seven - Parenting and risk

Summary

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the ways risk is defined and applied in relation to social work with families. First, policy and practice in relation to child welfare will be considered. This will highlight how risk is viewed and identified by government policy makers and social care service providers. Second, the experiences of families who have been pulled into the child welfare system will be considered through an examination of research that looks at their views – in particular drawing on work carried out by the National Evaluation of the Children's Fund (NECF). Parents’ and children's views will be contrasted with those of service providers, and with policy, in order to examine if and how they coincide.

Parton (1996, p 98) points out that risk has become central to social work with families:

Increasingly, social workers and social welfare agencies are concerned in their day to day practice with the issue of risk. Risk assessment, risk management, the monitoring of risk and risk taking itself have become common activities for both practitioners and managers. Similarly, estimations about risks have become key in identifying priorities and making judgments about the quality of performance and what should be the central focus of professional activities.

He suggests that the concept of risk gained purchase in social work alongside the rise of individualism throughout the Thatcher years and following the collapse of ‘welfarism’. Parents are seen as a risk to their children, either through ‘omission’ (for example, neglect or lack of control) or ‘commission’ (for example, physical cruelty or sexual abuse). Children present a risk to society if parents do not control them, when they become labelled as antisocial. State intervention into family life has always been double-edged, playing both ‘care and control’ functions; providing for those deemed to be ‘deserving’ of help and controlling or reforming the behaviour of the ‘deviant’ or ‘undeserving’ poor (Banks, 2006). This tension has grown as resources shrink alongside seemingly ever-increasing levels of need. Although writing some time ago, Parton's analysis remains relevant: ‘Risk has become the key criterion for targeting scarce resources, protecting the most vulnerable, and making professionals and agencies accountable’ (Parton, 1996, p 104).

The development of child welfare policy in the UK

The problems that child welfare policy in the UK seeks to deal with are socially constructed, and change over time (Fox-Harding, 1996; Corby, 2000; Stainton-Rogers, 2001; Ferguson, 2004).