Giving up the ghost: Findings on fathers and social work from a study of pre-birth child protection

This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of pre-birth child protection, conducted in an urban Scottish setting. The study was designed to explore the interactions between practitioners and families in the context of child protection involvement during a pregnancy. This research aimed to understand the activities that constituted pre-birth child protection assessment, and the meaning attached to those activities by social workers and expectant parents. Very different perspectives on fathers and fatherhood emerged through the study. Fathers shared their feelings of familial tenderness in the context of research interviews. Yet social workers often focused on the risks that the fathers posed. This focus on risk led professionals to ignore or exclude fathers in significant ways. Fathers were denied opportunities to take an active role in their families and care planning for their infants, whilst mothers were over-responsibilised. Children meanwhile were potentially denied the relationship, care and identity benefits of involved fatherhood. This article shows how pre-birth child protection processes and practice can function so as to limit the contribution of expectant fathers. The way that fathers and fathering are understood continues to be a wider problem for social work, requiring development through research and practice. This study was not immune to the challenge of involving men in social work research in meaningful ways. Nevertheless, the findings highlight how participation in social work research can create a forum for fathers to share their concerns, and the importance of their perspective for practice

A fight for legitimacy: reflections on child protection reform, the reduction of baby removals, and child protection decision-making in Aotearoa New Zealand

The rate of orders used to remove babies into the care of Oranga Tamariki reduced by more than half in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2019–2020 as a result of rapid reform, prompted by a high profile media case known as the ‘Hawkes Bay case’. This case provoked social outrage, leading to media and public approbation, inquiries by state and Māori bodies, and advocacy from multiple organisations. Combined, these challenged the legitimacy of the child protection system and led to ‘legitimacy work’, that is, attempts by Oranga Tamariki to regain legitimacy with multiple publics. Access to the legal orders used to remove babies was immediately constricted. A sharp decline in baby removals followed, both overall and the disparities between Māori and non-Māori. The focus on disparity indicators alone, skewed by a focus on public legitimacy, had several unintended consequences. These included a lag between the constrictions on orders and other reforms aimed at addressing the inequities causing disparities, the diminishment of social worker discretion, and limited attention to other forms of system accountability. In the absence of other outcome indicators, particularly those defined by Māori and system-involved families, it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding the efficacy of these changes

Artificial intelligence and organizational memory in government: the experience of record duplication in the child welfare sector in Canada

In recent years, the topic of artificial intelligence in government has become a major area of study. Governments have been eager to adopt artificial intelligence for a number of purposes, including for the prediction of risk in social services. Child protection services are exploring predictive analytics for the initial screening of cases. While research identifies data quality issues as a major barrier, little is known about the characteristics of these issues in child protection, their relationship to organizational memory contained in administrative data, and their impact on the ability of an organization to adopt these technologies. This study gained insight into the socio-technical limitations of duplicate records when trying to bring organizational memory to bear in predictive decision support by interviewing and observing staff use of information technology systems. The study's findings suggest that record duplication in case management systems in child protection could pose a significant challenge to the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies such as predictive analytics for decision assistance. There is a need to address foundational information management and system issues before artificial intelligence approaches such as this can be introduced in the child protection sector

Artificial intelligence and organizational memory in government: the experience of record duplication in the child welfare sector in Canada

In recent years, the topic of artificial intelligence in government has become a major area of study. Governments have been eager to adopt artificial intelligence for a number of purposes, including for the prediction of risk in social services. Child protection services are exploring predictive analytics for the initial screening of cases. While research identifies data quality issues as a major barrier, little is known about the characteristics of these issues in child protection, their relationship to organizational memory contained in administrative data, and their impact on the ability of an organization to adopt these technologies. This study gained insight into the socio-technical limitations of duplicate records when trying to bring organizational memory to bear in predictive decision support by interviewing and observing staff use of information technology systems. The study's findings suggest that record duplication in case management systems in child protection could pose a significant challenge to the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies such as predictive analytics for decision assistance. There is a need to address foundational information management and system issues before artificial intelligence approaches such as this can be introduced in the child protection sector