Paul Bywaters

Disability, Ethnicity and Childhood: A critical review of research

Whilst there is an increasing body of literature on the perspectives of carers of disabled children, there is little research giving the disabled childs perspective from either majority or minority populations. Indeed, the voices of black and Asian children in disability research have been almost silent. This literature review collates and analyses existing knowledge about the perceptions held by disabled and non-disabled children, and young people from black and Asian families concerning issues of disability and impairment. The Disability Movement has long proclaimed its belief in the full participation and self-representation of all disabled people. However, despite this laudable objective, the Disability Movement in Britain has mirrored society in general and for the most part been led by white, middle-class, heterosexual, articulate males. This review discusses the simultaneous oppression faced by black and Asian disabled children, and concludes that their experience is unique and different from that of white disabled children. Accordingly, it emphasises the need for further research about the subjective experience of black and Asian disabled children in order to meet their particular needs.

Social Work, Health and Equality

Suggests what social work can contribute to peoples health. By focusing on the human suffering which arises from the impact of social inequalities on health, social work can make a significant contribution to more equal chances and experiences of health and illness.

Working for equality in health

Unequal social relations are reflected in uneven patterns of health within and between populations. In Working for Equality in Health, health workers and academics distil the results of their efforts to understand, oppose and change health inequalities. Working for Equality in Health brings to bear the understanding of a unique combination of practitioners and activists on a key issue for health experience, policy and practice. Common themes and common obstacles become apparent: the need for ever better understandings of the interactive effects of social disadvantage; the damage wrought to peoples health by inegalitarian economic, social and health policies and the benefits of alliances between health professionals and other health workers to combat social and health inequalities.

Working it out for ourselves: Women learning about hormone replacement therapy

Abstract Drawing on Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule’s (1986) ideas about women’s “ways of knowing,” this paper presents findings of a study examining women’s choices to cease taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Analysis of conversations with 16 white European mid-life women, who told their stories of starting, taking, and stopping HRT, suggested that the challenge of managing biological changes in demanding social contexts had prompted women to seek knowledge about symptoms and treatments from a range of sources. They also attempted to enter into dialogues with their doctors about the relative merits and disadvantages for them of different courses of action and to reflect with enhanced confidence on the significance of their bodily experiences. Given contested understandings about the nature of menopause and about scientific findings concerned with HRT, for many women the decision to give up treatment seemed to represent the development and application of critical thinking skills and a growing knowledge about self-health care.

Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: a universal challenge?

The role that area deprivation, family poverty, and austerity policies play in the demand for and supply of childrens services has been a contested issue in England in recent years. These relationships have begun to be explored through the concept of inequalities in child welfare, in parallel to the established fields of inequalities in education and health. This article focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and out-of-home care and child protection interventions. The work scales up a pilot study in the West Midlands to an all-England sample, representative of English regions and different levels of deprivation at a local authority (LA) level. The analysis evidences a strong relationship between deprivation and intervention rates and large inequalities between ethnic categories. There is further evidence of the inverse intervention law (Bywaters et al., 2015): For any given level of neighbourhood deprivation, higher rates of child welfare interventions are found in LAs that are less deprived overall. These patterns are taking place in the context of cuts in spending on English childrens services between 2010–2011 and 2014–2015 that have been greatest in more deprived LAs. Implications for policy and practice to reduce such inequalities are suggested.

Revising social work's international policy statement on health: Process, outcomes and implications

English This article presents the new IFSW policy statement on health. In addition to describing the consultation process undertaken, it identifies the core content and background analysis informing it. Issues raised include the relationship between local practices of social work and processes of globalization. Implications for future social work policy development are discussed. French Cet article présente la nouvelle déclaration de politique de santé de la FITS. En plus de décrire le processus de consultation entrepris, il identifie le coeur de son contenu et les analyses de fond qui la renseignent. Les questions posées incluent la relation entre les pratiques locales de travail social et les processus de mondialisation. Les implications pour le développement de la politique de travail social future sont discutées. Spanish Este artículo presenta el nuevo manifiesto de la Federación Internacional de Trabajo Social (IFSW) sobre la salud. Además de describir el proceso de consulta llevado a cabo, identifica el contenido básico y el análisis que lo soporta. Las cuestiones que emergen incluyen la relación entre las prácticas locales de trabajo social y los procesos de globalización. Se examinan las implicaciones para el futuro de la política de desarrollo del trabajo social.

Good intentions, increased inequities: developing social care services in Emergency Departments in the UK.

Addressing the quality of services provided in Emergency Departments (EDs) has been a central area of development for UK government policy since 1997. Amongst other aspects of this concern has been the recognition that EDs constitute a critical boundary between the community and the hospital and a key point for the identification of social care needs. Consequently, EDs have become the focus for a variety of service developments which combine the provision of acute medical and nursing assessment and care with a range of activities in which social care is a prominent feature. One approach to this has been the establishment of multidisciplinary teams aiming to prevent re-attendance or admission, re-direct patients to other services, or speed patients through EDs with the aim of providing improved quality of care. This study, carried out between September 2007 and April 2008, was the first UK national survey of social care initiatives based in EDs and aimed to determine the objectives, organisation, extent, functions, funding and evidence on outcomes of such interventions. Eighty-three per cent of UK Type I and II EDs responded to the survey. Approximately, one-third of EDs had embedded social care teams, with two-thirds relying on referrals to external social care services. These teams varied in their focus, size and composition, leadership, availability, funding and permanence. As a result, the unintended effect has been to increase inequities in access to social care services through EDs. Three further conclusions are drawn about policy led, locally-based service development. This survey adds to international evidence pointing to the potential benefits of a variety of social care interventions being based in EDs and justifies the establishment of a research programme which can provide answers to key outstanding questions.

Austerity, rationing and inequity: trends in children’s and young peoples’ services expenditure in England between 2010 and 2015

ABSTRACT This article investigates local authority (LA) trends in expenditure on Children’s and Young Peoples’ services in England between 2010 and 2015, a period of government characterised by measures of fiscal austerity. We draw on a rationing framework to contextualise the levels and trends in expenditure under observation. The article analyses trends in various groupings of expenditure, using a latent growth modelling approach to identify significant trajectories in spending across LAs with different deprivation tertile membership. We find that although some kinds of children’s and young peoples’ services expenditure have been largely maintained during this period, preventive family support and early intervention services (such as Sure Start Children’s centres) have seen substantial reductions in expenditure, in contrast to the dominant narrative that children’s services have been protected. LAs in the most deprived tertile have faced the greatest cuts, mirroring other research findings on the distribution of austerity measures.

Social work, poverty, and child welfare interventions

The relationship between childrens material circumstances and child abuse and neglect raises a series of questions for policy, practice, and practitioners. Children and families in poverty are significantly more likely to be the subject of state intervention. This article, based on a unique mixed-methods study of social work interventions and the influence of poverty, highlights a narrative from practitioners that argues that, as many poor families do not harm their children, it is stigmatizing to discuss a link between poverty and child abuse and neglect. The data reveal that poverty has become invisible in practice, in part justified by avoiding stigma but also because of a lack of up-to-date research knowledge and investment by some social workers in an “underclass” discourse. We argue, in light of the evidence that poverty is a contributory factor in the risk of harm, that it is vital that social work engages with the evidence and in critical reflection about intervening in the context of poverty. We identify the need for fresh approaches to the harms children and families face in order to support practices that engage confidently with the consequences of poverty and deprivation.

Child protection in England: an emerging inequalities perspective

Purpose In the past 40 years, both health policy and educational policy in England have adopted commitments to reducing socially created inequalities. However, an inequalities perspective has only begun to emerge in relation to child protection, and child welfare services more widely. The purpose of this paper is to chart evidence of these green shoots of a new policy direction which focusses on two aspects: equalising service provision and outcomes for looked after children. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides an analysis of trends in policies as expressed in official documents, research studies and policy statements. Findings The paper outlines the argument for a more comprehensive approach to addressing inequalities in child protection and child welfare services, and concludes by suggesting some implications for policy and practice. Originality/value The paper develops the concept of an inequalities perspective in child protection and outlines key implications.