Importance of Child-Centered Practice in Social Work

Introduction

Children are crucial in social work practice since they present a special category of people requiring focused social care and attention. However, for a long time, social work practice seldom focuses on the children and their needs and social workers fail to comprehensively address the needs of the children. This led to the concept of child-centred practice that seeks to tailor social work services to the children and focus on their needs. When it comes to academic pursuits in this field, students often seek guidance and support in their studies, particularly in areas such as social work dissertation help, to delve deeper into the complexities of child-centred practice and its implications for effective intervention and support.

Child centred practice

The view of childcare is highly segregated in the society and the practices adopted by social workers to provide childcare widely vary from one social worker to the other. It is evident that relationship plays an important role in shaping the perception of childcare. For instance, it is common for parents who are working to view childcare as a burden and tend to delegate the function of caring for their children to hired house workers who are tasked with the responsibilities of managing and meeting the needs of their children.

Race and O’Keefe (2017, p. 4) define child centred practice as providing care by prioritizing the needs and welfare of children. Social workers therefore should focus their care around the needs of the child. Furthermore, care should promote the rights of children to participate in the assessment and the entire process of care (Race & O’Keefe 2017, p. 4). Child centred care is engraved within statutory regulations and policy frameworks that seek to enforce observance of the rights of children in care. An example of the statutory regulation is the Working together to safeguard children: a guide to interagency working to safeguard and promote children welfare (HM government 2015). This regulation emphasize that the needs of the children should be considered in by the social work and the family members since all these needs are important (HM Government 2015, p.8).

The evolution of child centred practice in social work revolve is supported by legislative and policy frameworks that have been developed over time to address the aspects of child care. The children Act 1989 and 2004 contributed significantly in the development of child centred practice since they outline key aspects such as child protection and children rights (Race & O’Keefe 2017, p.3). In the year 2000, the framework for assessment of children needs and their families was adopted that highlighted the approach towards assessment and addressing the needs of children and their families (Race & O’Keefe 2017, P. 4). Since then, there has been growing emphasis on enabling social workers to engage with children and more policies have continued to be developed to enhance the practice of child centred social work.

The legislative framework for social care in England asserts that care should be driven by the well-being of the child. On the other hand, the policy context of social care emphasizes that social care should be designed to create a balance between rules, principals and professional expertise, aimed at making social care to children more child centred and less bureaucratic (Cromatry et al, 2018 p.5). According to NSPCC (2018 p. 3), schools, educational providers and other agencies have a role to play in enhancing child welfare. Achieving child centred practice is thus dependent on crucial social work skills and values that are focused on the child.

Munro (2011, p. 10) emphasizes that child centred social work is focused on helping children. Helping children is a human process and thus children should be treated as human beings with equal human rights, dignity and respect. This is regardless of the fact that children are largely considered as minors requiring guidance ion decision making due to their limited capacity. This weakness can be capitalized on by social workers and family who might mistreat them.

Bureaucratization is the main challenge to child centred practice. Care for the children adopting the bureaucratization model places the social worker as the expert and the director while the child is the subject supposed to follow the instructions of the social worker without question. Munro (2011 p. 10) identify that bureaucratization in social work kills the spirit of child centred care.

Modern child centred practice is based on certain theories of social work. Person centred theory is one of the perspectives explaining child centred practice (Munro 2011, p 19). This theory was championed by Carl Rogers and is applied in different field. However, in child centred practice, person centred theory emphasizes the treatment of an individual with dignity, and respect and focusing the services to the needs of an individual as well as empowering them to exploit their potential. The other theory underlying the child centred practice is the reflective-rational theory (Munro 2011, p. 19). This theory explains that human behaviour is rational and logical and therefore the social worker can freely choose to either offer child-centred practice or adopt the bureaucratic model of social care. Therefore, the outcome of their actions determines their effectiveness in providing social care.

Neoliberal theory is among the modern theories and can be applied in child centred practice. According to Jessop (2012, p. 2) neoliberal theory discusses a number of issues that are largely political. However, one of the key elements of the theory is championing of individual freedom. This aspect can be applied in child centred practice. In line with the child rights and frameworks to support the rights of the child, Neoliberal theory supports the observance of the rights of the child in social work. The championing of individual freedom by neoliberal theory aligns with the UN convention on the rights of the child (Race & O’Keefe 2017, p. 26). On the other hand, neoliberal theory may also give the social workers a leeway to provide bureaucratic- based social care which does not prioritise the needs of the child. The social worker can argue on the basis of personal freedom to have the right to decide whichever approach that is convenient to them. This would still be in line with the neoliberal theory since personal freedom of the social worker will be at the focus of practice (Jessop 2012, p.5)

Social work skills in Child centred practice

Skills are crucial in effective social work, especially when working with children. With the growing emphasis on child centred care, it is evident that meeting the dynamic needs of the children requires crucial skills by the social worker. Karpetis (2017, p. 2) defines skills as interventions involving putting learning into practice. A social worker relies on crucial skills in providing care to the child.

Communication skills are the main focus of social work care for children. When interacting with children, the social worker relies on crucial communication skills to effectively understand the needs of the child. However, communication skills might also be misused and the social worker fails to deliver crucial care to the child (Karpetis 2017, p. 2). The social worker's objective in working with children is to enable children to voice their needs and communicate their fears, worries, and dreams with the social worker. This can be possible if effective communication is adopted by the social worker when interacting with children (Karpetis 2017, p.3).Effective communication is based on different types of communication and the social worker ought to utilize these types of communication when interacting with the child (Barnes 2018 p.11).

Much as communication is necessary for getting information from the child, child centred social work also seeks to understand the needs of the child and placing the child as a key player in social care also entails listening to the child. Barnes (2018, pg 11) explain that it is normal practice for social workers to often disregard the perspectives of children, not to listen to them and failing to treat them as individual adults.

Values of social work in child centred

Social work profession is largely guided by values, and these values define the very work of social care (Chechak 2015, p 41). Values in Practice are used to articulate the outcomes, goals and identify preferred means of attaining them (Gambrill, 2011 p. 40). Ethical principles of society are defined by values. Chechak (2015) explains that social work is a value-based profession (pg. 45).

Core values in social work are crucial in driving the professional and ethical conduct of the social workers with their clients. Child centred care practice requires the implementation of social work values for effective care and management of the diverse needs of the child. Banks (2012a p. 60) identify human dignity, promotion of wellbeing of the children and social justice as core values in social work practice. However, Race & O’Keefe (2017 p. 14) point that in modern practice, social work is largely centred on equality, empowerment and participation as core values in enhancing child centred practice.

Addressing key issues in childcare and social work

The values of social work practice are accompanied by the code of ethics. The code of ethics seeks to enforce professional behaviour and adherence to the core values of the practice (Race & O’Keefe 2017 p.4). Professional bodies are tasked with development of code of ethics that guides their members. In regards to social work, international federation of social work and British association of social workers are some professional social worker associations responsible for development of the code of ethics and enforcing professional behaviour among the social workers. Regardless of the core values and codes of ethics, children are generally not put at the focus of the appraisals and their interactions with the social workers are generally insignificant (Race & O’Keefe 2017 p 4).

Child protection

Child protection is one of the key areas that have received scrutiny of child-centered social work. The debate on the need for child protection as part of social care has received praise and questions almost in equal measure. Higgins (2015, p.7) terms the considerations and criticism of child protection model as a struggle of social work. Arguments supporting child protection view child protection as the heart of child social work and purposes to make vulnerable children safe through protection (Higgins, 2015, p. 4).

Child protection faces numerous challenges in certain environments. According to Farmer & Lutman (2012 p. 87) lack of parental engagement in child protection and cooperation with other social workers significantly hamper the efforts to protect the child from abuse and neglect. Other challenges include avoidance and resistance (88), and lack of involvement of fathers (89).

The focus of making children safe through child protection has been argued to be the core component of modern societies. A social worker therefore by committing to child protection ought to provide measures to make vulnerable children safe. Among the activities of enhancing safety is by adoption and providing housing to homeless children, among other initiatives. According to HM government (2018 p. 8) child protection should be focused on safeguarding the children. This entails early needs assessment, which is more effective that reactive approach (HM Government 2018, p.12; Parton 2014). Proactive needs assessment help in ensuring effective protection of the child before they conditions worsen and they become vulnerable or neglected (HM Government 2018, p. 13).

Higgins (2015, p. 7) explains that critiques of child protection banks on the fact that child protection focuses more on protection than prevention and thus making the child be idealised and decontextualized. This in turn as Munro (2011, p. 10) argues leads to bureaucratization of social work thus losing the child-centred practice of social work. Child protection is evidently limited due to lack of professionally laid down guidelines for social workers and the bureaucratization of care. However, in emergency situations, it might be the crucial rescue alternative especially in instances where the child’s safety and life are in danger. To find a more effective approach to providing child protection, HM Government (2018 pp. 68-74) proposes that child protection should be focused on the protective factors, build on the strengths and resilience as well as involve identification of personal networks to help in child protection initiatives.

Child neglect

Child neglect as an aspect of social work focuses on social work practices aimed at children who are largely neglected by the parents, and guardians. This covers children with special needs since they are the ones largely neglected. Barlow et al. (2016 p. 23) defines child neglect as failure to provide care to the children that is necessary for their development and realization of their potential.

Child neglect can be understood in two more forms. Neglect can be in form of the act of neglecting children and also as neglect suffered by the children. There have been attempts to document cases of neglect. According to Rosenberg (2009 p. 23) of all the child cases documented, child neglect accounts for the majority of the numbers and at the same time, of all the child abuse and neglect cases almost 25% of the documented cases involve infants (Rosenberg 2009 p. 32).

Child neglect is one of the forms of child maltreatment. Child maltreatment is a public health concern cutting across multiple social statuses, ethnicities, races, and nationalities. Being such a pronounced and real concern therefore, social work efforts to address child maltreatment are crucial. Tufford et al (2014, p. 2) explain that child maltreatment includes both child abuse and neglect. Child abuse takes forms such as physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, while neglect involves failure to provide for the needs of a child.

Failure to meet the needs of the child which constitutes neglect takes on different forms. For instance, neglect could be in the form of failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, medication, emotional care, supervision, and education. Social problems such as poverty, inadequate housing, and risky neighbourhoods can further worsen the problem of child neglect. Ideally, child neglect is perpetrated by the family members such as parents, siblings or guardians and any other person who is close to the child (Tufford et al 2014 p. 2).

Child neglect has significant impacts on the child and range from physical, emotional as well as cognitive problems. Physical impacts may range from body injuries and pains while emotional and cognitive may impact the behaviour, socialization, communication, and education of the affected child.

Tufford et al (2014 p. 5) identify that child centred social work should be holistic and in addressing the needs of the child, child neglect can also be addressed through four main approaches. First, social workers should be focused on potential risk of child neglect which entails being on the lookout of the behaviours that may amount to neglect. Such pointers of child neglect include child’s withdrawal from engaging with the social worker, continuous sadness and anxiety. Social work should also be focused on the client’s beliefs and on mental health issues as well as on self and interview process (Tufford et al 2015, p.5). Managing neglect is however crucial in social work practice since it leads to the enhanced relationship between the child and the social worker.

Effective management of child neglect involves a number of approaches that the social worker can rely on to reduce cases of child neglect. Rossenberg (2009 p. 33) explain that interventions such as family preservation and prevention programme, protective services social work, residential placements, and child welfare are the programs that can be helpful in managing child neglect.

Child rights

Child rights significantly shape social work. From the very definition, social work is committed to meeting human needs and developing human potential. These points to the fact that the practices of social work draws from humanitarian and democratic ideals and are premised on the value of preserving human dignity and life (Race & O’Keefe 2017 p. 26).

The U convention on the rights of the child was adopted in 1989 and ratified in UK in 1991 and details the political, social, cultural, economic and civil rights of the children. The core child rights associated crucial for social work include right to life, education, and protection (Race & O’Keefe 2017 p. 26). Furthermore, much as they are children, they deserve the right to be treated with value and social justice. These rights are embedded in the core values of social work.

Conclusion

Child centred practice in social work is a crucial element in meeting the needs of the child and providing social care. From the discussion above, it is evident that child centred care is a promising approach that social workers can rely on when working with children. This practice banks on establishing a cordial relationship and friendship between the social worker and the child. Communication and other skills, as well as crucial values in social work, are quite crucial in providing child-centred care. While there are key issues around child-centred social work practice, effective social work is premised on adhering to the needs of the child as well as observing their rights in implementing the social care programs. With children playing a crucial role in care, social workers will meet their objective of providing social care to the children and managing various child welfare needs.

References

Banks, S. 2012a. Ethics and values in social work. 4th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave

Barlow, J., Basarab-Horwath, J. A., Woodman, J., Turnell, A., Kennedy, H., Gorin, S., Bunn, A.,

Allnock, D. and McAllister, J. (2016) Tackling child neglect : research, policy and evidence-based practice. Edited by R. Gardner. London: Jessica Kingsley

Barnes, V. 2018. Child-centred social work: theory and practice. London: Palgrave. Available at:

(Accessed: October 10, 2019). pg 11-12

Chechak D. 2015. Social Work as a Value-Based Profession: Value Conflicts and Implications for Practitioners’ Self-Concepts, Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, Volume 12, Number 2

Cromatry H, Bellis A and Harker R. 2018. Children's social care in England; Debate pack. House of commons library.

Davey, C. 2010. Children’s participation in decision making: a summary report on progress. London: office of children’s commissioner and National children’s bureau

Farmer, E. and Lutman, E. 2012. Effective working with neglected children and their families : linking interventions to long-term outcomes. London: Jessica Kingsley (Safeguarding children across services)

Gambrill, E. 2011. Social work practice: A critical thinker’s guide (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Higgins M. 2015. Child protection social work education England: How can it be reformed? British Journal of Social Work (2015) 1–15

HM Government, 2018. Working Together to Safeguard Children A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

HM Government. 2015. Working together to safeguard children- a guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote welfare of children. London. Stationery office

Jessop B. 2012. Neoliberalism: Preprint of article in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, First Edn. Edited by George Ritzer, 2012, vol. 3, 1513-21

Karpetis G. 2017. Social Work Skills: A Narrative Review of the Literature. British Journal of Social Work (2017) 0, 1–20

Munro, E. 2011 Review of Child Protection: Final Report, available online at

NSPCC. 2018. Revised guidance published: Working together to safeguard children 2018 Statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in England,

Parton, N. 2014. The politics of child protection : contemporary developments and future directions. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

Race, T. and O'Keefe, R. 2017. Child-centered practice : a handbook for social work. London: Palgrave.

Rosenberg, J. 2009: Working in social work: the real world guide to practice settings. New York: Routledge.

Tufford, L Bogo, M and Asakura K, 2015. How do social workers respond to potential child neglect? Article in social work education: the international journal

Wrench, K. 2018. Creative ideas for assessing vulnerable children and families. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Continue your exploration of Implications on social work practice with our related content.