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The role of social workers
The role of social workers
The role of social workers
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In this essay I will explain the role of a local authority social worker who works with looked after children. I will outline the main tasks of a children and families social worker and why they would be involved with a looked after child. I will also draw upon the relevant law and legal processes that take place with regard to a looked after child.
There are many reasons why a social worker may be involved with families. Children may be brought to the attention of social services by other institutions such as healthcare or education or be referred by someone who knows the child and has some suspicions or concerns about their home life. Reasons that a child may become looked after include that their parents are unable to look after them; for
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(Davis 2009:111) All looked after children would have formally been assessed and identified as a child in need by a social worker and would be working in partnership with them. If there are any suspicions, concerns or evidence to show that a child is likely to or suffering significant harm ‘under section 47 of the Act of social services’ an assessment would be carried out by a social worker. Furthermore, a strategy discussion would take place during the initial assessment and these discussions would consider ‘whether there is an immediate need to secure the child’s safety’. (Spray and Jowett …show more content…
Children who have been assessed and meet the threshold criteria of section 31 would be subject to a care order or a section 38 interim care order. This means that the children can be removed from their home and put into care where the local authority would then have parental responsibility and can decide where the child would live. However, this would not stop the parental responsibility of the parents of the child, but limit their parental rights and control. Only the court has the ability to grant these orders and therefore, this means the social worker would have to provide an acceptable care plan. The care planning, placement and Care Review explains what a care plan is and the guidance and regulations that a social worker has to follow when writing these care plans. In addition, the working together to safeguard children guidance also sets out the procedures that take place and the role of the social worker in it. The care plan written would have to set out all care arrangements for the child such as where they will be staying, education, healthcare and most importantly securing their permanence or safe return back home. Once the order has been granted, these plans would be discussed, agreed and maybe altered at ‘reviews’ held after 1, 3 and 6 months. The care order granted can remain in place until the order is discharged, a placement order is
If the local authority establishes that the child is a child in need or at risk of harm, it has a duty under section 47 of the Children Act (1989) to make a care plan or child protection plan to provide support which involves adequate supervision and checks to ensure that the child is no longer at risk. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) promotes empowerment for children as they can exercise their right to express their views and be heard and their best interest would be at the centre of the intervention and social workers need to ensure that decisions made are not affected by the influence from family or professionals they work with (Lee & Hudson,
The term ‘looked after children’ is defined to be a child who is accommodated by the local authority, away from their family, either in a residential/foster placement (Cocker, 2008). The term ‘in care’ used to be quite commonly used but LAC is actually the legally correct term. There are a range of placements that LAC may be put in, but this is all depending on what age they are and what current issues they had in their homes which led them to the care system. The types of placements are:
P1: To outline why children and young people may need to be looked after away from their families.
“An Act to reform the law relating to children; to provide for local authority services for children in need and others; to amend the law with respect to children’s homes, community homes, voluntary homes and voluntary organisations; to make provision with respect to fostering, child minding and day care for young children and adoption; and for connected purposes.”
...children, young people and their families can be both complex and difficult. Social work practice is one of the most challenging as it involves work with a diverse range of both professionals and service users. However, there is more that one single reason for this. As all professionals, agencies and parents continue to work together in various different cases, a variety of skills are required including: communication, preparation, intervention skills, assessment of significant harm, research of current legislation and decision making skills, all of which contribute to the complexities and difficulties of social work. It could be argued that these difficulties are highlighted most in many public cases of child abuse; moreover these cases can be seen to be changing social work practice, affecting the difficulties and complexities of working within this profession.
The grounds for making a supervision or care order can be found in in s.31 of The Children Act 1989. Before a supervision or care order can be made, there are four areas that must be established. The court must show that ‘the child concerned is suffering or likely to suffer, significant harm’. Under s.31(2)(b) it states that, ‘The harm, or likelihood of harm, is attributable to: (i) the care given to the child, or likely to be given to him if the order were not made, not being what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to give him; or (ii) the child’s being beyond parental control’. The last two criteria are that the making of the order would promote the welfare of the child, and it is better for the child than making no order at all. A care order was explained in Hunt’s major study on care proceedings as a “last resort” and should only be used if all other options have been explored .
The environment has to be safe and secure and equal attention according to the needs of the child is necessary. The Act puts emphasis on the welfare and rights of the child, teachers and support staff must effectively communicate with children and young people respecting their views, wishes and feelings. Again, procedures for reporting concerns and information sharing have to be followed. Professionals such as social workers under the Act are permitted to make investigations and where significant harm is apparent; the police are permitted to take the child.
The main points of the children’s act 1989 are parental responsibility and the welfare of the child. Children are best cared for within their own families. The act states that the mental and physical wellbeing of the child is important. Professionals and parents/carers must work together to ensure the safety of the child. Local authorities have a duty to look into situations where they suspect a child or young person to be suffering from significant harm. Duties get allocated to local authorities, and other agencies to ensure that all children are safeguarded. The children’s act 2004 reinforces that all organisations that work with children and young people must help to safeguard
During the court case the judge said that lead social worker Gunn Wahlstrom was “naïve beyond belief”. This report brought over 68 recommendations to make sure cases like this did not happen again. The recommendations included putting the child first and the parent’s second. “Jasmines’ fate illustrates all too clearly the disastrous consequences of the misguides attitude of the social workers having treated Morris Beckford and Beverley Lorrington as the clients first and foremost” (London Borough of Brent, 1985,p295). The social workers in Jasmine’s c...
As a Child Protective worker, my responsibilities are to assess safety (immediate), risk (future harm), abuse and maltreatment, and make a determination as to whether a child is safe or at risk of future harm and assess the need for services. The child welfare worker assigned to investigate the case failed to ensure the above. Works Cited Downs-Whitelaw, S., Moore, E., & McFadden, E. J. (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
ii. A clear framework for local safeguarding boards for monitoring local services effectiveness. iii. Guidance aims to help professionals understand what they need to do and what they can expect of one another in order to safeguard/keep children
Waters explain what she does on a micro level it fits the description of what a unified model of advocacy entails. From when a child is removed from their homes and placed into the care of the state, specific tasks have been allocated to her and her unit. As the social worker or case worker read the reports provided an understanding is developed. And if an understanding isn’t developed through reports, the next step of visiting the child, requesting documents from psychiatrist, medical doctors and/or psychologist allows one to gain further insight. A case plan is then created, which states what services the parents and the children must complete and is presented in court to a judge. The advocating, evaluating and ongoing monitoring as mentioned in hoefer in table 1.1 under advocacy practice (,p. 5) is continuous until the child is either returned home or giving a goal of
Observation is very important in young children because that is how you get to know a child better. While observing how a child interacts with their peers, adults, and how they behave in different settings, you are getting to know the child without speaking to them.
Commission for Social Care Inspection (2005) Making Every Child Matter, Commission for Social Care Inspection
Social services then carry out its own investigation and decide whether the child gets hoe, or will fall further under social services care, after the expiry of the Police Protection Order. It is extremely important that while in the Children Act 1989 and subsequent laws are legally defined threshold of significant harm, local authorities may interpret situations of Child in Need and/or Child in Need of Protection separately. As a result, in some areas, children can be taken away from parents, while others do not because they do not qualify as children in need of such a protection. When the child is placed in foster care, parents must sign the agreement, which specifies that they do so of their own volition. Child can be return to the parents at any time, as long as the threshold criteria are met, then local authorities can apply to the court about sharing parental responsibilities.