Effective Child Protection

Eileen Munro is Professor Emeritus of Social Policy at the London School of Economics.  She worked as a social worker for many years before turning to an academic career. Professor Munro has written extensively on how best to combine intuitive and analytic reasoning in child protection risk assessment and decision-making and also on the importance of understanding how systems’ factors influence workers’ actions. In 2011, she completed the Munro Review of the English Child Protection System conducting a systems analysis of the problems. She is currently working with philosophy colleagues on research methods for complex systems. Louise Caffrey is Assistant Professor of Social Policy in the School of Social Work & Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on  implementation science and workforce dynamics within child protection systems. She specialises in examining how children’s voices are heard and represented in decision-making and how performance management and inspection of child and family services shape front line practice and family experiences. Her work also examines the implementation and evaluation of policy and practice, with a particular focus on understanding the conditions that support effective, meaningful change. Using systems approaches and realist evaluation, Louise investigates why well-intended reforms sometimes fail to achieve intended outcomes. Her work aims to deepen understanding of how professionals can be better supported to deliver high-quality, effective practice on the ground.

• Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Child Protection Agencies as Complex Adaptive SystemsChapter 3: The Social ContextChapter 4: Defining Child MaltreatmentChapter 5: Expertise in Child Protection WorkChapter 6: The Challenges of Managing Uncertainty in PracticeChapter 7: The Process of Assessing RiskChapter 8: Making DecisionsChapter 9: How Organisations can Support Effective PracticeChapter 10: Are We Being Effective?Chapter 11: Conclusion