Child and family social workers are an integral part of health and social care operations across the country. Professionals in this field are tasked with offering different forms of assistance to young people, children, and their guardians whenever in need. In essence, their work involves early intervention and prevention of any form of child abuse and neglect that might be suffered by children and young people. The settings in which they conduct their duties include, but not limited to, schools, families, children`s homes, and placements set aside for children at high risk of abuse. To execute their duty effectively, child and family social workers are expected to possess qualities such as resilience and competence (Biggart, Ward, Cook, & Schofield, 2017). However, the ease with which the professionals can execute their duties is greatly hindered by austerity measures implemented by the government. This is because such measures are aimed at funding the government deficits by reducing the funding directed to the social care sector among other sectors hence directly affecting the child and family social care negatively.
Definitions
The definitions to the following phrases are given because they represent concepts that are important to the understanding of the topic of the research. They are important to the paper because the main points of the research paper revolve around them.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Child welfare services- The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) guidelines for practice describes child welfare services are services provided by different agencies that collectively work towards the prevention, treatment, and protection of children and youth across the country (BASW, 2020).
Child Abuse- according to the national society of prevention of cruelty to children (NSPCC) child abuse is defined as any form of physical, sexual, emotional, mental or psychological maltreatment to a child perpetrated on the child by another child, their parent or guardian (NSPCC, 2020).
Austerity- Governmental policies and programs that reduce funding to public services implemented by governments with the aim of offsetting their debt or fund other sectors it deems more important (Klein, & Winkler, 2019).
Effects of Austerity on Child and Family Social Work
Child and family social workers have their responsibilities clearly described by the United Kingdom laws and regulations pertaining health and social care. According to the Children and Social Work Act 2017, a child and family social worker is responsible for procedures that are designed to prevent children from abuse and/or maltreatment by anyone in the society in which the child exists (Gov.uk, 2017) A child and family social worker is responsible for conducting an assessment aimed at evaluating a child`s physical, emotional and mental needs. This should be done if the child in question is under their area of jurisdiction and has been noted to have signs of abuse. Information about such children can be brought to the attention of child and family social workers by different sources such as their guardian, teacher, or any concerned third party. This responsibility as required by the provisions of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 goes further than an assessment. The worker involved is required to form a relationship with the child that is based on support and trust to discover the cause of the abuse as shown by the visible symptoms (Morrison,2016).
The implementation of the above legal responsibility requires financial resources. This is because the steps that child and family social workers take to execute this responsibility include measures such as visitations to the child`s school, visitations to their homes, and visitations to the residence of individuals close to the child such as their teachers or friends. The political-economic policies that reduce the funding allocated to the agencies under which these social workers work have restrained the social workers. As a result of the cuts made in the budget set aside for social work practice, child and family social workers find it difficult to take all the necessary steps in the process of fulfilling these legal responsibility. Additionally, the fact that cases that require the execution of these legal responsibilities are numerous, the budget for the same becomes bigger than that allocated to them. Consequently, the workers are unable to carry out the responsibilities as required which exposes children that require such services to abuse.
Secondly, the Act also requires a child welfare social worker to develop plans, both short-term and long term, to ensure that a child, who, according to the assessment report, has been abused or at the risk of being abused, is protected from further abuse and potential abuse respectively. This involves placing the children in a care home if the threat of abuse is imminent, placing the child in alternative families that can be proved to be suitable for their upbringing or other professional services specializing in support services (Gov.uk 2017). Furthermore, while implementing this plan of action, the social worker is required by the International Federation of Social Workers to inform the child in question their rights and obligations to increase their ability to support the processes of protecting him or her (International Federation of Social Workers, 2002). Just like while conducting a needs assessment, coming up with a short and long-term plan of action to prevent a child from abuse requires considerable financial resources. The process of looking for an alternative placement for a child in danger of being abused is financially demanding because of the expenses involved and even more so on a national scale. With austerity measures that affect the social practice negatively in place, the social workers` ability to form and act on a short and long-term plan that prevents vulnerable children from abuse is greatly hindered. The resultant underfunding has left them no choice but to work on a tight budget, a situation that limits their options at the expense of the children under their care and at their ability to perform their duties as assigned to them by the law.
Thirdly, if a child under the care of a social and family social worker needs help with accessing health care services such as mental, hearing, optical and dental among others, it is the responsibility of the worker to act as a link between the child and the services in question. On the same note, if the child in question is involved in legal proceedings, it is also the duty of the social worker under which the child is placed to act as a link between the child and the legal proceedings educate them on their role in the proceedings (Darlington, 2018). The effectiveness with which a child and family social worker plays the above linkage roles is determined by the resources available to them. In light of this, it can be seen how austerity has reduced the effectiveness of executing the above mandates as provided by the law. The reduction in funds has put the workers in a position where their ability to perform such duties has been greatly curtailed. Austerity has led to the loss of some agencies that social workers turned to for help when trying to act as links between the children they watch and the services they need. In such cases, the workers in question have been forced to turn to an individualized approach to child protection. In this approach, in place of the agencies, the workers turn to individuals that will most likely act in the child`s best interests for help. Such individuals include the child`s close relatives among other potential well-wishers. This presents a challenge to the workers in question because they have no guarantee to receive financial support from such individuals irrespective of their good intentions.
A child and family social care worker is also expected by the Children and Social Work Act 2017 to work closely with the family of a child to protect him or her from abuse. This requirement is however to be followed only if the threat of abuse does not come from the family itself (Gov.uk, 2017). This is important because the family of the child in question has intimate knowledge about the child that can be of help in providing the child with the desired environment. Information such as their behavioural patterns, their character, their likes and dislikes, when incorporated in the action plan for securing the child, goes a long way in ensuring effective child support. Working with the families of all the children under the care of child and family social workers is however expensive because of the frequent scheduling and visitations involved. However, with the austerity policies, social workers have been forced to reduce their degree of interaction with the families of the children under their care as required by the law in a bid to remain within the budget available to them. This has had the effect of reducing the valuable information social workers receive from the family and that which they give to the family regarding the progress of the affected child. The resultant situation causes weakness the social worker`s support to the children due to the reduced supply of information.
In situations where the needs assessment done on a child necessitates adoption services, it is the legal responsibility of the child and family social worker providing protection services to the child in question to work in collaboration with the relevant authorities to facilitate the adoption of the child into a safe family (Gov.uk. 2002). Their participation in the process is required by the law because they hold information about the child`s specific needs based on the assessment done and would be in a better position to decide the best option for the child. This legal responsibility has however also been adversely affected by austerity. The interdisciplinary collaboration that takes place between the child and family social worker and workers in other organizations involved in the adoption process requires funding from the government. The reduction of funds as caused by budget cuts on social practices has made the collaboration difficult and as a result, affected the ability of the workers to facilitate a smooth adoption process for the children under their care.
According to the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), there are specific standards that all social workers that are involved in child welfare services are required to observe. One of these standards is the requirement of high-quality services. The BASW requires that when providing welfare services to all children across the nation, all child and family social workers should provide the highest quality of services possible (BASW, 2020). The association expects all child welfare social workers to observe this standard because anything less can be fatal considering the sensitive nature of their jobs. However, to ensure quality services, child and family social workers require adequate funding in every step of the procedures dictated to them by the laws that govern their practice. The reduction of funds because of the austerity political-economic policies imposed on the social work sector has made adherence to this standard difficult to achieve. Instead of maintaining high-quality standards, the reduction in their funding has led them to compromise on quality for purposes of distributing the insufficient funds to every department.
Another piece policy that guides the performance of child welfare workers in the United Kingdom is the Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance. This guide requires chid and family social workers to see to work with different organizations for purposes of protecting children (Department of Education, 2017)). Provisions in this guide are based on the fact that the fact the it is impossible for child and social workers to solve the problems that children under their care suffered from all by themselves. It is therefore important for them to work with multiple organizations to enable the safeguarding of children across the country. The statutory guidance gives social workers the mandate to work with organizations such as law enforcement, hospitals, schools and their respective local governments in the process of safeguarding children.
To engage in the above duties as required by the Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance, the child and family social workers need adequate financial resources from the government. This is because the services they are required by the guidance to provide for the child are expensive. For example, if a child is facing the possibility of abuse because their parents` abuse drugs the social workers are required to work with the police and drug rehabilitation organizations to safeguard the child. Similarly, in the event a child is being neglected because of their parents` deficiency in parenting skills, conducting in-home programs to improve their skills requires considerable financial support. The achievement of all of the above by the child and family social workers involved is greatly hindered by the implementation of austerity policies that reduce funding for the social workers across the nation. Without adequate funding, their efforts to fulfil the above legal requirements.
Austerity has also limited the performance of child and family social workers concerning the requirements of the NHS. For example, the NHS requires that when a child dies under suspicious circumstances, it is the responsibility of the child and family social workers to conduct or participate in an investigation aimed at finding the cause of death. The investigation should involve the access to the child`s records in order to establish whether there are any avoidable conditions that contributed to their death. Moreover, a post mortem examination should be carried out and the results as supplied by the pathologist accessed for purposes of the investigation. Whenever necessary, the investigation should enable the joint working of different organizations in so far as they are capable of finding the cause of the child`s death. Such organizations include the school and/or the law enforcement in the event they were involved in the child`s life (NHS, 2018). All the above steps are required by the NHS because they contribute to the development of knowledge that is important to the protection of children in the United Kingdom. From such information, child and family social workers can ensure that other children are prevented from suffering the same fate as the deceased child.
While the above requirements by the NHS are noble, most child and family social workers find it difficult to implement them because of unclear channels of funds between the social workers and the healthcare sector. The confusion happens because the action plans require funds to implement but the budget cuts prevent them from being fully realized hence a below-par implementation of the law. This can be attributed to the underfunding experienced by the entire social care sector caused by austerity programs.
Ethical Dilemmas in Child and Family Social Work Caused by Austerity
In social work practice, an ethical dilemma happens when one is faced with moral decisions in which he or she is to choose one at the expense of the other despite the moral significance of both. In health and social care, such decisions are critical because of the seriousness of their repercussions. (Malinga, Ntshwarang, & Lecha, 2018). In child and family social work, the lack of sufficient funds caused by austerity has affected the performance of child and family social workers by putting them in multiple ethical dilemmas in the process if executing their legal duties. Because of the inadequate funds, the workers are often forced to make tough ethical decisions. For instance, the process of protecting a child from abuse involves several steps, all of which are critical in securing the safety of the child. However, they all require financial resources to achieve. In some cases where the inadequate funds make it impossible to go through all the procedures, the social workers are compelled to choose the most important procedure among those required of them. This is a difficult ethical dilemma because all procedures are important in their rights. In the end, they make decisions in which they ignore some of their legal responsibilities hence having their performances negatively impacted.
Secondly, an ethical dilemma caused by austerity-enabled underfunding in the social work sector can be in the form of choosing the kids to attend to. Since cases of child abuse have the potential to increase at any point in time, if they increase beyond the capacity of the reduced budget, the social workers will not be able to attend to all children at the same time. This leads to a series of ethical dilemmas where the workers have to decide the most serious cases and prioritize them, side lining other children in the process.
The child and family social workers agencies tasked with conducting or participating in thorough investigations following the death of a child also experience ethical dilemmas caused by underfunding. Most investigations of such nature require extensive financial resources because of the different organizations that ought to take part. As a result, they often find themselves in situations where they are forced to choose among the most steps of the investigation in order to stay within the budget. The process of choosing some and forgoing other important step becomes an ethical dilemma for those involved. The above three ethical dilemmas caused by underfunding have been known to have two major effects that negatively impact the ability of social workers to perform their duties as required. Firstly, it directly curtails their ability to cater to all children in the manner required by the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. This happens since they are forced to forego some procedures and delay attending to other children whose situations are deemed less urgent.
Most child and family social workers form relationships with the children under their care. This makes them develop an attachment to the children hence care about them on a personal level rather than just professionally. However, they are in most cases unable to take care of the children`s financial needs if the budget cannot allow them to attend to all of them. Studies conducted on the effects of ethical dilemmas among health and social workers have shown that the decisions have a negative effect on their emotional wellbeing (Malinga, Ntshwarang, & Lecha, 2018). Consequently, they become unable to function optimally as a result of the guilt they feel for neglecting other children in favour of others or foregoing other procedures that may cause harm to the children. In an article written in the Guardian, it was reported that the austerity effects in the United Kingdom have left social workers that work with children in tears (Shenman, 2018). This is indicative of the emotional attachment that the workers have to the children under their care to the extent that lack of funds to care for them properly affects them personally hence reducing their ability to perform well and discharge their legal duties.
Conclusion
Austerity measures and programs affect the performance of child and family social workers in multiple ways. All the procedures that the provisions of the different laws and policies that govern their operations are made difficult to adhere to because the actions they advise require funding to undertake. As established, the workers struggle to implement all the procedures required by the Children and Social Work Act 2017such as needs assessment, implementation of a resultant action plan, acting as a link between the children under care and the services they need and working with the families of the children because of the financial constraints. The effects of austerity have also affected the ability of child and family social workers to follow the provisions of other important policies such as Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance and the relevant NHS requirements. Finally, the austerity programs have also caused moral dilemmas to the child and family social workers which have frustrated their performance much to the disadvantage of the children under their care.
References
BASW. (2020, April 24). Domestic abuse and child welfare: A practice guide for social workers . https://www.basw.co.uk/resources/domestic-abuse-and-child-welfare-practice-guide-social-workers-0
Biggart, L., Ward, E., Cook, L., & Schofield, G. (2017). The team as a secure base: Promoting resilience and competence in child and family social work. Children and Youth Services Review , 83 , 119-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.10.031
Darlington, C. (2018). Children and social work act 2017 . Children England. https://www.childrenengland.org.uk/children-and-social-work-act-2017
Department of Education. (2017). Working together to safeguard children: Changes to statutory guidance - Department for education - Citizen space . Department for Education - Citizen Space. https://consult.education.gov.uk/child-protection-safeguarding-and-family-law/working-together-to-safeguard-children-revisions-t/
Gov.uk. (2002). Adoption and children act 2002 . Legislation.gov.uk. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/38/contents
Hebenstreit, H. (2017). The National Association of Social Workers code of ethics and cultural competence: What does Anne Fadiman's the spirit catches you and you fall down teach us today? Health & Social Work , 42 (2), 103-107. https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlx007
International Federation of Social Workers. (2002). Social Work and the Rights of the Children: a Professional Training Manual on the UN Convention . Verf.
Klein, M., & Winkler, R. (2019). Austerity, inequality, and private debt overhang. European Journal of Political Economy , 57 , 89-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2018.08.003
Malinga, T., Ntshwarang, P. N., & Lecha, M. (2018). Ethical dilemmas in social work practice. Ethical Issues in Social Work Practice , 82-104. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-3090-9.ch007
Morrison, F. (2019, January 31). Social workers' communication with children and young people in practice . Iriss. https://www.iriss.org.uk/resources/insights/social-workers-communication-children-and-young-people-practice
NHS. (2018). When a child dies: A guide for parents and carers . www.england.nhs.uk/. https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/parent-leaflet-child-death-review-v2.pdf Children and Social Work Act 2017 . (2017). Legislation.gov.uk. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/16/contents/enacted
NSPCC. (2020). What is child abuse? https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/
Shenman, G. (2018, July 17). Austerity's effects are driving social workers to tears – it's why we must protest . the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2017/nov/29/austerity-social-workers-protest
