BJSW Advance Access originally published online on October 10, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2006 36(2):267-281; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch255
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Investigation or Initial Assessment of Child Concerns? The Impact of the Refocusing Initiative on Social Work Practice
Dendy Platt is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Bristol University, and Programme Director of the Post-qualifying Child Care Award course for social workers. Until 2004, he was at Northumbria University, where his teaching included child protection and social work with children and young people. In the past, he has held practice and management posts in both the voluntary and statutory sectors, including front line child-care social work, family centre work and community work. He has undertaken research into child protection and family support.
Correspondence to Dr Dendy Platt, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK. E-mail: Dendy.Platt{at}bristol.ac.uk
This paper is based on a qualitative research study of social workers’ and parents’ experiences of attempts to ‘refocus’ child protection practice in England since the late 1990s. A review of the research base for the refocusing initiative is presented, leading to an exploration of one of the key changes arising from the initiative: the move away from investigations in ‘borderline’ cases towards less intrusive initial assessments. Methods involved qualitative interviews with parents and social workers in twenty-three cases drawn from two local authorities. The main conclusions are that initial assessments, as developed through the refocusing initiative and the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health, 2000), provide a form of practice that offers benefits in terms of balancing child protection and child welfare approaches, and in terms of relationships with parents.
Keywords: initial assessment, children in need, refocusing initiative, child protection
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