© British Association of Social Workers
Quality Control in Child Care
June Thoburn is a lecturer in social work at the University of East Anglia, and is seconded to work half time as a generalist social worker with Norfolk social services department. She has been a specialist child care worker in England and Canada, and has undertaken research on chidren returning home on trial, and being placed with permenent families.
Correspondence to June Thoburn, School of Ecnomics and Social Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TS
Summary
This article takes as its starting point recent evidence about poor practice in child care social work. It identifies a large number of mechanisms for ensuring quality control, and considers why they appear to be having so little effect. The writer suggests that because of the complexity of cases and the need for direction, and also because of disagreements about what is ‘quality’ in child care, bureaucratic or procedural mechanisms have serious limitations as the major means for ensuring good practice. She focuses on the statutory review as the solution most frequently suggested but concludes that too much is being expected of it.
Whilst accepting the need for procedural, inspectorial, judicial, and political checks and for more appropriate resources for family support, she suggests that the main remedy for poor practice must lie in professional mechanisms. These include increased specialization, more time, improved training, and consultation. The weight of evidence and the intractable nature of the problem may call for drastic measures, such as the introduction of the Approved social worker(child care).