Jean Munro Executive Summary

Introduction

In 2011, one out twenty children was abused in UK (NSPCC, 2011). The over-bureaucratized practices of child protective services (CPS) are severely limiting the time spent by the social workers on the actual help of the children in need. In response to this problem, Professor Eileen Munro was commissioned by the British government to research how can the time spent on bureaucratic procedures be diminished while delivering services in the CPS area (Munro, 2011). This research paper is focused on the analysis of Munro’s review of CPS in UK from the light of Michael Lipsky’s theoretical frameworks on street level bureaucrats (SLB). It argues that social workers presented in Munro’s review fit accurately in Lipsky’s definition of street-level

Literature review is focused on illustrating to role of the social worker as a SLB. Furthermore, it elaborates on overall trends of child protection reforms. Case description is describing Munro’s review focusing on the analysis of three specific recommendations. After explaining the main mechanisms proposed by Munro’s plan to improve British CPS, this paper highlights critical parallels between Lipsky’s theoretical frameworks applied to Munro’s case. Finally, conclusive discussions will look at the main benefits and burdens illustrated by Munro’s

Errors in the field of child protection might lead to tremendous consequences on children’s life. Social workers from CPS are confronted with difficult moral dilemmas while removing a child from his family. On one hand, they are aware that the separation period from family has severe effects on the children well-being. On the other hand, social workers bear in mind that deciding not to remove the children from his family might lead to further abuse. Sometimes, the line between the two examples may be ambiguous. Social workers need to give immediate and personal responses which should be still in line with the policy objectives of the organization (Lipsky, 2010). Therefore, the judgement they exercise in such instances of decision making becomes troublesome and