Providing services that are culturally relevant is an ongoing challenge for practitioners, managers, and policy-makers within the social services. Culture and Child Protection is a concise exploration of the close links between social service practices and cultural values which offers a culturally sensitive model of child protection practice.

The authors demonstrate the ways in which a combination of personal, professional and societal attitudes often influence practice decisions. In a context where children from ethnic minorities dominate the welfare statistics of the Western economies, the authors argue against a reliance on rigid approaches to working with particular ethnic groups. They propose effective alternative strategies that will assist social workers in responding appropriately to diverse cultural needs and circumstances. Implications of cultural difference are also considered with respect to class, socio-economic group, gender and age, reinforcing the need to recognise broader interpretations of difference within practice. This book is full of integrated examples and case studies and also discusses wider practice issues, such as working with offenders, the impact of funding restraints and the dynamic of reflexivity in practice and supervision.

Culture and Child Protection is a key text that will help social workers and culture academics to understand the ways in which cultural thinking affects and shapes child protection practice.

This book is aimed at children in secondary school.

There are 144 pages in this book. This book was published 2005 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers .

Marie Connolly, PhD, DipSocWk, has been Associate Professor and Director at the Te Awatea Violence Research Centre at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. She is currently Chief Social Worker within the New Zealand government. She has published extensively in her area of scholarship, and has written six related books, including Culture and Child Protection: Reflexive Responses (Jessica Kingsley Publishers). She has a social work background in statutory child welfare. Tony Ward, PhD, DipClinPsyc, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has worked as a clinical psychologist and an academic in a number of settings, and has a small private practice. He has written over 200 publications, including ten books, primarily in the area of forensic psychology. Dr Marie Connolly holds the position of Chief Social Worker within the New Zealand government. Until recently she was Associate Professor and Director of the Te Awatea Violence Research Centre at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. She has published four other books including Effective Participatory Practice: Family Group Conferencing in Child Protection and New Zealand Social Work: Contexts and Practice. Yvonne Crichton-Hill is a New Zealand-born Samoan and is a lecturer with the Department of Social Work at the University of Canterbury. She has extensive experience of working in the areas of child protection social work and youth justice, and in particular work with Samoan families. She is committed to the development of practice models that are responsive to cultural values and experience. Yvonne has previously published in the area of cross-cultural practice and ethnocentric explanations of domestic violence. Dr Tony Ward is Professor in Forensic Psychology in the Department of Criminology, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Melbourne. He has extensively published on male sex offending, and, with D. Richard Laws and Stephen M. Hudson, recently edited Sexual Deviance: Issues and Controversies.

This book has the following chapters: Preface. Part One: Culture and Child Protection Work. 1. Culture, the Client and the Practitioner in Child Protection Work. 2. Culturally Reflexive Responses in Abuse Work. 3. Ethnic Culture, Child Protection and the Professional Environment. Part Two: Working with Cultures in Child Protection. 4. Childhood Cultures, Care and Protection Work. 5. Family Cultures and Protecting Children. 6. Cultures of Risk, Offending and Good Lives. 7. Culturally Reflexive Theory and Practice in Child Protection. 8. Further Thoughts. References. Index.