Margaret Bell – författare

This book offers a clear and coherent guide to working with families for practitioners and students in social work, health, counselling and related professions. It brings together recent thinking on the historical and contemporary constructions of the family in such a way as to provide a helpful framework for practitioners working in a variety of settings in the field. It offers up-to-date information on political, legislative and theoretical frameworks, and it reviews and illustrates a wide range of approaches and practice skills for working with families with different problems in different contexts.

Lost for almost half a century and never before published, When Montana and I Were Young is a remarkable primary account of a child's life in the early part of the twentieth century. Margaret Bell (1888–1982) was a rancher and horse breaker whose memoir tells the story of a frontier childhood on the high plains of Montana and Canada. Hers was not a typical childhood. Bell was barely seven when her mother died, and her stepfather, Hedge Wolfe, moved Bell and her three younger half-sisters far from their nurturing grandmother to the Canadian plains and a life of extreme poverty, hardship, and abuse.

First published in 1999, this book is based on an extensive research study of the experiences of eighty-three families and the range of professionals involved in initial child protection conferences, this book explores the opportunities and difficulties of working in partnership in child protection within the context of rights, justice and empowerment. The research identifies what families find helpful and unhelpful in the intervention, as well as analysing the difficulties faced by practitioners. In exploring the families experience, the author provides a concrete base for a much-needed clarification of the nature of and limitations on partnership practice within child protection. Equally, the analysis of professional perspectives on current procedures and the agency structures in place to support them provides insight into key intra and inter agency issues, including training. The Identification of the conflicts and ambiguities which are inherent in the particular system, and with which the professional struggle is of particular interest to social work practioners and their managers, as well as to academics and other researchers in the field. The book, therefore, contributes to the debate about what constitutes good practice in this complex field and, while affirming some of the strengths of the existing system, suggests some ways in which both the families and professionals who work with them can be better supported.

First published in 1999, this book is based on an extensive research study of the experiences of eighty-three families and the range of professionals involved in initial child protection conferences, this book explores the opportunities and difficulties of working in partnership in child protection within the context of rights, justice and empowerment. The research identifies what families find helpful and unhelpful in the intervention, as well as analysing the difficulties faced by practitioners. In exploring the families experience, the author provides a concrete base for a much-needed clarification of the nature of and limitations on partnership practice within child protection. Equally, the analysis of professional perspectives on current procedures and the agency structures in place to support them provides insight into key intra and inter agency issues, including training. The Identification of the conflicts and ambiguities which are inherent in the particular system, and with which the professional struggle is of particular interest to social work practioners and their managers, as well as to academics and other researchers in the field. The book, therefore, contributes to the debate about what constitutes good practice in this complex field and, while affirming some of the strengths of the existing system, suggests some ways in which both the families and professionals who work with them can be better supported.

Children have a right enshrined within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to participate in decisions that affect them, and their participation in social care services can have a positive impact on their own self-esteem and confidence, but also the quality of service and decisions made by the social care professionals working with them. Everyone seems to agree on the idea that children have to be heard, but not on how, where and when they can participate, or the organisational cultures needed to facilitate it. Promoting Children's Rights in Social Work and Social Care addresses these questions. Margaret Bell looks at the reality of children's life experiences, examines the variety of definitions of participation and highlights creative initiatives for children's involvement which have proven successful. Four research studies on children's participation in the UK are presented, which draw on interviews with children aged 6-19 and cover children's views on decision-making and recording processes, their opinions on the social work help they have received, how involved they feel, and the responses of the agencies involved.This book will be essential reading for any social work or social care professional working with children, as well as students and academics in the social work and social care fields. It will also be invaluable to those involved in promoting children's rights and child participation.