Social Work Working with Children and Families

Social care working with children and families Level 4 Final exam 1. In your own words summarise the major learning points from the whole of the programme with particular reference to : * Principles of social work with children and families * The process of social work with children and families * Working with adults in the family * Immediate protection of the child * Working with the family as a group * Working with children being looked after by the local authority * Social work with families through transitions.

Loss and Gain * Children and families and special needs The course provides has provided me with a great understanding and knowledge a social workers role and a families function, the difficulties and benefits a social worker faces everyday when working with families and children. The duty of a social worker is to provide support to parents and children, also to elderly when they are part of the family. It’s there job to ensure the dignity and respect for each individual to secure their well being.

The principles of social work with families and children are to encourage the individuals in taking their own decision according with their rights, beliefs and values’ ( social workers must ensure these persons have access to all the information and services allowing them to participate), to treat people wholly through taking consideration of their society, community, environment , family and themselves, to identify the families and children’s strengths and limits in order to support them in areas where they need empowerment and improvement, to challenge oppressive practices and encourage “change” so as to build a fair society and fight discrimination based on a person’s age ,religion, language, race etc. ( An individual has a right to have diversity recognition and respect), that ensures families and children benefits from access to equal resources according to their specific needs (fair distribution of resources), to collaborate with different professionals and agencies under the law in practices and regulations to empower these clients, that opposes to stereotypes and any kind of marginalization or social exclusion these individuals may face and work in solidarity and trust to build an equal society that considers social care one of the high priority plans.

The social workers job is address tensions between care and control, this is good practice in working in partnership with families and children, to respect the process of social work: assessment (identifying family needs, issues, resources of the family), planning (through considering the resources that are available and accessible, checking the different options, determining risks that are related to these options and choices, and formulate a contract with families and children where the roles and tasks are agreed before implementation), implementation (carrying out the formulated plan with respect to the law and its regulations), monitoring , review and evaluating ( the conclusion of the work, looking at decisions and achievements, judging the service, concluding the intervention). The social workers top priority is to focus on the children’s wishes and needs, it is very important to remember that not only children and young people have difficulties, but like wises adults too. There are many cases in which domestic violence, black/GLBT oppression, when parents need assistance to care for their children. Elderly people also have different issues and needs and assistance that may need support (need for security, stimulation, freedom from guilt and so forth).

Social work with adults may imply dealing with situations that may have a negative impact on children, like addictions alcohol/drugs, violence, distance, relationship issues, etc. The cause of the issues must be identified to enable the social worker to help adults, and provide all information and advices, but the social workers intervention can be a hard task and have its limitations. To work with the family as a group, we talk about co-working and sharing the assistance and supervise; this enables to achieve better observation and assessment of needs and difficulties (two social workers are better than one doing the assessments and observing and so on).

Social working together (co-working) does have its advantages it shares the pressures and achievements, it encourages them to learn from each other and together to provide different perceptions regarding their work. It is important to understand the function and structure of family groups is the first step to formulate a family group meeting (FGM) this work is continuous assistance and meetings to address the unexpected and expected issues. It’s the social workers job to promote participation and help individual member to communicate in order to progress happen; they will need excellent listening skills great patience and observation and even some humour to achieve a healthy positive participation in such meetings. The goal of the FGM is to help families surmount their difficulties.

Once a contract has been agreed or come to an end or the goals have achieved or the plan has failed, social work with the family group is concluded. Child abuse can take different forms: physical injury, neglect, sexual exploration and emotional ill-treatment … A child/children that abused have had his his/her primary needs not met, so they will need immediate protection. It is very difficult to give a defined answer to child abuse as it differs from one society to another, as the law differs as well as values and beliefs and systems are different: what might be illegal in Britain may be perceived as normal or essential in another country and vice versa. So it is important for social workers to avoid assumption and a discriminatory practice.

There are many theories can provide an exploration to child abuse like the psychodynamic or socio-biological or a families disfunctioning theories, but sometimes their maybe multiple reasons and theories to child abuse. A social worker may identify the risk factors causing abuse and keep in mind that some families are more vulnerable than others. Depending on agencies that are dealing with the family, different personal will attend a child protection conference (social workers, police, parents/carers, nurses, teachers, housing welfare, etc). It is down to the local authority to do their investigation into suspected child abuse, under confidentiality, and cooperate with different agencies to prevent this issue.

Guide and procedures should be adapted in individual cases, they are produced by the area child protection committee (ACPC) through a handbook that is distributed to a social worker and professionals who engage in child protection; the ACPC role is to asses co-working issues, identify agencies training needs, that establish a strong links between agencies, promote a good practice and review the information regarding the operation of child protection register and publish an annual report. There have to many factors that have to be consideration before it is decide if it is appropriate or not for a child/children to return home after their name has been in the child protection register.

There must be a plan established to ensure the safety of the abused child; this plan must be based on previous understanding of the child’s needs and the abuse circumstances, the information collected from different sources that(reflect risks, any concerns changed during the assessment), the parents abilities, the families environment factors influencing parents and a child’s development and the parental commitment level to seriously work on change and to resolve previous or existing conflicts. Social care reviews are essential before a social worker can make a decision about a child’s future. The local authority looked after child/children can benefit from different types of placements (respite, short term, tasked centred or long term).

Children may be placed with relatives, friends, parents, carers or foster care, residential care or even in independent settings. These placements can take the form of children’s homes, health facilities, boarding schools or even secure accommodation. A child that is looked after by the local authority maybe accommodated in different situations like a family breakdown, violence, family illness, poverty, poor housing, unemployment or their single parent has no support network. Children then will be separated into two different kinds of categories; those that are subject to a court order that has put them into the care system, or parents have requested the provision of care or are able to work with social services for their children to be returned.

It is therefore a social workers legal responsibility to promote contact between the children in care and their families. Many of the children that come in to the care system already suffer from health and education disadvantages, so therefore special attention needs to be paid to promote these very important welfare needs to them. Take a child/children from their homes is not risk free: there are potential dangers a social workers and the local authority needs to consider: child may become very sad and unhappy, rejection, stress, neglect, jealousy and the parent may feel they have lost control of their child/children or even have their family weakened.

It’s the social workers job to strength the bond between a parent and their children and all professionals to ensure the welfare of the child/children; but it may be difficult at times to achieve this as there may be different views on the solution to their family problems. But if every ones perceptions are shared, discussed and the objectives are identified so agreements are more likely to be reached. Also another important point to mention are the difficulties regarding fostering that GLBT children may face; rejection, intolerance, discrimination, violence, lack of psychological support, lack of safety and the fact most foster families would not like to welcome a GLBT young person.

It is the job for social workers and agencies to promote equality, and diversity and also to challenge any forms of oppressive practices. Before a placement occurs social workers are required to establish a plan with the child in question, the parents and other professionals, this plan may be reviewed and adjusted when needed. This plan must take into consideration a child’s wishes , needs, legal status, availability option, parents abilities (to allow care and working in partnership) and resources, and child’s special needs, and the issues around race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, language culture to match the best types of placement, the distance between placement and home , rehabilitation.

Transitions and changes can sometimes affect families either in loss gains: birth, death, moving to live elsewhere, problems with relationships, separation, changes with losses earnings, illness, divorce, accidents and when this happens it usually causes stress and unhappiness for both the children and parents. The conflicts that may affect families: a baby that may be slow to achieve their mile stones, conflict about freedom, a child having problems settling into school, arguments, disobedience, a child that is demanding or rebellious, young people being tempted to try dangerous activities i. e. ; sex, drugs and drinking. As a result of this transition changes a new families structure may consist of a single parent in a new relationship (engaged, married), a child/children being accommodated by the local authority or death of a partner.

Also is if a parent becomes ill this can cause problems in transitions for families causing stress , fears, depression, tiredness, feeling of helplessness or failure, relationship refined, financial issues, a child/children performance at school can change and even their social life can change for the worst. When a person dies within a family it is not less affecting, it can cause anger, shock, depression, sadness, loneliness, and this could also bring peace to a family when the dying person is made comfortable before they depart this life, this also gives a feeling of gratefulness all that has been done and paying respect to them. This may also make some family members feels guilty if they have not done enough for the dying person or have not been very fair and humane.

More transitions like separation and divorce can also have serious impact on families and children, which gives children the feelings of anxiety, insecurity and labelling each parents as good and bad which can give the feelings of rejection and sadness. A child may hide their feelings or even grieve, but may also make them mature quicker due to this experience. Due to all these situations of transitions may have a great impact on children and their families, so the role of a social worker is to support them through their good listening and communication skills, be there when needed and able to assist to the best of their ability making arrangements and helping them in case of a death so if a family member is suffering from denial.

To help a family to explore feelings of spiritual ones to encourage members of the family to create new purposes in life, to enable them to express themselves, that enables them to consider the wishes of the dying or dead person, the difficulties, vulnerability, their values and belief sit is the social workers job to provide information that is essential for individual families to help them overcome their suffering and cope with these transitions. Past society has given negative connotations about children with special needs ( imbeciles, idiots, cretins, spastics ), now days we live in a fairer and a more understanding society that cares about these children and now gives proper terms with children with special needs e. g. ; impairment, disability and handicapped.

Some of these children may require emotional support, self-medication, physical help, special diets and specialist equipment; some of these children may be extremely talented and may suffer from neglect and deprivation. Whatever the special needs are the Education Act 1944 gives the right for all children to benefit from full-time education. The Education Act 1981now states that all special needs children have the right to be educated in mainstream school. The code of practice must take into consideration when providing children with special needs services and equipment, and these needs must be identified so as to meet them and deliver effective support. These services are provided by different agencies: schools, local authorities, area health authority, voluntary organizations, private sector agencies, social services, housing authority ect.

It is extremely vital for families with special needs children to receive these services and support as these families often suffer from exclusion. It’s been looked at that, that some environmental constraints can be an obstacle to children to participation in activities that other children may enjoy. So it is the job of agencies to promote awareness of these obstacles so that it prevents segregation. Its society opinion that needs to be changed and all the bureaucracy in regards to disabilities should become more flexible for all parent and carers to stop them feeling ostracized. It’s been found that the benefits of integration are very much debated.

Some feel that putting disabled children in mainstream schools as a positive, as it helps the child improve their speech and communication skills, social skills, self-esteem and the comprehension for children without special needs promotes tolerance. While others see that integration as a negative approach they feel these children should have and individualized instructions that cannot be offered in mainstream schools. They also take into consideration the pressures teachers may face in mainstream schools because they may not be able to offer a proper service to these children with special needs. There may be many parents that may not feel comfortable about placing their children in mainstream school because they feel there child may be bullied and neglected or even ridiculed by others. 2.

With reference to your own learning summarise how you will be able to utilise these theories when working in an everyday situation. I must be at all times be capable of self evaluating my own interventions and detect any mistakes of failures be a social worker is not a game, it’s really people’s lives that you are involved in to help improve their real life. It is my job to observe individuals in need and to enable them to function to the best of their ability in their community or environment, its helping them with difficult relationships issues and help to resolve personal or family tensions, supporting them when they are facing illness or diseases or even death.

As a social worker I will work with families and children who may have suffered from different problems, housing, disability abuse unemployment, divorce, racism, threat, adoption, teenage pregnancy, elderly insecurity and I will have to assist these clients to the best of my ability and maximize their family well being, my job will to advice about their options related to housing, transportation, placement and monitor these services to make sure the client is getting the help they need. Within my practice I must demonstrate great respect of each member as well as the right to decision making and dignity to each individual. My attitude must be free from judgements and stereotyping and great attention paid towards confidentiality which is a vital point to building good partnerships. It is my role as a social worker to involve discussing referrals, assessments and different important topics during a team meetings. My work as a social worker working with parents and families should include a direct contact with children and observation.

It is a must for me to promote well being and health, and focus on fostering and empowerment, Independence, respect and self- esteem. It’s also important for me to ensure the ease of access to social workers; this will then prevent the deterioration of vulnerable individuals, social and psychological situations and to help these people benefit from early intervention from agencies or a local authority. I should make sure I work together with other social workers for me to build a culture of learning to be promoted via agencies and any organizations which aims to reinforce the care system. By this culture of learning needs to be accompanied by me contributing to the development of effective practices, research and even policies related to social work services.

As a new social worker i will benefit from professional advice and support from experienced social workers, further my training i need to accomplish, I also for me not to forget that i must also promote independence for my clients, and create a supportive relationship and partnership with them being able to promote their well-being. As a social worker I will receive assistance and information sharing from different colleagues or professionals but, but as the social worker I will be directly responsible for the management and delivery of care, i will also reasonable for my own contribution for coordination and achievement. This is why as a social worker my work has to be based upon evidence and deep observation, as well as proper investigation before acting on professional decisions are made or planned.

Finally as a social worker my work must remain a constant test to my personality, intelligence and determination. I must be as an individual spiritual devoted to helping others, I will also be responsible for many people, parents, children, elderly people who will depend on me for support and be real on my sympathy, understanding and professionalism to help them to keep hope and develop their strength and well being. I as a social worker must at all times remember to be professionally detached and be neutral to be effective and must not be influenced in my own perceptions of circumstances or decisions. It is my role to contribute in making society a fairer, healthier and tolerant place for families and children. .