to become socil workers. pplictions to trining courses fell by 59 per cent between 1996 nd 2001 (fter n dvertising cmpign by the government, ppliction rtes rose by 8 per cent in 2002, reversing the trend slightly). In 1994, the udit Commission could write: 'there is perceived "elitism" in protection work' (1994:61) but its sttus hs fllen steeply nd job stisfction is declining. In 2002, one in six child-cre socil work posts were vcnt. Three London boroughs hd vcncy rtes over 50 per cent. Newly qulified stff who, few yers go, would hve been protected from the more serious child buse, re now deling with ll levels of referrl. Relince on short-term gency stff, even t mngeril level, is now lso commonplce. Mny London boroughs report gency rtes of 40-50 per cent t both front-line nd senior levels. Moreover, posts re incresingly being filled by workers coming from overses who, while their trining my hve been high qulity, need dditionl induction nd supervision to operte in foreign legl nd culturl frmework. The extr support needs do not seem to be met. In Brent, t the time of Victori Climbi's referrl, ll members of the duty tem were gency stff who hd trined overses (Lming 2003, pr. 5.14). The inquiry ws told: There were occsions where person will get off plne in the morning, rrive in the office just fter lunch, be interviewed nd strt work either in the duty tem or the child protection tem. It ws hppening very, very often. (Lming 2003, pr. 5.60) To the outsider, relying on such inexperienced people to del with some of the most chllenging spects of socil work seems bffling, but it is mesure of the despertion senior mngement feel in trying to fill vcncies. The severity of the problem ws stressed by Denise Pltt, the Chir of the Socil Services Inspectorte, in her 11th nnul report: 'Recruitment nd retention of pproprite stff is the most criticl issue tht fces socil cre services in ll sectors' (Socil Services Inspectorte 2002).The udit Commission conducted study of why stff leve nd concluded tht most re leving becuse of push not pull fctors. Their nlysis identified six min fctors tht underpin the decision to leve: - the sense of being overwhelmed by bureucrcy, pperwork nd trgets; - insufficient resources, leding to unmngeble worklods; - lck of utonomy; - feeling undervlued by Government, mngers nd the public; - py tht is not 'felt fir'; nd - chnge gend tht feels imposed nd irrelevnt (2002, Section 3). It is hrd to seprte out the specific impct public inquiries hve hd in cusing this slump in morle. Their recommendtions cn, however, be seen s prdigm exmple of the types of solutions tht hve been dopted to try to improve front-line work. Strtegies hve predominntly tken the form of bureucrtic solutions, incresing formlistion of the tsks nd greter mngeril oversight nd control of ll levels of work (Munro, forthcoming). The procedurl innovtions estblished s result of the Colwell report in 1974 were undoubtedly needed becuse, t tht time, there were no forml mechnisms for shring informtion mong professionls nd this is essentil for full ssessment of child's welfre. However, the subsequent strem of re-orgnistions, t both locl nd ntionl level, hs not been shown to mke ny significnt difference to the qulity of front-line work. The other mngeril solution is to develop incresingly detiled procedures, protocols nd guidelines to stndrdise prctice nd mke it visible for monitoring nd udit. gin, some formlistion is necessry but the question is how much (Munro 2002). The fundmentl problem seems to lie in the nture of the centrl tsks in child protection. Crucilly, the mngeril systems tht hve been developed refer to the more esily described nd recorded spects of prctice, with mjor bis towrds quntity rther thn qulity. It is esy to record whether visit ws done or phone cll mde but more complicted to find wy of mesuring the qulity of the interction nd the relibility of the informtion gined. Consequently, it seems to mny prctitioners tht the most chllenging nd stisfying spects of their work-the interpersonl skills needed to elicit nd interpret informtion nd to engge fmilies-re rendered invisible by n udit system tht concentrtes on the esily mesured. This is noticeble in supervision which, trditionlly, pid lot of ttention to the reltionship dynmics. Supervisors re tending to shift the focus onto whether prctitioners re meeting dministrtive requirements; there is less time, if ny, spent on csework supervision in which front-line stff re helped to stnd bck nd review criticlly their ssessments nd plns (Rushton nd Nthn 1996). Victori Climbi's socil worker, who hd never before conducted child buse investigtion, ws offered little supervision nd none of it relted to the professionl skills nd knowledge needed to crry out the work. It is importntly to understnd the psychologicl dimension of prctice nd shows how it is necessry for ccurte ssessment of fmily nd for working with them constructively. Incresing formlistion lso helps gencies defend themselves from public criticism. Hood et l. (2000) show how public sector services engge in 'blme prevention engineering'. Forml procedures set out forml 'correct' wy of deling with cse. Then, if trgedy occurs, the gency cn clim 'due diligence' nd show tht their employees followed the 'correct' procedures (lthough they did not led to the correct outcome in terms of verting the trgedy). The Climbi Report fitted into the bureucrtic trdition in mny respects, recommending the estblishment of new ntionl body for inter-gency working nd greter mngeril ccountbility for ensuring the qulity of front-line prctice. However, it ws originl in sying tht mngement should be held ccountble for the qulity of front-line work nd this is potentilly mjor chnge. The report, unfortuntely, sid little bout how qulity cn be mesured-nd this is key point (Munro, forthcoming). Will mngers continue to use the performnce indictors of the current udit system, indictors tht re only clumsy mesure of qulity lterntively, will they try to develop more sophisticted nd ccurte wys of monitoring prctice If they choose the ltter option, then, lthough the tsk is fr more chllenging, it could mke significnt contribution to the development of knowledge nd skills in child protection. Nowdys, the sitution hs chnged nd public inquires s for the ethics in socil work re seriously considered. There is tough legisltion s for the ethicl behviours of socil workers on the workplce, description of ethicl dilemms tht my tke plce nd the wys they cn be solved. In UK, the legisltion bse of socil workers' behviours is put on Generl Socil Cre Stndrds codes of prctice. I will further review the guidelines of the codes nd define how they cn be helpful in ssisting child buse prevention nd voidnce of ethicl dilemms. The codes define the primry mission of the socil work profession which is to enhnce humn well-being nd help meet the bsic humn needs of ll people, with prticulr ttention to the needs nd empowerment of people who re vulnerble, oppressed, nd living in poverty. historic nd defining feture of socil work is the profession's focus on individul well-being in socil context nd the well-being of society. Fundmentl to socil work is ttention to the environmentl forces tht crete, contribute to, nd ddress problems in living. Socil workers promote socil justice nd socil chnge with nd on behlf of clients. "Clients" is used inclusively to refer to individuls, fmilies, groups, orgniztions, nd communities. Socil workers re sensitive to culturl nd ethnic diversity nd strive to end discrimintion, oppression, poverty, nd other forms of socil injustice. These ctivities my be in the form of direct prctice, community orgnizing, supervision, consulttion, dministrtion, dvoccy, socil nd politicl ction, policy development nd implementtion, eduction, nd reserch nd evlution. Socil workers seek to enhnce the cpcity of people to ddress their own needs. Socil workers lso seek to promote the responsiveness of orgniztions, communities, nd other socil institutions to individuls' needs nd socil problems. The following ethicl stndrds re relevnt to the professionl ctivities of ll socil workers. These stndrds concern (1) socil workers' ethicl responsibilities to clients, (2) socil workers' ethicl responsibilities to collegues, (3) socil workers' ethicl responsibilities in prctice settings, (4) socil workers' ethicl responsibilities s professionls, (5) socil workers' ethicl responsibilities to the socil work profession, nd (6) socil workers' ethicl responsibilities to the broder society. Some of the stndrds tht follow re enforceble guidelines for professionl conduct, nd some re spirtionl. The extent to which ech stndrd is enforceble is mtter of professionl judgment to be exercised by those responsible for reviewing lleged violtions of ethicl stndrds. It is importnt to note tht in the codes of prctice it is sid tht socil workers should not engge in dul or multiple reltionships with clients or former clients in which there is risk of exploittion or potentil hrm to the client. In instnces when dul or multiple reltionships re unvoidble, socil workers should tke steps to protect clients nd re responsible for setting cler, pproprite, nd culturlly sensitive boundries. Socil workers should void dilemms on the workplce nd strictly follow the guidelines of the Generl Socil Cre Stndrds. Public inquiries into cses of child buse with trgic outcomes hve strongly influenced the development of child welfre services. Three lndmrk cses hve been Mri Colwell (DHSS 1974), Clevelnd (Deprtment of Helth 1999), nd Victori Climbi (Lming 2003). The report into the cre provided to Mri Colwell cptured the growing public concern for children who were being bused by their crers nd identified the need to increse professionl wreness. It lso creted forml mechnisms for inter-professionl collbortion so tht comprehensive, nd thus more ccurte, picture could be gined of child's welfre. The public pressure to prevent child deths led professionls to lower their threshold for ction nd to intervene more redily, chllenging prentl uthority nd disrupting the fmily unit. This provoked public unese bout the incresed professionl power thretening the privcy of the fmily, leding to bcklsh, exemplified by the Clevelnd Report where professionls were seen s hving become too quick to identify buse nd to brek up fmilies. The Children ct 1989 reflected the desire to chnge the blnce of power, diminishing professionl nd incresing prentl uthority. Under pressure to void mistkes of both kinds-missing buse cses or mistkenly clssifying sfe fmilies s dngerous-professionls, quite rtionlly, put their efforts into more nd more rigorous investigtions to increse the ccurcy of their ssessments. This cused shift in the lloction of resources, strving other sections of child welfre. There re persusive rguments for re-focusing to mke broder ssessment of children's needs beyond the need for protection but, despite persistent politicl directives, chnge is slow to mterilise. This, it is rgued, is becuse there is insufficient dditionl funding to finnce support services in ddition to protection services. Since the mjority of referrls of buse re not substntited or not considered serious enough for professionl intervention, one option for sving money is to clssify cses more ccurtely t the time of initil referrl, thus reducing the time nd resources spent on rigorous investigtions. One obstcle to this lies in the intellectul difficulties in clssifying referrls ccurtely on the limited knowledge vilble in the initil referrl. nother obstcle comes from the defensive culture now prevlent in child protection gencies. The incresingly punitive ttitude of society to mistkes, illustrted by public inquiries, encourges prctitioners to err on the side of cution. The blme culture is lso implicted in the shift towrds creting more nd more forml procedures. Unfortuntely, only some dimensions of prctice re getting ttention in this process. Mny of the most difficult spects of working with fmilies re being excluded nd so undervlued. The report into the deth of Victori Climbi described child protection service tht ws filing t the most bsic level to sfegurd children. Like its predecessors, it recommended re-orgnistion but it lso stressed the need for mngement to mesure the qulity of front-line prctice. Developing wys of doing this is intellectully chllenging. Nevertheless the most pressing problem for mngement t present is recruiting nd retining stff. The public scrutiny nd criticism of the child protection service, exemplified by public inquiries, seems to hve hd the unintended effect of creting demorlised workforce. Society seems to hve recognised the importnce of protecting children but underestimtes the difficulties of doing so. The one cler vlue of the public inquiries hs been to rise society's wreness bout the problem of child buse. Medi ttention to the most extreme cses of physicl buse nd neglect hs reminded the public nd policy mkers like of the horrors tht some children suffer nd to the dilemms tht front-line professionls fce. Politicl ttention hs led to new legisltion designed to promote children's welfre, such s the 1975 nd 1989 Children cts. For prctitioners, the reports hve identified some importnt lessons tht helped to refine policies nd everydy prctice. However, it ws the Mri Colwell Inquiry in 1974 tht hd trnsitionl effect, with consolidtion of Child Protection Registers (then clled t Risk Registers), inter-gency committees nd cse conferences (now clled Child Protection Conferences) nd prompting the 1975 Children ct. Following this, the impct of public inquiries ppers to hve declined significntly. (Munro, 2002) s there re no relible sttistics for the number of children killed through buse ech yer, it remins n open question s to whether 30 yers of inquiries hve enbled professionls to reduce the number tht occurs. Despite certin benefits, there hve been considerble drwbcks. Even though child buse deths re rre, the criticl tmosphere of public inquiries nd ccompnying medi reporting hs generted wholly unrelistic expecttions tht such deths 'should never hppen gin' nd beliefs tht front-line professionls re incompetent. Over time, the work of socil workers hs minly gined medi ttention when they were being criticised, so tht their public stnding snk, impcting significntly on morle nd recruitment. Their pproch to everydy prctice inevitbly becme defensive. lso, lrge public inquiries hve been extrordinrily expensive in terms of money nd time, with costs spirlling to hundreds of thousnds of pounds nd n excessive lpse of time before the findings could be nnounced. Once published, reports' vilbility hs been inconsistent, with differing publishers, no centrl reference list nd discourging prices. Bibliogrphy: 1. Deprtment of Helth (1991) Working Together under the Children ct 1989, London: HMSO. 2. Deprtment of Helth (1999) Frmework for the ssessment of Children in Need nd their Fmilies, London: Deprtment of Helth. 3. Deprtment of Helth (2002) Sfegurding Children, London: Deprtment of Helth 4. Deprtment of Helth nd Socil Security (1974) Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Cre nd Supervision Provided in Reltion to Mri Colwell. London: HMSO. 5. Hood, C., Rothstein, H. nd Bldwin, R. (2000) The Government of Risk: Understnding Risk Regultion Regimes, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 6. Lming, H. (2003) The Victori Climbi Inquiry: Report of n Inquiry by Lord Lming, London: The Sttionery Office. 7. Munro, E. (2002) Effective Child Protection, London: Sge Publictions. 8. Newhm re Child Protection Committee (2002) inlee. Prt 8 Review, Newhm: CPC. 9. Norfolk Helth uthority (2002) Summry Report of the Independent Helth Review, Norwich: Norfolk Helth uthority. 10. Rushton, . nd Nthn, J. (1996) 'The supervision of child protection work', British Journl of Socil Work, 26:357-74. 11. Socil Services Inspectorte (2002) nnul Report, London: Deprtment of Helth. 12. UK (2002) It's Everyone's Job to Mke Sure I'm lright, Edinburgh: Scottish Office. Read More