Consistency and variability in child welfare assessments at the juncture of family services and child welfare
The study examines assessments of children’s and families’ referrals to public social services and whether they differ between child welfare workers across the country. The focus is on how child welfare workers assess the referral as being an issue either for family or child welfare services and whether the assessments differ in any significant way. The data is drawn from 28 group interviews with 120 professionals based on a vignette, the nature of data being that of professional imagination. The findings highlight a shared approach to the vignette as child welfare workers orientate towards finding more information and testing it and meeting each family member in similar ways. They withdraw from any fixed interpretation of the case without any interaction with family members. It is argued that when prioritizing service-users’ equality and consistency of...
