Children's social services in England and Wales deal with a wide range of referrals of children who are or may be ‘in need’. Finding ways of describing the issues that present in such referrals is important if we wish to understand the nature of the work of children's services and explore...

Purpose There are often calls for more focus on outcomes in Children’s Social Care yet there is little consensus on what these outcomes should be. Key challenges include who should decide what outcomes should be measured and the sheer range of issues that social workers deal with. The purpose...

This paper presents data from a Welsh mixed methods study of a service for families whose children were at risk of entering out-of-home-care due to parental substance misuse (out-of-home care is referred to as Local Authority Care in the UK). Three sources of data are drawn on to focus on the...

This paper reports on placement and welfare outcomes for children allocated a social worker where there was a concern about parental misuse of drugs or alcohol. All files going for allocation for long term work in four London boroughs over on average one year were examined (290 families). Of the...

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a client-centred, directive counselling method. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a two-day workshop in MI for forty social workers in changing self-reported practice over a three-month period, the levels of skills achieved, and factors associated with...

Purpose Secure children’s homes (SCHs) restrict the liberty of young people considered to be a danger to themselves or others. However, not all young people referred to SCHs find a placement, and little is known about the outcomes of the young person after an SCH or alternative placement. The...

Purpose School social work, in various forms, is well established internationally and has a growing evidence base. Yet existing research focuses on professional perspectives rather than those of students. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring secondary school student perspectives of...

Purpose Effectively engaging parents under stress is a key component of skilful child welfare practice. This paper aims to investigate how social workers practice with parents with either high or normal levels of stress. Design/methodology/approach The study used a mixed methods design including...