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Editorial: Relationships matter - well they do, relatively speaking

Editorial: Relationships matter - well they do, relatively speaking Dartington Social Research Unit, UK Nick Axford1 and Michael Little2 Dartington Social Research Unit, UK, and Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, US One of the more common among the myriad diagnoses offered following a child abuse scandal such as the recent tragic case of Baby P1 runs something like this. The regulators behind children’s services are obsessed with recording information and hitting targets. Opportunities for direct work with clients are being squeezed out. Yet, these relationships are what professionals and service users really value, and when they are undermined children suffer – sometimes fatally. The solution is to reduce the amount of formfilling and key-pressing so that practitioners can spend more time seeing real children and families. Do that and fewer children will die. Sometimes this argument is bundled up in a more expansive broadside against the preoccupation with outcomes and evidence-based practice, which are dismissed as a front for sinister managerial obsessions with saving money, monitoring performance and controlling frontline workers’ every move. We are urged to remember that the actual process of social work is what matters, not a narrow focus on outcomes or task: ‘There are some areas of social work practice http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Children's Services Pier Professional

Editorial: Relationships matter - well they do, relatively speaking

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Publisher
Pier Professional
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by Pier Professional Limited
ISSN
1746-6660
eISSN
2042-8677
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Dartington Social Research Unit, UK Nick Axford1 and Michael Little2 Dartington Social Research Unit, UK, and Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, US One of the more common among the myriad diagnoses offered following a child abuse scandal such as the recent tragic case of Baby P1 runs something like this. The regulators behind children’s services are obsessed with recording information and hitting targets. Opportunities for direct work with clients are being squeezed out. Yet, these relationships are what professionals and service users really value, and when they are undermined children suffer – sometimes fatally. The solution is to reduce the amount of formfilling and key-pressing so that practitioners can spend more time seeing real children and families. Do that and fewer children will die. Sometimes this argument is bundled up in a more expansive broadside against the preoccupation with outcomes and evidence-based practice, which are dismissed as a front for sinister managerial obsessions with saving money, monitoring performance and controlling frontline workers’ every move. We are urged to remember that the actual process of social work is what matters, not a narrow focus on outcomes or task: ‘There are some areas of social work practice

Journal

Journal of Children's ServicesPier Professional

Published: Nov 1, 2008

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