Jonathan Dickens

Empowerment in difficulty A critical appraisal of international intervention in child welfare in Romania

This article examines the successes and shortcomings of international intervention in child welfare in Romania, highlighting the importance of an empowerment approach. Implementing such an approach brings its own challenges, and the authors debate the possibilities and potential pitfalls. They identify key principles and essential personal qualities for putting empowerment into practice in situations of economic, political and social difficulty.

The paradox of inter-country adoption: analysing Romania’s experience as a sending country

This article explores the effects of inter-country adoption on the development of in-country services to protect children and support families in Romania. The country’s child care legislation gives formal priority to domestic alternatives to institutional care – preventive services, family reunification, foster care and in-country adoption. Despite this, inter-country adoption continues to play a central role in Romania’s child welfare system. The article analyses the multiple and complex factors at policy and practice levels that lie behind this situation. It is concluded that whilst inter-country adoption may be used to secure some resources for the development of in-country services, it paradoxically undermines the effectiveness of those services for the children who are left behind.

Welfare, Law and Managerialism Inter-discursivity and Inter-professional Practice in Child Care Social Work

• Summary: This article examines the relationships between welfare, law and managerialism as key discourses in social work with children and families. It draws on empirical research into the relationships between local authority social workers, social services managers and lawyers in child care work in England. • Findings: Tensions between social workers and lawyers have, in the past, been seen as symptoms of a wider clash between welfare and law as paradigmatic approaches to the regulation of social life and professional activity. Likewise, the rise of managers and managerialism has widely been portrayed as being in conflict with welfare values. The relationship between law and managerialism, meanwhile, has often been treated as unproblematic — simply two sides of the same coin, the increasing regulation of social work. This study reveals a more complex picture of on-going and unstable overlaps and tensions between the three professional groups and discourses. • Applications : The study points to a more fluid understanding of the relationships between welfare, law and managerialism in social work, one that recognizes the dynamic nature of the inter-discursive and inter-professional relationships. The character of contemporary child care social work is constructed and constrained through these multi-layered interactions.

Social policy approaches to intercountry adoption

English This article proposes a social policy framework for thinking about inter country adoption, drawing on theories of welfare regimes and globalization. The model highlights the tensions and ambiguities of its policy contexts and consequences. It also shows the possibilities for a radical approach, discussing Romania’s ban on intercountry adoption as an example. French Cet article propose d’utiliser le cadre des politiques sociales pour considérer l’adoption internationale, en s’inspirant des théories des régimes de ‘ welfare’ (sécurité sociale) et de la mondialisation. Le modèle met en évidence les tensions et les ambiguïtés des contextes de ces politiques et leurs conséquences. Il montre aussi les possibilités d’émergence d’une radicalisation de l’approche, en prenant en exemple l’interdiction de la Roumanie pour l’adoption internationale. Spanish Este artículo propone un marco de acción de política social para reflexionar en torno a la adopción entre países, con base en las teorías de los regímenes de bienestar en la globalización. El modelo subraya las tensiones y ambigüedades de los contextos de política y sus consecuencias. Asimismo muestra las pos ibilidades para un acercamiento radical, mediante la discusión de la prohibición Rumana de la adopción entre países, como ejemplo.

Protecting the rights of the child in Romania: children's rights perspectives on Romania's 1997 child care reforms

Abstract This article analyses the reforms to Romanias child care legislation introduced in 1997. It uses two perspectives on childrens rights to link the changes to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The first perspective reviews the new legislation in terms of childrens rights to provision, protection, and participation, paying particular regard to the wider economic and social policy context of the reforms; the second looks at the new laws in terms of the implications of childrens rights for the family, the community, the state, and the international community. Throughout the discussion, attention is drawn to changes in social work management and practice which will be required to make a reality of the new legislation. The article then considers the way in which the discourse of childrens rights has been used to justify changes to the law on inter-country adoption. It is argued that the new legislation has actually secured the place of inter-country adoption in Romania whilst pro...

Developing Alternatives to Residential Care in Romania

Compared to Western Europe, Romania has a very high proportion of children in residential care. Most of these children live in the type of large institutions, erroneously labelled as ‘orphanages’, which featured so prominently in Western media coverage of the country immediately after the 1989 overthrow of President Ceausescu. Jonathan Dickens and Julia Watts have worked since October 1994 for the Romanian Orphanage Trust. Focusing on the aims and achievements of that organisation, they describe attempts to develop alternatives to residential care in a society beleaguered by financial hardship and in which social work has only recently re-emerged as a profession, following some twenty-five years of abolition under communist rule. They show how the Trust has deliberately moved away from directly providing and managing services for children and families towards an approach bent on stimulating and helping the growth of Romanian led and managed initiatives. Despite the high number of children in institutions, and obstacles such as poverty and traditional attitudes to substitute family care, the authors conclude that adoption and fostering have an important role to play in an overall programme of prevention, rehabilitation and anti-poverty measures in Romania.

Social Work and Social Policy : An Introduction

Introduction Part 1: Key Models 1. What is Social Work For? 2. What is Social Policy About? 3. The Role of the State Part 2: Key Issues 4. Needs and Rights 5. Inequality, Poverty and Difference 6. Participation and Choice Part 3: Current Topics 7. Professionalism and Inter-professionalism 8. The Organisational Context 9. Social Work and Money Conclusion

Time, Institutional Support, and Quality of Decision Making in Child Protection: A Cross-Country Analysis

ABSTRACT This paper examines perceptions of time and institutional support for decision making and staff confidence in the ultimate decisions made—examining differences and similarities between and within the service-oriented Nordic countries (represented by Norway and Finland) and the risk-oriented Anglo-American countries (represented by England and California). The study identifies a high degree of work pressure across all the countries, lines of predominantly vertical institutional support and relatively high confidence in decisions. Finland stands out with higher perceived work pressure and with a horizontal support line, whereas England stands out with workers having a lower degree of confidence in their own and others’ decisions.

Parents' involvement in care order decisions: a cross-country study of front-line practice

This article examines parents’ involvement in care order decision-making in four countries at one particular point in the care order process, namely when the child protection worker discusses with the parents his/her considerations regarding child removal. The countries represent different child welfare systems with Norway and Finland categorized as ‘family service systems’ and the US as a ‘child protection system’, with England somewhere in between. The focus is on whether the forms and intensity of involvement are different in these four countries, and whether the system orientation towards family services or child protection influences practice in the social welfare agencies with parents. Involvement is studied in terms of providing information to parents, collecting information from parents and ensuring inclusion in the decision-making processes. A vignette method is employed in a survey with 768 responses from child protection workers in four countries. The findings do not show a consistent pattern of difference regarding parental involvement in care order preparations that align with the type of child welfare system in which staff work. The goal in each child welfare system is to include parents, but the precise ways in which it is done (or not) vary. Methodological suggestions are given for further studies.

Delay and Anxiety in Care Proceedings: Grounds for Hope?

This paper draws on an evaluation of a pilot project in three London boroughs (the ‘Tri-borough’ authorities) which had the aim of reducing the length of care proceedings to 26 weeks, in advance of nationwide moves in the same direction. Rather than looking at this as yet another battleground between professional autonomy and bureaucratic rigidity, the authors focus on the psychological aspects both of court delay itself and of setting time limits, considering the impact of each on the children, parents and professionals involved. The challenge is to balance the pressures of time and the need for thoroughness, being mindful of the uncertainty and anxiety that pervade care proceedings. The pilot succeeded in greatly reducing the average length of care proceedings. Professionals involved in the project, including those whose job was to represent the interests of parents and children, seemed satisfied that this had not been achieved at the expense of thoroughness, and indeed that shorter proceedings might help to reduce the overall level of distress and anxiety that children and parents endure. On the other hand, the new approach adds to the pressures on the professionals themselves. If the changes are to be sustained, the anxiety involved in making these life-changing decisions about children must be recognised, and adequate support offered to those who have to make them.