Child protection practice / Harry Ferguson.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

How do practitioners step up to the professional challenge of keeping children safe? Leading author Harry Ferguson draws on his own research, personal experience and real-life case studies to challenge the way we think about child protection. This highly original and engaging book captures the daily reality of practice within life's most personal spaces, and offers a rare insight into the lived experience of working with vulnerable children, their parents and other carers.An inspiring declaration of the need for a new, intimate approach to child protection, this ground-breaking book lays the foundations of skilful, authoritative practice. It is a must for Social Work student and practitioners within this challenging field.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements (p. xi)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• In the beginning ... (p. 1)
• Towards intimate child protection practice (p. 8)
• The structure and scope of the book (p. 11)
• 1 Knocking on the door of history (p. 14)
• The beginnings of child protection practice (p. 15)
• Home visiting becomes the key method (p. 17)
• Inside the home: the child and the house (p. 19)
• Child protection on the move (p. 24)
• 2 Child abuse and the development of child protection policy and practice (p. 26)
• The disappearance of child death in child protection cases (p. 26)
• Changing conceptions of child abuse (p. 29)
• From inspection to partnership in child protection practice (p. 31)
• The retreat from intimacy and face-to-face practice (p. 37)
• Conclusion (p. 39)
• 3 Streets, housing estates, doorsteps: getting to the home (p. 41)
• Walking the walk in child protection (p. 43)
• Doorsteps and knocking on the door (p. 47)
• Conclusion (p. 52)
• 4 The home visit: crossing the threshold (p. 53)
• Making sense of the home and suspected child abuse (p. 53)
• How the home is used to block intimate practice (p. 58)
• The importance of movement in protecting children (p. 60)
• Conclusion (p. 65)
• 5 Bedrooms, kitchens and more intimate spaces (p. 66)
• Seeking to engage with children and inspect the home (p. 67)
• Going into families' intimate spaces and facing unbearable feelings (p. 72)
• Conclusion (p. 78)
• 6 Relating to children (p. 80)
• Making contact with children (p. 81)
• Where to relate to children on their own (p. 84)
• Skill, play and body technique in relating to children (p. 89)
• Relating to children in spaces beyond the home (p. 91)
• Conclusion (p. 93)
• 7 The importance of touch in protecting children (p. 95)
• A brief history of touch in child welfare (p. 95)
• The troubling absence of touch in child protection today (p. 99)
• The nature of touch (p. 101)
• Practising touch (p. 105)
• Being prepared to touch children (and their carers) (p. 108)
• Conclusion (p. 110)
• 8 The car as a space for therapeutic practice (p. 111)
• The emergence of the car in social work (p. 112)
• Moving stories: the car in child protection practice (p. 113)
• Theorizing the car and therapeutic spaces and relationships (p. 118)
• Conclusion (p. 124)
• 9 Practice in hospitals, offices and other public spaces (p. 125)
• The office interview (p. 126)
• Hospitals (p. 129)
• Office politics and organizational dynamics (p. 132)
• Child protection practice is never simple (p. 135)
• Conclusion (p. 136)
• 10 Working with mothers (p. 137)
• Assessing mothering (p. 138)
• Working with mothers in practice (p. 140)
• The process of engagement (p. 141)
• Improving parenting skills and the practice of intimacy (p. 143)
• Relationship-based practice with the child (p. 144)
• Working with a mother's trauma, anger and loss (p. 145)
• Helping an abusive mother (p. 147)
• Conclusion (p. 149)
• 11 Working with fathers (p. 151)
• Finding and engaging fathers (p. 151)
• Working with men and masculinities (p. 154)
• Making fathers safe (p. 158)
• Conclusion (p. 162)
• 12 Using good authority: working with resistance and involuntary clients (p. 164)
• Physical blockages and resistance to reaching the child (p. 165)
• Pathological communication: when resistance is non-physical (p. 168)
• Good authority (p. 170)
• Working with involuntary clients/service users (p. 172)
• Conclusion (p. 178)
• 13 Multi-agency working and relationship-based practice (p. 180)
• Problems in multi-agency working and communication (p. 181)
• Authoritative practice and the complexities of interprofessional working (p. 182)
• Case management and relationship-based practice (p. 187)
• Child protection in complex systems (p. 191)
• 14 Spaces for reflection and organizational support (p. 193)
• The circularity of office-car-home visit experiences (p. 194)
• The car as a secure base and space for reflection (p. 195)
• The office, emotional listening and organizational containment (p. 196)
• Embodied listening and a child protection skin (p. 201)
• Conclusion (p. 204)
• 15 Intimate child protection practice (p. 206)
• An intimate journey: retracing our steps (p. 206)
• The intimate child protection practitioner at work (p. 210)
• Bibliography (p. 216)
• Index (p. 230)

Author notes provided by Syndetics