155 research outputs found

    Capturing the scale and pattern of recurrent care proceedings: initial observations from a feasibility study

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    This article reports the initial findings of a feasibility study that has captured the scale and pattern of recurrent care proceedings. Although frontline professionals have reported long-standing concerns about the repeat clients of public law proceedings, prior to the study we report, the scale of the problem has been unknown. With funding from the Nuffield Foundation and support from the Child and Family Court Advisory Service (CAFCASS) and the President of the Family Division, the research team has arrived at a first estimate of prevalence, confirming that recurrence is a sizeable problem for the English family court. Based on cases that completed during the observational window 2007-2013 (calendar years), 7,143 birth mothers appeared in 15,645 recurrent care applications concerning 22,790 infants and children. Moreover, the study most likely underestimates recurrence, because reliable data concerning completed cases is not available before 2007. Initial observations are that the spacing between recurrent care proceedings is very short, which raises searching questions about prevention. Where episodes of care proceedings follow in swift succession, most likely prompted by the birth of another infant, this affords mothers little opportunity to effect change. Unless, this Ć¢ā‚¬Ėœstatus quoĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢ is tackled, it is difficult to envisage how vulnerable birth mothers can exit this cycle. Preliminary recommendations are made in respect of policy and practice change

    Specialist foster care for traumatised young people with challenging behaviour : appraising joined up service provision

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    It is recognised that looked after young people with a history of trauma, offending, emotional, behavioural and educational difficulties often face a high risk of social exclusion later in life. Against this background an innovative and intensive fostering service was developed by a large charitable organization. The intention was to provide community based foster care placements as an alternative to residential and secure accommodation and an external evaluation was commissioned. The thesis grew out of the main research evaluation. This small scale case study has the separate aim of exploring how far the provision of specialist foster care placements together with appropriate services can help young people to achieve stability. This question is considered through an analysis of the organisational relationships, the model for service delivery, the implementation of the key services and their impact on the service users. The methodology and research approach used questionnaires and in-depth recorded interviews. The study has been personalised by including the voices of the organisation's key stakeholders and service users. With the introduction of recent legislation that places an emphasis on inter-agency and multi-professional working, the thesis seeks to draw out lessons from the case study on the opportunities and constraints of joined-up service delivery. It also aims to inform current policy and practice which is now shifting towards the provision of specialist foster care, rather than residential care for difficult young people. The findings indicate that achieving integrated service delivery and multi-professional working is a complex task. The study has provided a broad understanding about all aspects of service delivery, together with the views of the service providers and the service users. Finally, the thesis makes recommendations for the improvement of inter-agency co-operation and front line service delivery to ensure that young people and their families receive the services they need.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

    Technical assistance, neo-colonialism or mutual trade? The experience of an Anglo/Ukrainian/Russian social work practice learning project

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    Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been a steady stream of Western consultants ready to work in Eastern Europe and Russia and share professional and academic expertise and experience. Social work, unknown as a discrete discipline or profession in the Soviet Union, has been a growth area with funding from a variety of sources to help promote East-West partnerships.Social work theory and practice emphasises critical appraisal of policy and embraces issues of power, discrimination and oppression. Social work educators should therefore be especially alert to the complex ethical questions which these kinds of collaborations raise, and adept at finding practical solutions or workable compromises. This article explores these ethical and political issues with reference to a project to develop social work practice learning in a Russian oblast' (region). The project was an ambitious partnership of British, Ukrainian and Russian educators, involving numerous Russian social work and related agencies, and four Russian universities and colleges in one oblast'. The authors use a series of vignettes to help the reader achieve insights into these East-West transactions. The article concludes with a discussion of different interpretations of these dealings, using three prisms: technical assistance, neo-colonialism and mutual trade

    "Roll back the years": A study of grandparent special guardians' experiences and implications for social work policy and practice in England

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    Growing numbers of grandparent special guardians (GSGs) are assuming responsibility for increasing numbers of children in the care system in England. Special guardianship arrangements are increasingly used as a permanency option as they allow children to remain in their kinship networks, rather than in local authority care or be adopted; yet there is a scarcity of research on GSG carersā€™ experiences. This article reports a small qualitative research study where ten sets of grandparents were interviewed to explore their journey to becoming GSGs and to theorise their subsequent experiences. Two themes emerge. Firstly, experiences of the assessment process are elaborated, decisions often being made at a time of family crisis, impacting on GSGs: financial, employment, relational. Secondly, GSGsā€™ experiences of managing often-challenging relationships and contact arrangements between the grandchildren and the parents reveal three main relationship management approaches emerging: containing-flexible; containing-controlled and; uncontained/defeated approaches. Anthropological concepts of affinity help theorise the GSGsā€™ ambivalent responses to becoming carers in later life, enabling reconfigured kinship relationships in new family forms. Family policy and social work practice is critiqued as GSGs appear often left alone to ā€˜roll back the yearsā€™, to heal previous harms done to the grandchildren who end-up in their care

    Localisation of logistics preparedness in international humanitarian organisations

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    __Purpose:__ To meet the rising global needs, the humanitarian community has signed off on making a strategic change toward more localisation, which commonly refers to the empowerment of national and local actors in humanitarian assistance. However, to this date, actual initiatives for localisation are rare. To enhance understanding of the phenomenon, the authors explore localisation of logistics preparedness capacities and obstacles to its implementation. The authors particularly take the perspective of the international humanitarian organisation (IHO) community as they are expected to implement the localisation strategy. __Design/methodology/approach:__ A phenomenon-driven, exploratory and qualitative study was conducted. Data collection included in-depth interviews with 28 experienced humanitarian professionals. __Findings:__ The findings showed the ambiguity inherent in the localisation strategy with largely different views on four important dimensions. Particularly, the interviewees differ about strengthening external actors or internal national/local offices. The resulting framework visualises the gap between strategy formulation and implementation, which forms major obstacles to the localisation aims. __Research limitations/implications:__ Further research is required to support the advancement of localisation of logistics preparedness capacities. Important aspects for future research include triangulation of results, other stakeholder perspectives and the influence of context. __Practical implications:__ The authors add to the important debate surrounding localisation by offering remedies to overcoming obstacles to strategy implementation. Further, the authorsā€™ proposed framework offers a language to precisely describe the ways in which IHOs (should) view localisation of logistics preparedness capacities and its operationalisation. __Originality/value:__ To the best of authorsā€™ knowledge, this paper is the first academic article on localisation within the humanitarian logistics context

    Childrenā€™s and parentsā€™ involvement in care order proceedings: a cross-national comparison of judicial decision-makersā€™ views and experiences

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    This paper presents the views of judicial decision-makers (n= 1794) in four child protection jurisdictions (England, Finland, Norway, and the USA (California)), about whether parents and children are provided with appropriate opportunities to participate in proceedings in their countries. Overall, the study found a high degree of agreement within and between the countries as regards the important conditions for parents and childrenĀ“s involvement, although the four systems themselves are very different. There was less agreement about childrenā€™s involvement than parentsā€™, and the court decision-makers from Norway and Finland were more likely to express doubts about this. Nevertheless, the main message from the judicial decision-makers is that they are relatively satisfied as to how parents and childrenĀ“s involvement is handled in their countries. Whether or not this confidence is justified, the emphasis on achieving effective involvement of children and parents in court proceedings is likely to grow, with major implications for the workers, decision-makers and agencies involved

    Stiffness in total knee arthroplasty

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    Stiffness is a relatively uncommon complication after total knee arthroplasty. It has been defined as a painful limitation in the range of movement (ROM). Its pathogenesis is still unclear even if some risk factors have been identified. Patient-related conditions may be difficult to treat. Preoperative ROM is the most important risk factor, but an association with diabetes, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and general pathologies such as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis has been demonstrated. Moreover, previous surgery may be an additional cause of an ROM limitation. Postoperative factors include infections, arthrofibrosis, heterotrophic ossifications, and incorrect rehabilitation protocol. Infections represent a challenging problem for the orthopaedic surgeon, and treatment may require long periods of antibiotics administration. However, it is widely accepted that an aggressive rehabilitation protocol is mandatory for a proper ROM recovery and to avoid the onset of arthrofibrosis and heterotrophic ossifications. Finally, surgery-related factors represent the most common cause of stiffness; they include errors in soft-tissue balancing, component malpositioning, and incorrect component sizing. Although closed manipulation, arthroscopic and open arthrolysis have been proposed, they may lead to unpredictable results and incomplete ROM recovery. Revision surgery must be proposed in the case of well-documented surgical errors. These operations are technically demanding and may be associated with high risk of complications; therefore they should be accurately planned and properly performed
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