Dr Emma Geddes

In this article, I take a critical approach to the marginalisation of the grief experienced by first mothers who have experienced the non-consensual adoption of a child in England, in a context within which welfare benefits and services intended to support the most disadvantaged families have been dramatically curtailed. With reference to the concepts of disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss, and in light of some identified parallels between the death of a child and the loss of a child to adoption, I draw upon literature from the field of bereavement studies in presenting findings arising from semi-structured interviews in which 17 first mothers sorted through artefacts such as toys, clothing and blankets associated with their now-adopted children and reflected upon the meanings that such keepsakes had taken on in their lives after loss. Respondents’ accounts revealed that artefacts were invested with high value, and could operate as vehicles for memories of time spent caring for children. It was found that interacting with artefacts could bring comfort, evoking in mothers sensory memories of the smell and feel of their now-adopted child. Interactions with artefacts were found to hold capacity to affirm respondents’ maternal status, as well as symbolising oppression and injustice, sometimes evoking strong feelings of anger directed towards professionals involved in children’s adoption.

Over the last decade, at a time when funding for services intended to support families has been dramatically curtailed, successive governments in England and Wales have sought to increase the numbers of children being adopted from care. In light of the central role that children’s social workers play in progressing plans for adoption, this research seeks to investigate 15 practitioners’ experiences of operating within the current context. Evidence of significant tensions in social workers’ accounts of planning for adoption and post-adoption contact under austerity is presented, and Evetts’ distinction between organisational and occupational professionalism is drawn upon to understand the influence of the wider political context on decisions made by practitioners in working with children who go on to be adopted.

This accessible and informative guide is intended primarily for adoptive parents, although much of the content would be useful for teachers, social workers and other practitioners working to support adopted children at school. The authors provide a brief overview of the current pressures faced in education and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, outlining adoptive families’ entitlements to support in Scotland and providing a realistic account of some of the challenges parents may encounter in advocating for specialist support. The reality that problems with school are the most common reason why adopters in Scotland contact the Adoption UK helpline demonstrates the need for this useful publication.

Mainstream policy and research have driven forward numerous interventions relating to persistent and significant variation in the rate of teenage pregnancy both between and within local areas in England, including a focus on the high concentration of young parenthood in deprived coastal communities. Coastal towns in England face a constellation of unique, complex and intertwining pressures which drive clusters of socio-economic deprivation and social issues. Building upon what is known about the spatial concentration of young parenthood within deprived coastal towns, we take a place-based approach to understanding social inequalities, presenting qualitative evidence relating to the intersection of young parenthood and forms of social injustice, particularly the increased likelihood of the children of young parents being the subject of compulsory investigation by Children's Services. We explore findings arising from qualitative participatory arts-based research with 18 young parents and interviews with 15 practitioners, examining the significance of the spatial context in understanding young people's experiences of stigmatisation and considering the potential for provision to respond to distinctive features of the locality. This paper contextualises broader socio-economic structures impacting upon the experiences of teenage parents and the effect of disadvantage on the ability of young people to achieve the ‘good’ parent status to which they aspire. Through the lens of a deprived coastal town in the North of England, the findings highlight the importance of the ‘locale’ in navigating stigma, and how this creates a ‘spatialised subjectivity’ which interacts with a particular fear of professional intervention, including the threat of child removal.

Maintaining case records is an essential and necessary component of children’s social work practice. Research and child abuse inquiries internationally have highlighted the need for child-centred and participatory approaches to case recording, yet consistently highlight significant deficiencies in child-centred case recording. This paper presents findings from a mixed-method study that sought to explore practitioners’ experiences of child-centred case recording and identify new and innovative solutions to enabling this. Data were collected through focus groups and surveys with social work practitioners who worked in child protection and child looked after (CLA) contexts in two Local Authorities (LAs) in the North of England. The findings suggest practitioners have developed creative ways to help achieve child-centred recording in challenging circumstances, which could be built upon and more consistently applied across organisations, based on the foundations of relationship-based, ethical and humane practice.

This pilot study aimed to evaluate the services provided by one “Cluster” service offering early help to families in need of support in a deprived area of Leeds. The city of Leeds is divided into 23 “Clusters” or groups of schools and key partners based in small geographical areas, who have pooled funding to provide holistic early help services to children and families. Clusters are staffed by multi-agency teams of professionals and the Cluster Collaborative model operates under the Council’s “Right Conversations, Right People, Right Time” strategy for the delivery of early help services (Leeds City Council, 2020). This project has developed an understanding of how the services provided by the Cluster being studied (henceforth referred to as “the Cluster”) were being implemented in practice, contributing to knowledge as to “what works” in the delivery of Cluster services from both families who had received help and the staff involved in supporting them. The evaluation sought to explore the mechanisms for change, contextual factors and potential unintended consequences associated with receipt of Cluster support and ran from September 2021 to December 2022.

Maintaining records about children and families who are the subject of social work intervention is a routinized aspect of everyday practice and has been recognized as vital in protecting children from harm and promoting their wellbeing. There is evidence that the fast-paced nature of statutory social work, as well as bureau cratic demands and difficulties with writing, can inhibit workers’ capacity to keep child-centered records, with inadequate record keeping having serious implications for protecting children from harm in the present and meeting their potential memory and identity needs in the future. This paper presents evidence from social work educators, as well as undergraduate, postgraduate, and apprentice social work students about their experiences of teaching and learning skills for child-centered case recording while at university and on placement. We highlight the interaction of university and practice learning, identifying key barriers to the complex task of maintaining child-centered records and outlining evidence from learners that there is a case for the prioritization of teaching skills for writing for practice within the university environment. We conclude by making recommendations as to how skills for child-centered recordkeeping could be more effectively taught, assessed, and embedded in pre-qualifying social work education.