1st Edition

Collaborative Practice with Vulnerable Children and Their Families

By Julie Taylor, June Thoburn Copyright 2016
    133 Pages
    by Routledge

    134 Pages
    by Routledge

    Collaborative Practice with Vulnerable Children and Their Families focuses on the knowledge and skills needed by professionals who work across disciplines to meet the needs of parents and children experiencing complex difficulties. It establishes the importance of both interprofessional and interagency collaboration.

    After detailing the characteristics of parents and children who may be in need of specialized services, the authors describe different approaches to service delivery in theory and practice, provide case examples and exercises, and address the developments in interprofessional education for those currently working in the field. They present evidence supporting collaborative practice as a means of achieving better outcomes for vulnerable children and their families, and explore the difficulties in working successfully across agencies and disciplines.

    A provocative examination focused on the wellbeing of families in crisis and the care they receive, this book:

    • Introduces terms that are used in collaborative practice
    • Details the legal mandate for working with families experiencing complex problems
    • Provides legal definitions of ‘children in need’ and with a right to receive "targeted" services
    • Outlines the circumstances that require court action (family law and criminal law) to protect children from "significant harm"

    Collaborative Practice with Vulnerable Children and Their Families examines the values and ethical standards shared by all professionals who work together to help at-risk children and their families, and serves as a definitive guide to professionals in social work, nursing, general practice, pediatrics and related professions.

    A volume in the series CAIPE Collaborative Practice Series
    Series edited by Hugh Barr and Marion Helme

    Collaborative Practice: An Essential Component of the Service to Vulnerable Children and Their Families
    Introduction: Why This Workbook and Why Now?
    The Mandate to Work Collaboratively
    The Organisation of Service Delivery to Support Collaborative Practice
    Interprofessional Education and Training for Collaborative Practice with Children and Families
    Key Texts on Collaborative Working and IPE

    Who Are the Children and Families Most Likely to Need Additional Supportive and Protective Services?
    Introduction
    Which Children and Families Are Most Likely to Be in Need of Additional Services?
    What ‘Additional Services’ Might Be Needed?
    Case Vignettes
    Key Texts on Children and Families Most Likely to Need Additional Supportive and Protective Services

    Working Collaboratively within Legal Mandates and Statutory Guidance
    Overview of the Legislative Powers and Duties
    The Legislation
    The Duty to Collaborate
    Services Provided with Parental and Older Child Agreement
    Compulsory Intervention
    Statutory Orders Limiting or Terminating Parental Rights and Responsibility
    Criminal Investigations
    Collaborative Working When Children Are Looked After
    Key Texts on Working Collaboratively within Legal Mandates and Statutory Guidance

    The Value Base for Working Collaboratively with Vulnerable Children and Families
    Introduction: Shared Professional Values
    Professional Codes of Ethics and Standards
    Registered Professionals
    Record Keeping and Confidentiality
    Confidentiality and Information Sharing in Practice
    Key Texts on Value Base for Working Collaboratively with Vulnerable Children and Families

    The Knowledge-Base for Collaborative Practice
    The Policy Dimension
    Messages from Research and Evaluations about Collaborative Practice
    Issues Emerging from the Theoretical and Practice Literature
    Conclusion
    Key Texts on the Knowledge-Base for Collaborative Practice

    Towards Effective Collaborative Practice
    Introduction
    Some Approaches to Helping Vulnerable Children and Families
    The Essential Elements of Effective Interprofessional Collaboration
    Collaborative Practice in Action with ‘Vignette’ Families
    Conclusion
    Key Texts on Effective Collaborative Practice
    CAIPE/Radcliffe Collaborative Practice Workbooks: Series Appendix
    References

    Biography

    June Thoburn , CBE, LittD, is an emeritus professor of social work at the University of East Anglia (UEA). She qualified as a social worker in 1963 and worked in local authority child and family social work and generic practice in England and Canada before taking up a joint appointment at UEA in 1979. As a founding director of the UEA Centre for Research on the Child and Family and of the Making Research Count collaboration, she has a particular interest in finding innovative ways of helping social workers to use knowledge from a range of sources in their practice.

    Julie Taylor , PhD, FRCN, RN, MSc, BSc (Hons), is a nurse scientist specializing in child maltreatment. She is professor of child protection in the School of Health and Population Science at the University of Birmingham, with previous chairs at the Universities of Edinburgh (NSPCC Child Protection Research Centre) and Dundee (School of Nursing and Midwifery). For three years (2010–2013) she was Head of Strategy and Development (Abuse in High Risk Families) with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). She is the author of eight books and over 100 academic articles.

    "This lively and engaging book makes an essential contribution to this woefully neglected area. It takes the reader step-by-step through key areas of law, values and research-based knowledge to encourage confident and compassionate collaborative practice."
    —Professor Marian Brandon, University Of East Anglia, UK

    "The content is particularly useful to those who have decision-making and case-accountable roles in providing services to vulnerable children and their parents …This is a timely and interesting book, which I thoroughly recommend."
    —Jane V. Appleton, Professor in Primary and Community Care