Rachel Balen

Involving children in health and social research: ?Human becomings? or ?active beings??

This article draws on the authors’ experiences of undertaking health and social research involving children in Australia and England and focuses on securing the informed consent of children to participate in such research. A clear trend within literature, service provision, legislation and international conventions recognizes children as ‘active beings’ in all aspects of their lives. The services that are the focus of the research and evaluation projects in which the authors have been involved sought to empower children as active agents and decision-makers. Crucially, not only were these services available directly to children without requiring parental permission, but many children were also accessing these services without their parents’ knowledge. However, when it came to researching and evaluating users’ experiences of these services, the authors faced the problem that existing research gatekeeping systems tended to construct children as dependent, in need of protection and as ‘human becomings’. The authors found that research ethics committees would permit the research to take place only if both the child’s informed consent and that of his or her parents was obtained. The authors outline the implications of such dilemmas, which may not only be counter productive in terms of research objectives but also risk failing to afford children rightful regard in contemporary society. While the authors conclude that there are no quick fixes to the resolution of such dilemmas, they believe that researchers need to engage with the gatekeepers of research to ensure that the laudable effort to protect potentially vulnerable participants avoids overprotection, paternalism and the further disenfranchisement of already marginalized young people.

The Power of Stories: Using Narrative for Interdisciplinary Learning in Health and Social Care

This paper discusses the aims, process and outcomes of an interdisciplinary workshop day held for undergraduate students from Social Work, Mental Health Nursing, Adult Nursing, Midwifery and Occupational Therapy courses. The days activities focused on mental health and were based on the use of service user narrative within three different workshops. The feedback from the students showed that the day was relevant to the curriculum that they were engaged in; allowed them to interact with and explore the perspectives of different professional groups; assisted them in understanding the lived experience of mental health difficulties; offered them the opportunity to consider implications for practice; was enjoyable and added ‘value’.

Making Critical Minds: Nurturing ‘Not‐Knowing’ in Students of Health and Social Care

The two authors have been involved in developing teaching and learning resources that can be used with students undertaking a whole range of health and social care courses. The aims of this development work included the fostering of critical thinking skills and of inter professional learning. In this Ideas in Action paper we share both some of the thinking behind our work and several of the learning activities that we have utilized with our students.

The DipSW admissions process: Laying the foundations for social work training

Recruitment and selection to DipSW is an essential, but largely ignored, activity. Here, we examine the ‘professional’ literature which emphasises setting standards for entry and the antiracist literature which explores discrimination in the selection process. The Manchester University DipSW selection process is then discussed as are some of the broader issues for selectors in balancing the competing interests of prospective students, course programmes, agencies and other interested parties. It is argued that recruitment and selection is not a simple administrative chore but is inextricably bound up with current debates about the nature of both social work practice and education.

The benefits of prisoner participation in interdisciplinary learning

Abstract This paper considers the provision of an inter-disciplinary workshop day held for Social Work, Police and Nursing students at a UK university. The focus of the day was to give the students an insight into the reality of being a mother in prison, and the impact that having a mother in prison has upon children. A key feature of the day was the involvement of a group of imprisoned mothers from an open prison, who shared their experiences and engaged with students in small groups. The workshop allowed the stereotypes that the prisoners and student professionals held in relation to one another to be challenged. The planning, aims, process and outcomes of the day are considered along with feedback from those taking part. Students reported increased awareness of the stigma faced by this often overlooked vulnerable group of service users, an increased recognition of the needs of children with mothers in prison and an appreciation of the power of interdisciplinary working to deliver a good service. The imprisoned mothers welcomed the chance to educate the students about the issues faced by themselves and their children, and they found the experience of participating to be positive and empowering.

You can always adopt: what clinic staff need to know about adoption and fostering?

Abstract This paper presents information and research about adoption and fostering, and explains some of the relevant processes. In order that those providing infertility services can play an informed, supportive and empowering role in the decision-making of those whose infertility treatment has been unsuccessful, a number of issues are highlighted. These include the changing profile of children awaiting adoption and fostering; ongoing contact between children and their birth families; the adoption of children from abroad; moving from infertility treatment to adoption or fostering; and the potential ongoing impact of infertility and failed treatment.

The usefulness of coding in the Victoria Climbié Data Corpus : a reply to Taylor.

Corpus (VCDC), we were both pleased and somewhat perturbed to read Taylor’s discussion about analysing data whilst working on this project (Taylor, 2008). We were pleased because this is the kind of analysis we hoped the development of the Corpus would promote and support. As Taylor notes, the inquiry was a key event in the appraisal of child protection policy and practice and put into the public domain a large amount of data about the context and events surrounding the murder of Victoria, most notably the transcriptions of the verbal evidence presented to the inquiry. This large and important data set, we believe, needsmechanisms to facilitate its use by researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students, particularly as the inquiry was undertaken, at great cost, so that insights could be gained and lessons learned. On the other hand, we were somewhat perturbed for two reasons. First, we had no advance knowledge that Taylor was producing a paper based on the VCDC. We were not informed, not involved. We believe this is contrary to standard protocols of working in a research team: not to inform us before publication, nor to acknowledge other teammembers, nor to identify or discuss other outputs. Producing a paper independently from the team implies that insights can be claimed to be personally owned. In discussions in a research team, ideas can come from anywhere and over time are not easily attributed to particular individuals. Later, it is easy to think it was you who thought of it first. Although Taylor only spent five and a half months working on the project, in our view, some ideas in her article show the influence of team discussions; for example, the use of ‘Dr’ to denote authority (Taylor, 2008: 123; TeamMeeting Minutes, 11.1.05). Clearly, there can be diverse views within a research team, although without contact we have not discussed such differences. Hence, we welcome the journal’s invitation to locate Taylor’s paper and challenge what we see as inaccuracies and misrepresentations. ART I C L E 635