by Rosie R.

Children with disabilities are the most vulnerable children whom we work with. Due to their struggles and impairments, often both of a cognitive and a physical nature, they need to rely on carers who can meet all their needs, and also keep them safe.

This is an account where a young person in a wheelchair was frightened of his mother’s boyfriend, and had no means of keeping himself safe.

As social workers working with this very vulnerable group, we need to be creative to obtain the voice of the chil, from others who know them, since so many of our most vulnerable children also have limited verbal communication, and therefore the possibilities of sharing their worries are significantly reduced.

Photo by Mikael Damkier/AdobeStock

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Cafcass has issued a new domestic abuse policy to tackle practice deficits that remain four years after it was severely criticised in a government-commissioned report.

It said it had made progress since a panel investigating the family courts’ response to domestic abuse and other harms found practitioners’ court reports gave limited weight to children’s views, particularly when they said they did not want to spend time with an abusive parent.

Following the 2020 report, Cafcass initiated a national improvement programme to improve its response to domestic abuse, particularly in private law cases involving separating parents, where practitioners make recommendations to the court about what is in the child’s best interests.

The programme involved mandatory training for all family court advisers (FCAs) and children’s guardians, personal learning plans on domestic abuse for all practitioners and regular practice audits on the issue. It has also received support from domestic abuse charity SafeLives, which has seconded two staff to Cafcass.

Practice improving but ‘errors in judgment persist’

The second annual review of the improvement plan, published last year, said that, in most cases, FCAs understood “the harm, risk of harm and impact on children of domestic abuse and their analysis of this informs their recommendations to the court”.

However, Cafcass said the new policy was needed because “errors in judgment persist, with terrible consequences for child and adult victims”, while chief executive Jacky Tiotto said it was “intent on eliminating practice that isn’t good enough”.

The policy requires practitioners and managers “to listen to children and adults who have experienced domestic abuse and accurately record and share with the court what they have been told”.

No more references to domestic abuse ‘claims’

This includes not dismissing or minimising domestic abuse as historical or as a one-off incident. To do so “not only reveals a lack of understanding of the ongoing and long-term trauma of domestic abuse for victims but also perpetuates it”, the policy says.

Practitioners must also not “not reinterpret or reword the experience of domestic abuse victims”, but use their words about what happened to them and the impact it has had, in all reports to the court. They must also not use the words “claims” or “alleges” when referring to reports of domestic abuse.

“To do so minimises and diminishes the experience of the adult and child living with the impact and trauma caused by abuse,” the policy says, adding that it is for the court to determine the facts of any case.

Social workers must also not describe someone as anxious or suffering from mental ill-health, unless they have been clinically diagnosed, without considering that this may be a trauma response to abuse.

Recommendations around contact

The policy also includes several measures related to Cafcass social workers’ recommendations to the court on children’s contact with parents accused of abuse.

It stipulates that practitioners’ “starting point” should be to recommend that children do not spend time with a parent who is being investigated by the police for a sexual offence, has been convicted of such an offence or has served a prison sentence for violent or sexual offences.

Where practitioners depart from this starting point, this must be “supported by a compelling rationale, discussed with a manager, and recorded contemporaneously in the child’s case record”.

More broadly, FCAs or guardians must provide “a clear, unequivocal, and compelling rationale in their reports” for discounting domestic abuse as a risk to the child when recommending contact after abuse has been reported by either parent or the child.

Assessing perpetrators

When assessing a parent who has been domestically abusive, practitioners must not recommend contact with the child and the other parent without clear evidence that the perpetrator:

• Recognises the harm their behaviour has caused their victims.
• Has taken responsibility for the harm they have caused.
• Has taken action to sustain change in their attitude and to stop their harmful behaviour, which has been demonstrated over time.

These changes must result in an assessment that the risk of them perpetrating that behaviour has been removed to the point of enabling a recommendation that contact is in the child’s best interests.

As with sexual offences, any departure from this starting point must be supported by a compelling rationale, discussed with a manager, and recorded contemporaneously.

‘Parental alienation’

The guidance also addresses cases where a child does not want to see a parent following separation and the non-resident alleges this is because of “parental alienation”. This involves accusing the other parent of manipulating the child into holding negatives towards them.

Cafcass has separate guidance on “alienating behaviours“, which stresses that a practitioner’s “first step” in such cases is to consider whether domestic abuse or other harmful parenting factors are present.

This is reflected in the domestic abuse policy, which says that practitioners must “first consider whether the cause of this refusal is because the child is a victim of domestic abuse and harmful parenting”.

Objective of eliminating sub-standard practice

Launching the policy, Tiotto said: “When the advice put to the court, doesn’t get the balance right between the right of a child to have both parents in their lives and the risk of harm from that contact, when it doesn’t protect a child, when it isn’t in their best interests and when it puts their protective adult and carers in harm’s way, the consequences can be devastating.

“This is why we continue to prioritise further improvement in working with child and adult victims of domestic abuse. It is why we have an internal improvement programme, why we are listening so hard to child and adult victims and public concerns. We are intent on eliminating practice that isn’t good enough.”

She added: “I am sorry that some four years on from the harm panel report, there are still children and adults in family court proceedings who do not receive the protection they deserve and require.”

Domestic Abuse Commissioner welcomes policy

Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales Nicole Jacobs welcomed the guidance, saying that it adopted a “child-centric approach”, as she had urged in a 2023 report on the family courts.

“I am pleased that the language in this policy has shifted to become more natural and appropriate in the context of children disclosing abuse,” she added.

“Victims often tell me that the language professionals use to describe domestic abuse is hugely important to their wellbeing.”

Elevating survivor voices in family court practice

For SafeLives, interim director of quality and innovation Emma Robinson said it had been working with Cafcass, including through the secondment of two staff, on “elevating survivor voices into family court practices”.

“Many survivors have shared that their experiences with family courts, including Cafcass, have been deeply traumatising, and impacted their ability to move forward,” she added.

“Our role within Cafcass has been to support meaningful reflection and practical improvements, particularly around language and the introduction of the new domestic abuse practice policy, which we believe will lead to better outcomes for both children and adult victims of abuse.”

She added that SafeLives welcomed Cafcass’s “openness to collaboration and the positive response to the changes we are helping to implement”.

Care leavers aged up to 25 will be exempted from the need to have a local connection with an area to access social housing, the government has announced.

The policy, designed to tackle homelessness among the group, was a commitment made by the previous government in last year’s Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy, based on a recommendation of the 2021-22 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

The exemption will also be applied to domestic abuse survivors and armed forces veterans.

According to government data for England, 2,270 care leavers aged 18-20 and 2,810 aged over 21 were owed a duty by councils to help them secure suitable accommodation on the grounds they were homeless in 2022-23. A further 1,440 18 to 20-year-olds and 1,390 were owed a duty to prevent them becoming homelessness on the basis that they were at risk of becoming so.

How local connections tests apply to care leavers

However, councils with housing responsibilities are permitted to apply a local connection test, in determining a person’s eligibility for homelessness support, with 89% doing so.

In the case of care leavers under 21, or older if in education or training specified in their pathway plan, those who owed leaving care duties by the same authority, or by the relevant county council in a two-tier area, are deemed to have a local connection with that area.

If a care leaver has lived in another authority for at least two years, including some time before they turned 16, they also have a local connection with this other area.

The government said it had written to councils to ask them to prioritise veterans, care leavers and domestic abuse survivors for social housing and would bring forward regulations enacting the change in due course.

‘Young people face care cliff’

Become, a charity for children in care and care leavers, welcomed the policy shift, saying that the current rules meant care leavers often faced the disruption of having to return to their local authority’s area, where they may have felt fear.

“Young people leaving care face a care cliff where important support and relationships disappear and they are expected to become independent overnight,” said chief executive Katharine Sacks-Jones. “Today’s announcement is a welcome step in addressing this and ensuring that young people leaving care have somewhere safe to live.”

For youth homelessness charity Centrepoint, policy and research manager Tom Kerridge said: “Care leavers often find themselves moved all over the country because of budgetary constraints and a lack of housing availability, so this is hugely positive for a particularly vulnerable and often neglected group.”

However, he warned that homelessness duties were “barely worth the paper they’re written on without a sufficient social housing stock and properly resourced councils”.

Most social workers don’t feel adequately prepared to engage with fathers, a Community Care poll has found.

In a recent interview with Community Care, Brid Featherstone, who has a long research career in child protection and domestic abuse, noted that practitioners’ reluctance to engage with fathers often resulted in mothers being held solely responsible for adhering to safety plans for children. 

She attributed this to the profession having a primarily female workforce and a lack of training and resources.

Respondents to a Community Care poll, which received 561 votes, echoed Featherstone’s concerns, with the majority (77%) reporting that they did not receive the right support and training to work with fathers.

‘It’s easier to engage a woman’

“It is easier to engage a woman,” Featherstone said.

“She’s usually the person in front of you. It’s more likely that she will both see herself and be seen as responsible for the children.”

Research by Featherstone and fellow academic Kate Morris on knowledge around domestic abuse in child protection also highlighted that “the confines of a narrow, risk-focused child protection system” limit the use of holistic approaches, especially when working with men.

According to Featherstone, better engagement with boys and men is critical to improving safety for women and girls. She said this required a “whole-system approach”, underpinned by robust training and supervision.

“You need a space to talk about your fears and then appropriate places to direct men to. There need to be support groups and resources handy.”

What support does your employer have in place for working with fathers?

Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 created the offence of controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship. If found guilty, a perpetrator faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a fine, or both. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 extends the offence of coercive and controlling behaviour, no longer making it a requirement for abusers and victims to either still be in a relationship or to still live together when it occurs.

Coercive and controlling behaviours are a form of gender-based violence used by perpetrators to limit another person’s freedom by making them subordinate via the use of humiliation and threats. They do not relate to a single incident but rather a purposeful pattern of behaviours carried out over a period of time, in order to exert power and control.

People experiencing coercive control often struggle to come forward to seek support, but there are ways that social workers can assist if they spot the signs of coercive control:

• Speak to the victim alone – where possible, try and speak to them away from their partner. This may not be as simple as being in a different room in a house, but rather being in a different building. Victims are often justifiably reluctant to speak about what is happening in their relationships, and will be particularly unlikely to do so if their partner is with them or in close proximity.

• Ask questions but allow people to make their own decisions – if you suspect that someone is being controlled, speak to them (if it is safe to do so) about what they are experiencing and what they would like to happen. There are many services that can support people who are experiencing domestic abuse, including specific services for women, those in LGBTQ relationships, those from black and minority ethnic communities and men.

• Listen, and refer to appropriate services – in many cases this will include domestic abuse services, but be aware that some people may not want this. The fear of speaking about the abuse to an organisation may be too much for some people, who may worry that their partner will find out, they will lose their children/housing/finances etc, or may believe that the relationship will get better without intervention. Listening to the individual’s concerns and worries and acting accordingly will result in a better outcome for them than acting without their consent. Remember, perpetrators may tell their partners that social workers will come and remove their children if they do not ‘do as they are told’, which will make many reluctant to speak out.

• Reporting to the police – again, listen to the individual about their wishes. If someone does wish to report to the police, they will be taking risks and will need to be supported through this process. Social workers should ensure that if anyone wishes to report abuse they have appropriate support in place – whether that is emotional support, practical advice and/or help with sourcing alternative housing. Also, social workers should ensure that they understand coercive and controlling behaviour and know about the statutory guidance framework in relation to the offence and the evidence needed to build a case. Being equipped and able to explain this to victims will help them make an informed decision about whether they want to proceed down this route.

• Support after reporting – be aware that if someone does report to the police or other services, the abuse will not necessarily cease. Research suggests that stalking and harassment continue after a relationship has ended, and the effects of this can be equally as devastating as abuse perpetrated within the relationship. Evidence suggests that victims are also most at risk of homicide when first leaving an abusive relationship, or shortly after. If someone has ties to their partner, for example, children, they can also be used as a tool of control by the perpetrator. Ensure that victims are supported after reporting, if this is what they decide to do.

• Financial support – many people may not have access to their own income if they decide to leave a relationship. The prospect of having to access a refuge or becoming homeless may discourage them from leaving. Ensure that housing options are discussed with the victim so that they are provided with advice on how to secure appropriate housing if they decide to leave the relationship. In addition, ensure that they are aware of any benefits they are entitled to claim.

If you have a Community Care Inform Adults licence, log in to access the full guide. The guide forms part of Inform Adults’ knowledge and practice hub on domestic abuse.

Inspectors are to probe how agencies respond to child victims of domestic abuse.

The latest round of joint targeted area inspections (JTAIs) will, in particular, look at how councils, relevant health bodies, the police and probation protect and promote the welfare of unborn children and those aged 0-7.

Inspectors will evaluate the multi-agency arrangements for responding to child victims at the point of their identification, assessment, planning and decision-making in response to referrals, protect, supporting and caring for child victims or those at risk and preventing children from becoming victims.

Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMI) Probation will begin the programme of inspections this month.

What inspectors found previously on domestic abuse

The inspectorates carried out a JTAI programme on the response to children living with domestic abuse in 2016. This found that:

• Too little was being done to prevent domestic abuse and repair the damage that it does.
• Work with families was often in reaction to individual crises rather than preventive.
• Agencies did not always focus enough on the perpetrator of the abuse.
• There was not a clear and consistent understanding about what information professionals can share within agencies and across agencies.

Since then, the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 has made clear that children are victims of domestic abuse in their own right if they have seen, heard or experienced abuse perpetrated against a parent or relative.

‘Emphasis on physical violence as abuse indicator’

However, a 2022 analysis of serious cases by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel found that practitioners often categorised the impact on children as “emotional harm” or “neglect” instead.

The same report identified an “overly simplistic and optimistic” approach to domestic abuse and its impact on children, with an overemphasis on physical violence as the primary indicator of abuse and as a means of assessing the risk posed by the abuser.

Non-physical incidents were seen as “low-level” and so were not responded to appropriately and often conflated with “parental conflict”.

More recently, a BBC report revealed that more than a third of social work courses lacked specific training on coercive and controlling behaviour, prompting university social work leaders to say that it was not in their remit to train students in specialist areas of practice.

‘Over-reliance on individual casework’

In response to that debate, academics Brid Featherstone and Kate Morris shared findings from research into domestic abuse and child protection.

They found “despite sterling attempts by amazing practitioners and managers, they were often trapped within approaches that relied on individual casework and risk management,” which “translated into the outsourcing of safety and protection responsibilities to those most vulnerable and least able to respond (often impoverished mothers)”.

The JTAI will draw on evidence including practice observations, an audit of six children’s cases in each area, sampling of a wider group of children’s experiences, analysis of performance data, interviews with practitioners, managers and leaders and the views of children and families.

What agencies will be judged on

Evaluation criteria include:

• Practitioners and support staff see the impact of domestic abuse through the eyes of the child, respond to children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right, are well trained, confident, and knowledgeable and demonstrate professional curiosity, enabling them to identify how to help and protect children and to take action to do so.
• Children’s welfare is promoted and protected through effective and timely responses to adult victims of domestic abuse. Practitioners recognise that abuse does not necessarily end when the relationship ends, and may in fact escalate, and they take steps to reduce the risks.
• Assessments of children and ongoing plans include contributions from all agencies. They are timely and dynamic, and consider strengths within the family as well as risks.
• Risk of harm to children is reduced through the identification and assessment of adults who pose a risk of domestic abuse. These adults are held to account through appropriate and targeted interventions by all practitioners.
• Children and their families are listened to. Multi-agency practice focuses on children’s needs and experiences and is influenced by their wishes and feelings. Practitioners identify and respond to the needs of children who may be unable to share their views, including unborn children.
• Leaders ensure that practitioners’ training, learning and supervision enable them to identify and respond effectively to children who are victims of domestic abuse. This includes single- and multi-agency training that ensures children receive an effective multi-agency response.

‘Time to revisit this important issue’

Ofsted’s national director for social care, Yvette Stanley, said that, since the last JTAI on domestic abuse, “positive steps have been taken to recognise and tackle the impact domestic abuse can have on children”.

She added: “The time is right to revisit this important area and look at what is happening now to prevent abuse and to promote and protect children’s welfare.

By Brid Featherstone and Kate Morris

We have been involved in a research project for over two years now the state of knowledge about domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in child protection (Rethinking domestic abuse in child protection: responding differently – Nuffield Foundation).  Our research in three case-study sites has interrogated:

• The data that is gathered about prevalence and dimensions of the problem.
• Manager and practitioner understandings of causation, typologies and alternative modes of response.
• How intersecting inequalities shape experiences and responses.
• Family members’ understandings and perspectives on professional responses.

Debate over coercive control training

We were, therefore, very interested in the findings from the recent study by the BBC highlighting the lack of specific training on coercive control on more than a third of social work courses and the large variations in content on the remainder.

According to the authors, this lack of training was of particular concern as coercive and controlling behaviour is recognised as underpinning all domestic abuse. The BBC research led the Domestic Abuse Commissioner to call for such training to be made mandatory

In response, a spokesperson for the Joint Universities Social Work Association (JUSWA) argued that initial education does not claim or have a remit to prepare newly qualified social workers to be “thrown into the deep end” of what should be regarded as highly specialised practice.

We welcome the opening up of conversations about the training and role of social workers but worry that both ‘sides’ are in danger of making assumptions about the robustness of the current knowledge base and, in turn, what service responses should be.

Findings from child protection and domestic abuse research

We offer the following findings from our research not only as a contribution to troubling such assumptions, but hopefully to help promote further discussion:

1. We found that we are simply not collecting the kind of data that helps us understand what is going on in families’ lives in relation to domestic violence and abuse. This means that statements about prevalence must be treated with caution and there is an urgent need for the Department for Education to pay attention to how best to capture robust data in order to inform commissioning and services.  For example, the current categories, being used in the children in need census do not provide the data needed for effective responses. Moreover, practitioners are not being supported to understand why collecting robust data matters and why it might improve practice responses.
2. Crucially, the data being collected cannot help us to understand the impact of intersecting gender inequalities. Furthermore, the international literature on intersectionality is not well known in practice. Therefore, the risks and vulnerabilities attached to those living in poverty, from differing minority ethnic groups, abilities, ages and sexualities are not being fully addressed.
3. While there are pockets of excellent practice in this regard, overall, there is little knowledge about the literature that explores the differences between types of abuse and violence and consequent risks. Moreover, practitioners are not being supported to have empirically grounded conversations about ‘what’ and ‘why’ with all those impacted. This results from, and contributes to, practice cultures dominated by reductive terms such as, ‘there is dv in that family’, or, ‘coercive control is present’. This use of non-specific generic descriptors feeds a generalised sense of fear and impotence among practitioners and means the lived realities of those impacted are rarely captured.
4. Individualised case work is being relied upon to tackle what is generally recognised as, including by all involved in the research, a problem that needs action at multiple levels across society.
5. Multi-agency working is the routine response to calls for service improvement, but we found limited evidence of multi-agency working that utilised the expertise of family members and communities. Given that many respondents were concerned about levels of distrust among families and communities towards services, this reliance on multi-agency working seemed rather curious and concerning, especially given the well-documented issues for minoritised communities.

The challenges of doing things differently

It is important to note that we found many attempts to ‘think and do differently’ in relation to domestic abuse and a number are offered here to highlight some of the challenges that emerged that need to be acknowledged if change is to become a widespread reality.

One area had developed a very well-evidenced and robust specialist service, which engaged with the literature on different types of abuse, developed responsive approaches to the women, children and men concerned and was doing groundbreaking work on community engagement. However, this was not becoming embedded in frontline practice despite recognition of the need to do so. The lack of time to build meaningful trusting relationships was cited as a key barrier here, as was workforce instability and churn in a landscape dominated by the impact of austerity on an impoverished local authority.

Another area had sought to involve family members and move away from more punitive formal interventions focused on mothering.  However, the constraints of addressing a complex social problem within the confines of a narrow risk-focused child protection system curtailed imaginative and holistic approaches, especially in relation to working with men.

The limits of individual casework

Overall, we found that, despite sterling attempts by amazing practitioners and managers, they were often trapped within approaches that relied on individual casework and risk management. This, in turn, translated into the outsourcing of safety and protection responsibilities to those most vulnerable and least able to respond (often impoverished mothers).

Daring to ‘think and do differently’ in child protection in relation to domestic abuse requires the opening up of conversations about the status of our knowledge and the expansion of who gets to contribute to those conversations.

The training of social workers is very important as part of such endeavours, but it is part of a bigger story that must involve multiple storytellers, with all those who are impacted at its heart.

Brid Featherstone is emeritus professor of social work at the University of Huddersfield and Kate Morris is professor of social work at Sheffield University. You can find out more about Brid’s work by reading our interview with her for Community Care’s 50th anniversary.

It is not the job of pre-qualifying social work courses to train social workers in specialist areas of practice, academic leaders have said.

The Joint Universities Social Work Association (JUSWA) issued the statement in response to a BBC investigation that found that 37% of courses in England did not deliver specific training for students on coercive and controlling behaviour, in the context of domestic abuse.

Coercive and/or controlling behaviour, such as dictating what a person does or wears or preventing them from accessing their finances, is common in domestic abuse, and often a driver of serious violence by perpetrators (source: Home Office domestic abuse statutory guidance).

Lack of coercive control training ‘baffling’ – commissioner 

The BBC’s findings were described as “baffling” by sector watchdog the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, who called for such training to be made mandatory on pre-qualifying courses.

Nicole Jacobs told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (28 August 2024) that social workers had told her that they were “not entering their roles with the kind of training they need to feel confident to support child and adult victims of domestic abuse because they are not getting it in their course work”.

She added: “Social work in England and Wales today is such that, from day one, you’re going to be really thrown into the deep end. It’s not as if you’re going to have some prolonged period of induction and training that gives you that kind of confidence.”

Jacobs added that social workers being unable to recognise the signs of coercive control could lead to victim-blaming, an experience shared by a domestic abuse survivor interviewed by the BBC.

In response to the story, JUSWA chair Professor Janet Melville-Wiseman said the BBC article “drew attention to some critically important concerns about how well coercive control is understood by those intervening with children and families that are affected by domestic violence”.

University remit ‘does not cover specialised practice’

However, she criticised its focus on pre-qualifying social work education.

“Initial education does not claim or have a remit to prepare newly qualified social workers to be “thrown into the deep end” of what should be regarded as highly specialised practice,” said Melville-Wiseman.

Courses’ role was to prepare students for all areas of social work practice as part of a generic approach, including by covering underpinning theories, the law and concepts such as discrimination and intersectionality, including in relation to domestic abuse, she added.

Following this, graduates would continue their learning and be protected from “high-risk work” during their assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE).

“For that reason, we believe that being fully trained in coercive control is specialist practice and should be primarily delivered as part of post-qualifying study. The issue is too important to think it can be adequately covered at pre-registration level.”

A spokesperson for the Domestic Abuse Commissioner clarified that she wanted to see coercive and controlling behaviour “to be a part of pre-qualifying training courses as well as post-qualifying training to maintain a high level of knowledge”, though stressed that the BBC story was focused on initial social work education.

What existing social work standards say

Social Work England’s education and training standards, which higher education institutions are required to meet, do not cover particular practice areas but state that courses should “enable students to develop the required behaviours, skills, knowledge and understanding to meet the professional standards”.

The professional standards themselves are also generic, for example, requiring practitioners registered with Social Work England to “demonstrate good subject knowledge on key aspects of social work practice and develop knowledge of current issues in society and social policies impacting on social work”.

By the end of their ASYE, practitioners in England are expected to meet the post-qualifying standards for child and family practitioners or the knowledge and skills statement for social workers in adult services, as relevant. Both require an understanding of the impact of domestic abuse on children and families or adults, but neither goes into further detail nor references coercive and controlling behaviour.

Forthcoming Social Work England guidance

Social Work England is due to shortly publish new guidance for education providers on the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of students at the point of qualification to ensure they are practice ready.

Chief executive Colum Conway said the readiness for professional practice guidance would “make clear that social workers will need to be able to “understand signs of harm, exploitation, neglect, abuse, domestic abuse, and coercive or controlling behaviour, recognising their impact on people, families, and communities”.

He added that the guidance had been informed by feedback from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner.

In relation to the regulator’s education and training standards, Conway added: “Our current standards were set out in 2019, but we are committed to routinely reviewing them to ensure they are fit for purpose. We are undertaking a comprehensive review and public consultation on these standards in 2025, where issues such as the placement of coercive and controlling behaviour could be considered for more explicit reference.”

‘Increasing demands’ on social work course providers

In its response to the debate, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England raised concerns about the pressures on social work course providers relative to their resource levels.

“Social work education courses provide a theoretical foundation and placement-based experience for students in diverse settings, including a focus on statute, social policy, critical analysis, research, ethics, values and relationship based social work,” said national director for BASW England Maris Stratulis.

“There are increasing demand across the HEI sector to deliver more and more within a context of under resourcing and non-equitable social work education funding streams.”

This is likely a reference to the superior levels of public funding for students on fast-track courses Approach Social Work (run by Frontline), Step Up to Social Work and Think Ahead, compared with those on university courses.

“The regulator, government, employers, the HEI sector and other stakeholders have a responsibility to provide conducive education and progressive learning environments for students and qualified social workers – this does not happen without sustainable funding and investment,” Stratulis added.

For the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, workforce policy committee chair Nicola Curley said ongoing training and practice development was necessary to enable social workers to meet the needs of children and families and prevent harm.

“Sadly, all forms of domestic abuse are a significant feature of this work with children and families and ADCS will continue to collaborate with the Department for Education on its reform programmes to enhance the skills of our workforce in the best interests of the children and families we serve,” she added.

This article is part of a series of profiles of key figures who have shaped social work over the past five decades, to mark Community Care’s 50th anniversary. Previous interviewees include David Howe, June Thoburn, Eileen Munro and Herbert Laming.

Qualified since the 1980s, Brid Featherstone has been pivotal in advancing research that has shaped thinking in social work.

Her work on child protection has spanned three decades, including influential books and articles that have offered advice on working with men, addressed the treatment of mothers by services and challenged child protection practice in domestic abuse.

In 2015, she was a member of the Child Welfare Inequalities Project team, which examined the role of poverty and inequality in child protection, influencing practice in that area as a result.

Beyond her research and advocacy, she has also embodied her social work values outside of work, spending over 20 years fostering children with her partner.

Having retired in March this year, Featherstone spoke to Community Care about persistent issues when working with victims/survivors of domestic abuse, practitioners’ hesitance to work with men and the need for greater poverty awareness.

How was your experience entering the sector in the late 1980s?

I went into child protection in 1987 and it was the most terrifying time to be a social worker because we’d had many inquiries and child deaths. There was so much anxiety and risk aversion.

It’s good to look back because, when I talk to my students and they say to me, ‘social workers are always being blamed’, I actually think we’re not in the same position as then. Politicians are not making the same mistakes and demonising social workers.

If you look at some of the cases in more recent times, we don’t have the same sense of demonisation of social work.

I think for social workers to constantly feel that they are being demonised means we don’t always understand our power. We can be very powerful in people’s lives, but also quite powerless. If we get into a victim position, we will ignore the fact that people are scared of us.

How did your beginnings shape your approach to social work?

One of my first jobs was working in a bail support team, which provided an alternative to getting children remanded into care or custody. I worked with young girls who were seen as ‘troublesome’ or ‘difficult to work with’.

I took away the kind of things that, to some extent, I still believe in. You needed to have a broad understanding of the challenges that young women would have in their lives, whether these were to do with poverty, sexism or racism, and work hard at making relationships with them.

I remember one young woman saying to me, ‘So you want me to become like you?’.”

It kind of brought me up short. Don’t assume that they will automatically share your views or values. You have to engage with their worldview.

Even if you don’t like it, sometimes they’re making choices that are quite rational in their context. They may not be good choices, but they’re rational.

You need to understand the context in which people are living. It doesn’t mean excusing things, but understanding them.

You’ve done extensive research into the child protection system. What is your opinion of it today?

I don’t think the current child protection system is the best way of dealing with the troubles that children and families have.

It is too focused on individual parents and what they do and don’t do. We forget that many of the risks don’t have to do with parents. For example, how do you raise children in an unsafe environment or if you haven’t got enough money?

We need to think of protecting children within a wider social project. How do we ensure that we have set the right context for children and their parents to flourish? What do people need to give their children a good life?

A mistake we’re making is not engaging with families’ neighbourhoods or paying attention to the quality of their relationships.

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

For our 50th anniversary, we’re expanding our My Brilliant Colleague series to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by either:

• Filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
• Or sending a voice note of up to 90 seconds to +447887865218, including your and the nominee’s names and roles.

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

When I started, I would walk around getting to know my estate. I would know where my parents went if they were short of clothes for their kids.

We’ve lost that connection with our communities. We’re often in big city centre offices and driving out long distances. We don’t know what good or bad things are taking place within communities.

We need to give parents confidence, courage and support through community networks. Make sure that the mother won’t be on her own on Saturday night, when all the professionals are gone. Make sure there is a network around her, a local vicar or whoever.

The tragic death of Star Hobson highlighted for me that we are not engaging with families and communities as we should. Families had been telling children’s services for quite a while that they were worried about Star. And yet, the official response afterwards focused on improving multi-agency working. And I was going, ‘No, we need to spend more time listening to families and communities’.

Multi-agency approaches are important but they can’t be the default position. What we really need to think about is community engagement.

We need to go out into communities and talk to them about what’s going on, ask them what and who keeps them safe, what they define as safe.

A concern throughout all your research has been domestic abuse in child protection cases, something you’re still researching on. What has been a persistent theme from your body of research?

When I trained as a social worker, we didn’t look at [domestic abuse] in the child protection world. It was seen as an adult issue.

In the 1980s, it became clearer that one of the biggest risks to children’s safety was when the mother was being physically abused and couldn’t care for the child.

And so there was a big campaign that led to domestic abuse being recognised as a child protection issue. This was solidified in the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

What was really sad is that, over time, that turned into us making women responsible for the protection of their children from men whom they might be afraid of. And the double-whammy is that we responsibilise the mothers, but we don’t work with men.

One of the things I really worry about it’s what’s happening to boys and young men with the kind of culture around Andrew Tate and incel culture. If we don’t engage with young boys and men and support them, hear their stories, their fears and troubles, we could be making things a lot worse for women and girls.

We’re also finding that we aren’t geared up to deal with the links between childhood trauma,  mental health, substance misuse and domestic abuse. We do not acknowledge the links enough because we are afraid that we might be seen as excusing abusive behaviour and we get confused between what might be a contributory factor and what might be a cause.

Where does that hesitation around working with men in child protection cases stem from?

Social work is a [predominantly] female workforce and practitioners don’t feel that there are any resources to support them, they don’t feel very skilled with it.

I think it’s easier to engage with the woman. She’s usually the person in front of you. It’s more likely that she will both see herself and be seen as responsible for the children.

Social workers will say to me, ‘He’s living somewhere else and I don’t have the time to chase him up’, or, ‘The mother doesn’t want him involved’.”

I think it’s got to be a whole-system approach and be supported in supervision. You need a space to talk about your fears and then appropriate places to direct men to. There need to be support groups and resources handy.

There are some places where practitioners are involving fathers in family group conferences. So it’s not all complete doom and gloom at all. But it is a persistent issue.

Resources on domestic abuse

You can find resources on domestic abuse in child protection on Community Care Inform Children’s domestic abuse knowledge and practice hub. We have also made a guide to identifying coercive and controlling behaviour free-to-access, so all social workers can benefit from it.

In 2015, you took part in a project raising awareness about the impact of poverty. How have you seen that progress?

In 2010, when the coalition government came in, they would say, ‘Oh, poverty has nothing to do with child protection. That’s about people behaving badly’. I think there has been a shift.

From 2015 to 2021, I took part in the child welfare inequalities project, which mapped and explored inequalities in child welfare intervention. I believe it succeeded in raising awareness because we framed our messages in ways that people could engage with.

One of our messages was that there was an inequality for children at the heart of our services. For example, one statistic you’ve probably heard of is that a child in the poorest parts of the UK, such as Blackpool, is more than ten times more likely to be in care or on a child protection plan than a child in the richest areas.

Now, does that mean that all parents in Blackpool don’t love their children or have poor attachment patterns? That set up a certain set of conversations.

We found that social workers would tell us, ‘We will do this or that, but [poverty] isn’t our core business. Our core business is assessing for risk’.

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Would you like to write about a day in your life as a social worker? Do you have any stories, reflections or experiences from working in social work that you’d like to share or write about?

If so, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

So we did training sessions on attitudes and got them to think about a day in the life of somebody in a less affluent area and the choices they’d have to make every day. Not to excuse them but to try and understand them.

For example, you say, ‘She takes her first child to school and leaves him in the playgroup at eight o’clock but the school doesn’t open until half eight, so that’s neglect’.

But, hang on a minute, what other children has she got? What’s the bus service like? Has she got a job to go to? Has she got childcare handy? We did this day-in-the-life methodology and it was very powerful.

You can’t solve poverty as an individual social worker. Poverty is a big issue for governments to solve. But you can be aware of the impact it has on your families to assess risk better.

Then you can distinguish between the parents who can’t be bothered to get up in the morning and take their kids to school on time and those juggling impossible things. That’s being poverty-aware.

You were a foster parent for around 20 years. How did the experience inform your work?

It was very rewarding, very hard work.

It was also really useful because I would ask the children what a good social worker looks like. One child had this idea of a social worker that was lovely, and very funny.

It was definitely not someone good at paperwork [laughs]. But somebody who was fun, who took them to the cinema, listened to them, sang along in the car with them. Someone who was on their side.”

I saw so many practitioners coming in and out of our house, so many of them brilliant examples. But it made me realise that, as social workers, we’re such brief visitors in children’s lives and we have so much power. We really need to think about that. We need to leave children with as many connections as possible.

It has also made me realise that children  never stop trying to make sense of their lives. A very simple thing was, we’d be sitting watching television and it struck me how family-oriented it was. The ads would be mum and dad and children or that family model would be promoted as commonsense.

The children were constantly having to make sense of their situation and the difference. It wasn’t just about going to school and explaining why they didn’t live with their mum and dad. It was even in their leisure time, sitting there watching television.

What are your hopes for the future?

I feel cautiously optimistic. We’ve had a really dreadful, chaotic, irresponsible time.

I hope that ministers will understand how important it is to engage with and hear about what it’s like to live in the towns where services have disappeared, where you have really big issues around accessing food and safe spaces for your children.

I am disappointed that politicians generally are not that interested in child protection.

Over the years, I’ve tried to get mainstream politicians interested and they seemed to see it as something separate from everything else. That it has to do with ‘bad families’.

I would like them to understand that there is a social gradient and that child protection is everybody’s business.

Which influential figures in social work would you like to see Community Care profile?

Sarah Erlacher’s neighbour once called her “a social worker of the world” and she quite literally is. She assists on cases where British adults abroad have become homeless, run out of funds or have been a victim of a crime, and it is her job to advise on cases involving British prisoners in jails abroad.

A large part of her role involves helping people settle back into the UK when their visa has expired or after an incident abroad. This can involve contacting family in the UK or signposting them to services they may need.

“Quite often people decide to come back to the UK thinking they will get access to housing and financial support straight away, but unfortunately that’s not the case, so we have to advise people what [coming back] may look like,” says Erlacher.

She is one of four practitioners that supports the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to assist British nationals overseas.

Erlacher and her colleagues have various specialisms and are employed by Heathrow Travel Care, a charity set up to help people in crisis at Heathrow Airport.

The team of social workers is seconded to the FCDO, which employs 17,000 staff in the UK and its 237 British embassies, consulates and high commissions across the world.

Consular staff are not trained to advise people on issues that would usually require social services involvement. When vulnerable people are involved, staff can seek advice from the specialist social work team.

The four social workers do not hold cases directly but instead provide specialist advice when consular colleagues ask them for help.

British nationals can call the nearest British embassy, high commission or consulate, or the FCDO in UK, at any time. They consider all requests for assistance and have published guidance on how they can help in different circumstances. However the FCDO is not legally obliged to provide assistance to any British citizen under any current law.

The consulates abroad act as a front door for British nationals in distress. Referrals can come through in many ways, from friends, family members, concerned neighbours, healthcare professionals or the police.

Photo: Blanscape/AdobeStock

What does the team do?

Team manager Steve Davenport specialises in cases that involve older adults aged 65 and over.

“We’re giving advice based on our UK experience, knowledge and skills, but we also need to be mindful that doesn’t just automatically translate into the country the British national is in. So we’re relying on the expertise of our colleagues in that country to tell us what it is like on the ground. That will help shape the advice we give to them on how to manage that case.

“We could have two 85-year-olds with dementia, one is in Spain and one in Cambodia, so service provision or what might happen in that country can be really different,” he says.

Davenport explains that because of the different types of provision, or due to lack of services or funds, it is often best for the individual to come back to the UK.

Where the British national has a connection to a particular area, such as a previous home or a relative who lives there, that local authority will be contacted.

“On a daily basis, as a team, [we are] speaking to adult and children’s social care teams dotted around the UK trying to either get information or share information, or give them warning that somebody is coming back,” he says.

Photo: LN/AdobeStock. British Embassy in Moscow

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

For our 50th anniversary, we’re expanding our My Brilliant Colleague series to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by either:

• Filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
• Or sending a voice note of up to 90 seconds to +447887865218, including your and the nominee’s names and roles.

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Children and families

Child welfare and safeguarding specialist Annika Dann’s cases often involve child abductions, domestic abuse, and general safeguarding concerns.

“We have a clear policy on what consular staff can and can’t do in cases involving children. My role is looking at [the case] and applying the principles of UK safeguarding. At the same time, we have to recognise that in another country’s jurisdiction, their legislation applies,” she says.

Some countries have very different approaches to child protection and safeguarding to the UK’s. Dann is reliant on British embassy colleagues to inform her what provision there is to safeguard children in that specific country.

As consular staff are not social workers, they cannot visit children and families and investigate concerns. Part of Dann’s role is to work out if a concern has reached the threshold to involve authorities in the country in question and what action, if any, can be taken.

“There are a lot of domestic abuse cases where one parent wants to leave the relationship with children in their care, but faces challenges to leave the country or return to the UK without the other parent’s consent,” she says.

Dann and colleagues can signpost to services, such as local refuges, or to legal advice for cases involving child abduction, where one parent takes a child across borders without the other’s consent.

“It’s obviously much more challenging in countries where there [aren’t] equivalent social services or a child safeguarding framework and it can be quite limited in what we can do to support. But it’s a collaborative approach where everybody is drawing on their own expertise and knowledge to try and find the best option for the child.”

When British tourists have been involved in domestic or substance abuse abroad and will be returning to the UK, Dann will decide whether they should be flagged to social services. She can also request information from a local authority to help her decide what to do.

Photo: Dominic Dudley/AdobeStock. Sign by the main entrance of the FCDO London, UK.

Mental health

Where there is an obvious primary mental health need, Chris Heywood, the approved mental health professional (AMHP) in the team, will assist. Mental health problems appear across the entire spectrum of what the team does so often there is overlap with cases and the team must work closely together.

Although there has been a lot of progress in the UK in recent decades on the provision of mental health services, this is not always the case in other countries.

“Mental health is still incredibly under-resourced. In many countries, it’s not spoken about – it’s stigmatised – all of the things that used to be more applicable to the UK. Indeed in a lot of countries, there’s no such thing as mental health, it’s not even recognised in law,” says Heywood.

Family members or social workers may flag up a person abroad who needs intervention due to mental health problems but often there is no legal framework in place for this to be possible.

“It can be incredibly difficult,” says Heywood. “Sometimes it really is going back to basics and doing the investigative work. What’s this person’s background? What has helped them in the past? Are there any strategies we can deploy to help this person, given the lack of resources in whichever country they are in? And are there any resources that we know of that may not be apparent to the individual, to which we can signpost or refer them?”

Often the team can be left frustrated when they are unable to proceed because a country does not have the legal framework or guidance in place.

“People, understandably so, become increasingly frustrated or even angered with us for what they perceive as a failure to act or [us] wilfully neglecting to act.

“But actually it’s not for our lack of trying or wanting to provide the assistance this person might need. But where things fall outside of our remit, or if there’s no legal basis for us to do the things that people would like us to do, it may be that there is nothing we can do or indeed, that we are not permitted to do things that people would like us to do. A good example would be where we cannot share information with family members due to GDPR,” says Heywood.

Training

Delivering training and attending conferences in the UK and abroad is an important part of working for FCDO. This gives the team a chance to learn about different social work cultures, look at what services might be available in different regions and impart their own knowledge.

Davenport says: “It’s a real perk and privilege of the job. […] If time allows we can sometimes spend a bit of time with the consular team in that country and go to visit services, social care teams if they exist, hospitals, be that general or psychiatric, care homes, prisons, immigration detention centres – all the places that British nationals end up.”