Author: Andre Coleman

‘Ms Cameron took Victoria to the accident and emergency department of the Central Middlesex Hospital around 11am on 14 July. Victoria was seen by Dr Beynon within an hour of her arrival. Dr Beynon took a history from Ms Cameron which, together with the results of a basic examination of Victoria, concerned him enough to refer the matter to a paediatric registrar. In his view there was a “strong possibility” that this was a case of non-accidental injury.’ Such case as this allows one to think whether or not the professionals who were working with Victoria were not attentive as to what was taking place. The first signs that rose attention were after;

‘A number of Ealing staff who saw Kouao and Victoria together during May 1999 noticed a marked difference between Kouao’s appearance (she was always well dressed) and that of Victoria (who was far scruffier). Deborah Gaunt, who saw the two of them together on 24 May 1999, went as far as to say that she thought Victoria looked like an’ “advertisement for Action Aid”.

The United nations describes a universe suitable for the lives of children to be one in which ‘We will promote the physical, psychological, spiritual, emotional, cognitive and cultural development of children as a matter of national and global priorities’ (United Nations 2002, p.5). Such elected regions where purpose is necessary in order to put this world into being can recognized the same as: putting one into good physical shape, the provision of excellent education; protection from abuse, mistreatment and violent behaviour; and fighting against issues such as HIV/AIDS. Related aims and the process put into such areas form an important factor of policies considered to enable safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of children in the entire signatories to the UN Convention. A child’s welfare cannot be promoted whilst been separated from others, because they will not thrive but for their needs been met equally by parents, or other key carers, and also by means of the environment in which they live. A definition used by the Government in regards to safeguarding children is said to be;

‘The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.’

As Individual we have the right to live freely from violence and abuse. This autonomy is supported by the responsibility on public agencies that works under the Human Rights Act (1998) to intervene proportionately to protect the rights of citizens. Such rights include ‘the Right to life’, ‘Freedom from torture’ which may include humiliation and shameful treatment and ‘Right to family life’ to uphold the individual. The experience of abuse and neglect is likely to have a significant impact on a person’s health and well being.

‘On more than one occasion, medical practitioners who noticed marks on Victoria’s body considered the possibility that children who have grown up in Africa may be expected to have more marks on their bodies than those who have been raised in Europe. This assumption, regardless of whether it is valid or not, may prevent a full assessment of those marks being made.’

In the year 2009 October the 12th a new ‘Vetting and Barring’ scheme was produce whereby several new lists came into existence, one protecting individuals working with children and that of working with adults. The restricted files will be governed via a different body, which is known as the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). Individuals found on such records within the ISA are obliged to be banned from a far wider range of keeping up performance than before. Harmonised actions will be reinforced generally to NHS and social care workers. The recent proposal is been established on a phased basis which comes into effect from July 2010. Individuals who are now working with children or vulnerable adults whom has changed professions will be forced to sign up through the ISA. At present district nurses in positions are obligated to register from 2011, so therefore all referrals are now expected to be made to the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

‘The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) was created as part of the Government’s Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) to help prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults. It is a Non Departmental Public Body, sponsored by the Home Office’. They work in corporation along with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) to assist in making certain there is no rationale for why individuals who wants to work or volunteer in the company of children or vulnerable adults should not do so.

As stated in the Safeguarding for Adults frame work article it says that the group of adults who are in subjective by the ‘No Secrets’ are individuals “who is or may be eligible for community care services”. In such groups, folks who “were unable to protect themselves from significant harm” are called “vulnerable adults”. Though the term “vulnerable adults” elevates the occurrence in maltreatment experienced by the individual or the group, at hand it is acknowledged that this

characterization is debatable. Therefore been labelled can mislead, because one can direct basis of mistreatment towards the victim, instead of placing accountability by means of conduct or elimination of others. The demand of safeguards to shield vulnerable adults and children was tainted by the Richard Inquiry (2004) shortly after the murder of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in 2002. Following the proposal of the Inquiry, the Safeguarding Vulnerable Group Act 2006 came to pass to make sure that there is a more forceful structure to safeguard folks at risk. The Act came into existence on the 20 January 2009, to improve procedures for safeguarding vulnerable adults from abuse or the possibility of harm by workers or volunteers whose employment allows them a considerable amount of access to such individuals. Emphasis is now placed on aiding adults to have admission to services of their own choice, instead of ‘stepping in’ to afford protection. ‘Better Government for Older People’ is a model of how the support of dynamic residency for all is been assessed as an investment on a fundamental position in avoiding risks to their independence. Meanwhile, the responsibility to offer protection to those who do not have the mental capacity entrance themselves has become clearer (e.g. Human Rights Act 1988, Mental Capacity Act 2005, Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004). In acknowledgment of the shifting context, earlier suggestions to the safety of “vulnerable adults” and to “adult protection” effort are currently substituted by the new term: ‘Safeguarding Adults’. This expression measures all toil which permits an adult “who is or may be eligible for community care services” to maintain independence, security, preference and their human right to exist in a life that is liberated from abuse and neglect. Such explanation particularly embrace individuals who are considered as being able to majority of the care services, as well as those in good health and are entitled for societal care services but such needs in relation to safeguarding is for admittance to normal services such as the police.

The children Act 1989 puts in place legal requirements for child protection practise. The Act introduces actions that are applicable for when a child may be at risk of abuse. Community and undisclosed guidelines correlated to children works under such law, in a progression of values overriding the performance and procedures, equally in and away from court. An important fundamental in regards to the requirements of the children Act, 1989, ‘is that the child’s welfare should be ‘paramount’ in making decisions about her life and property’. There is no exact description in the Act to say what is understood by ‘welfare’ nevertheless it is obvious in an attempt to clarify its meaning that by far it is a substantial and objective welfare and that it furthermore refers to the child’s emotional, social and moral well-being. Shortly after the Children Act of 2004 introduced a legislative structure intended for the support of the community to protect children within England and Wales. All organisations that came into contact with services to children, together with healthcare organisations, are required to cooperate to make sure that in implementing the purpose they safeguard and uphold the safety of children. Safeguarding children is dependent on the efficient professional work done in connection with the organisation and specialist with respect to their different job roles and expertise.

Baby peter’s death was very upsetting, it went quite far beyond been an exceptional crime. Too many children has been killed in similar situations which tallies up to 30 children in this country since that of Baby P and majority of them has died at the hands of a carer or parent. What raised attention to these cases was due to how many times the local authority, including Haringey who handled the case of Victoria climbie’ and was judged for neglecting the protection which was meant to be given to her several years earlier, such children were seen not be taken seriously therefore protection was not given. Whilst baby peter was alive he was taken to the hospital on many occasions with injuries shown and was seen to up to 60 times by different professional’s just months before he passed away. The guardian cited that couple of days before peter died he was seen by a paediatrician who did not realise that his broken back and paraplegia. A headline on the Article noted that ‘Baby peter was born into a nightmare of abuse, violence and despair, he never stood a chance’. It went on to say that snarled family life of Baby Peter is a realistic forewarning of the trails that many generations of abandoned and primitive abuse can visit on children.

‘Although children comprise one of the largest and most vulnerable groups in society, their needs are frequently not recognised or met’ (Cloke & Naish, 1992).

The Every Child Matters (2003) article places an interest that a child’s wellbeing and safeguarding of him or her from trivial distress is critical and the liability is that of the parents, carers and professionals working with children. ‘There is a shift in attitude amongst policy makers that suggests the welfare of children is the responsibility of everyone’ (DoH, 2002). During earlier period to current times, extreme cases that ranged from 197O’s to recent times where children have been abused or died by the direct hands of their carers, because of this the protection of children has become a soaring concern for the government. Cloke and Naish (1992) has reasoned that the nursing profession holds a definite input in tackling child abuse, from happening to them getting involved in an extended period local authority care. Professionals working within the healthcare plays an important position in making sure that children and families recieves the best care, assistance and services they require in request to improve children’s wellbeing and development. ‘Working together to safeguard children is the national framework for child protection practise and its guidance applies to everyone working with children and families'(DH,1999). This justifies how the child protection procedure works, appointing the duties of professionals and the measures to pursue whilst there are apprehension regarding a child. ‘One of the principles of working together and the accompanying framework for the Assessment of children in need and their families is that child protection practise should be operated within a broader framework of children in need'(DH, 2000). This take into consideration the requirements of children whom are been looked after, have a disablity, somewhat abused in the course of prostitution or suffer societal exclusion. ‘It is fair to state that the Laming Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie (Laming 2003) has resulted in much of this unprecedented governmental activity and that this is now driving national policy development even though other children have died through parental or carer abuse’ (DoH 2002a, DHSS 1991, DHSS 1982).

It is obvious that to hand is an overload of policy change are controlling how the society protects and safeguard children and vulnerable adults and this is more recognised within the health care. ‘The NHS has been subjected to the audit and inspection of child protection arrangements across all trusts (DoH 2002b, CHI 2003a, CHI 2003b) many following on from the Laming Inquiry’ (Laming 2003). This was also related to the rationalization of the duty carried out by higher administration at a level for safeguarding children, structured on overruling the guidance of Child Protection Responsibilities of Primary Care Trusts published in 2002. In addition to such proposal the Kennedy Report (DoH 2001) has asked agencies and folks to think about how they support and safeguard children in health care and this has develop into a crucial issue supporting of the Children’s National Service Framework (DoH 2004b). ‘Given all these initiatives it can be difficult for primary care practitioners, because of their diverse working environments and practice, to keep abreast of the changes that will be affecting their role and particularly if children and young people are not their designated client group’ (Thain 2000). In time it will be expected that primary health care practitioners needs to increase their awareness on the basis about safeguarding children, undertaking specialized training and to be able to take on challenges if and when necessary action is needed. Whilst the need for widespread child protection training and particular medical administration are fairly recent in the health service programmes, the accountability is for everyone to take it upon themselves to be aware of when a child may be at risk is the requirement of section 47 of the Children Act 1989 (DoH 1989). ‘This requirement is detailed within Working Together to Safeguard Children (DoH 1999) and the more recent publication What to Do if You Are Worried a Child is Being Abused (DoH 2003) sent to every practitioner on the NMC register’. Although the Children Act stands as, the Code of Professional Conduct is also there to identify the dependability of practitioners to ‘protect and support the health of individual patients and clients’ (NMC 2002, Robsbaw and Smith 2004). Therefore referrals of children who have a need or may be at risk of abuse should be pointed to the appropriate authorities whom are already surrounded by the protection of the code; on the other hand practitioners are compelled not to infringe secrecy except given the go ahead or within the public’s interest to do so.

The question is asked as to what safeguarding might be; a definition specifies that for one to develop and thrive, the youth should be tested of their ability the same as been kept out of harm’s way through the community contributing opportunities in order for them to grow. To safeguard young people it is more than just protecting them, it requires a complete action taken to ensure no harm is potentially placed in their way. ‘By its very nature abuse – the misuse of power by one person over another – has a large impact on a person’s independence. Neglect can prevent a person who is dependent on others for their basic needs exercising choice and control over the fundamental aspects of their life and can cause humiliation and loss of dignity’. ADSS, 2005

To answer this question I am going to critically evaluate the impact of direct work with children from a safeguarding perspective which will include children who have been placed in foster care as a direct consequence. In addition I will identify and critically assess the impact of current legislation and research on the lives of children. I will first explain direct work and its importance; secondly I will evaluate the impact of conducing direct work with children in light of legislation and policy and thirdly critically evaluate the critical issues highlighted in the theory behind the use of observation.

Hapgood, 1988 ( cited in Fahlberg, 2012: 338 ) posits that; “direct work with children is used to enable children to understand significant events in the past, confront the feelings that are secondary to those events, and become more fully involved in the future planning of their lives”. Social work with children can be challenging especially as they are working with individuals who are not fully developed and may not be able to express their needs as adults can. It is at this point that a firm understanding of how to obtain information from children is understood in order to protect them, Winter, (2011).

Direct work with children can take many forms and typically consists of; Listening, communication, observations and interacting with the child, (Winter, 2011). There are a variety of tools and mechanisms that can be used to undertake direct work with children and family’s such as; using drawings, life story work, playing games and using toys, (Ruch, 2014). Carroll, (1998) illustrates some tools that can be used with children such as; Treasure Island and magical houses, during my practice placement I used some of these tools as part of the single assessment, a single assessment is a holistic framework used by social work professionals which is based on an ecological approach to assessing children under three different domains, (Ferguson, 2011). For example I worked with a child who had been exposed to parental abuse and was subsequently placed in foster care. To establish a relationship with the child and explore the child’s experiences I used the Treasure Island task which allowed me to establish the child’s relationships, which the child has a strong attachment with and or any concerns with their relationships, McMahon, (1992). Subsequently conducting direct work has come from lessons learnt from the past, an Ofsted report highlights that the previous focus has been on the parents and not the child, Ofsted,(2009 / 2010). To illustrate a young girl was a victim of a sexual assault by a male known to her mother, her mother misused drugs and alcohol, it was found that the girl was only spoken to once and her wishes and feelings had not been prioritised thus leaving her in a vulnerable position open to the attack, (Ofsted, 2009 / 2010). With this in mind in and reflecting on my practice from the previous example, I would adapt some of the tasks I used in this scenario; this is because I found the magical house task was too advanced for younger children: it may have been more appropriate if I used the buttons task because using objects can make things easier for younger children to understand.

The impact of serious case reviews and inquiries have seen a drive to integrate direct work into social work practice which has been reinforced by legislation. The Children Act, 1989 (as amended by section 53 (4a) of the Children Act 2004) requires that the local authorities give due regard to a child’s wishes and feelings, of which S.22 (4a) Children Act 1989 includes those children that are or maybe looked after by the local authority. The Working Together To Safeguard Children’s Guidelines 2013 further strengthened these obligations as it was found, in the Daniel Pelka’s serious case review that Daniel was not spoken too until too late and at that point may not have been able to articulate himself, therefore his wishes and feelings had not been heard if they had been heard this may have saved Daniel from his untimely death, (Lock et al,2013). The importance of the Child’s Voice is also enshrined in Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998 which requires;” the Local Authority to ascertain the ‘ wishes and feelings’ of children and give due consideration (with regard to the child’s age and understanding) to these when determining what services to provide, or what action to take”, ( Munro, 2011:24). In addition the UK has ratified in 1992 with The United Convention of the Rights of the Child, (UNCRC), of which Article 12 (1) states; “Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child”, (UNCRC,1989: 5). The local authority must also follow the; National Minimum Standards for both Adoption (2013) and Fostering (2011) which is used in inspections by Ofsted. While the Children and Families Act, 2014 affords children greater protection and support ensuring all children can be successful, Donovan, (2014) .

However although legislation has reinforced the need for direct work with children there are challenges that persist in its use, ( Ruch, 2014). Luckock, (2013) argued that with the increase in legislative controls this has had an impact on the beauracracy within social work, and as Ferguson, (2011) argues this may lead practice to becomes target driven and service led rather than client led. Furthermore Ferguson, (2011) purports that practioner skills are being eroded because of the time spent at their desks typing out assessments and meeting statutory requirements. For example on my practice placement I have had experience of completing paper work for a child whom became a Looked After Child by the Local Authority, the administration that was generated from this process restricted me to the office for at least three days because statutory guidelines require that; LAC reports, court reports and legal meetings must be completed within specific timeframes. The Working Together Guidelines reinforce this need for protocol for instance by stipulating that; “ every assessment should be focused on outcomes”, (Working Together To Safeguard Children, 2013:22), which could perhaps be seen as leading towards a service led practice instead of child centred practice. In addition social care staff have also highlighted that they feel as if they are working in a culture of fear such that, any display of warmth towards a child could be misconstrued as unprofessional and exploitative, ( Mcleod, 2010). This raises difficulties for professionals when they conduct direct work with children and hope to form a relationship that allows the child to feel comfortable speaking about their experiences, (Tyler et al, 2005, cited in Oliver, 2010). Notably when Looked After Children were asked what they wanted from their social worker, they said; “ they would like their social worker to be like a friend” (Oliver,2010: 29). This

Current research and theory have also had an impact on the use of direct work in the lives of children who need safeguarding or who are Looked After by the Local Authority, (Luckock, 2013). Development theory such as attachment by Bowlby, (1969) can inform direct work with children to obtain the child’s wishes and feelings, observation is a method which can inform and use attachment theory to aide in the assessment process (Sharman et al, 2004). During my practice placement, I used observation as a method to inform my assessment. I observed a one year old child who became Looked After by the Local Authority. I observed the Child at the foster carer’s house, during my observation I noted that the young girl had trust issues, this was indicative from her behaviour; she would not have eye contact with adults and if she did look she would cry inconsolably. Importantly she did not allow her foster carer to touch her, she would push her hand away. When she was placed in her play pen she could scream uncontrollably and rock back and forth, her head was also flat which was an indication that, she had been left in one spot over long periods.

Prior to this observation I planned how I would conduct the observation. I thought about the key purpose of the observation and from my thought process I concluded that I needed to ascertain what the infants’ attachment style was, (see Ainsworth, 1969). In addition I needed to observe the child’s relationships with others to establish how the infant had been emotionally affected by her mother’s maltreatment. As the child was Looked After it was the LA statutory duty to visit the child in the foster placement therefore consent was not an issue at this time. I also thought about which observation method I should use, I used the naturalistic style of observation, this meant I had to sit quietly and observe the child, it also meant that I must be careful not to make eye contact, I made notes in the present tense and my main focus was on the infant, (Fawcett, 2009).

However practitioners must be aware of how their own personal and cultural experiences can have an impact on the observation, (Fawcett, 2009). Lord Laming, (2003) illustrates this point in the Victoria Climbie report by suggesting that; the focus was on Victoria’s heritage and cultural background and because of this, it acted as a barrier for professionals in assessing the need of the child, of which the need was that of any child who was suffering from abuse irrespective of cultural explanations. With this in mind Fawcett, (2009) suggests that typically, we tend to have a set hypothesis when observing and as such we try to find evidence to fit that theory, what Fawcett, (2009) explains is that we need to have an open approach to observation and think holistically. For example, I had to be mindful that although I was aware of the mum’s case history and that the case was going to court, I had to ensure that I was not looking for evidence to support the court report but that my task was to assess holistically.

Furthermore there are strengths and limitations of using the naturalistic method of observation. The strengths to this approach is that; one is able to keep an ecological picture of the situation, notes can be taken immediately thus insuring the observation records are as accurate as possible and that it is in a natural setting, (Sharman, 2004). For example, because I was able to write the notes as the observation was happening I managed to get the intricate details , for instance her hand gestures which I may have forgotten had I written the notes later. However Sharman, (2004) noted that the limitations to the naturalistic approach raised dilemma’s such that there was no direction as to what data should be collected and the data that was collected was subsequently amassed together without structure. Reflecting back on my practice with this observation, I would have preferred to observe the child with both of the foster carers present, because the female foster carer told us that the young girl was afraid of female carers but was comfortable around the male carer her husband, it would have strengthened the assessment if I was able to observe this early on in the placement.

In addition to the strengths and weaknesses of naturalistic observations another aspect to be aware of is the impact of the observer’s emotional responses in the observation (Fahlberg, 2012). For instance in my observation I had to manage my emotions when watching the child in distress, because that would have clouded my judgement of the situation. Trowell and Miles, (2009) suggests that the observers need to realise what observations are their own emotional responses and thoughts and these need to be separated and noted which emotions have come from the observer and which is the child’s. Luckock, (2013) argues that if the observers emotions are not acknowledged and examined this may lead to a different outcome of the observation as your own emotions may distort your judgement of what is actually occurring. Similarly Fawcett, (2009) highlights that the observer needs to be aware that every child is unique in for example in temperament and may not react the same way because their developmental path which is a mixture of biological and environmental experiences. The Every Child Matters agenda recognises such differences and purports to highlight that child development is holistic and must thus be assessed as such, Fawcett, (2009).

As discussed previously consent for this observation was not problematic however at times it can be. I have had to manage a situation when this has been an issue; a young 15 year old boy had been maltreated. Children’s Social Care (CSC) wanted to observe the boy in school to see his attachment behaviour to inform their assessment. CSC would not have been able to speak with the child without permission from the parents and this was not an option. As the local authority did not have parental responsibility this can pose as a dilemma for practitioners who are assessing children that may be at risk of significant harm. However in some instances the local Authority can assess the child as Gillick competent, NSPCC, (2015) this means that the local authority are saying that the child who is under 16 is mature enough to give consent for example to being observed, NSPCC (2015).

Gaining consent for the observation and using clauses such as Gillick competence raises issues of power and how social workers should work in an anti – oppressive and anti – discriminatory way, (Luckock, 2013). Essentially observation can be oppressive for the child, it can perhaps make the child feel uncomfortable and highlights the power imbalance between them and the professional, Luckock, (2013). Therefore Baldwin, (1994) posits that groups that have less power for example; children, the elderly and BME groups should be assessed on the basis of being “seen and heard” (p,79). Similarly observers need to recognise that society views for example about; being Gay, black or disabled are not necessarily positively viewed as for instance being a heterosexual white male. Therefore these differences need to be recognised when observing and the observer should perhaps use a socio – cultural frame work and discuss the observation afterwards with a supervisor as this allows for a reflective stance when making judgements, and could help achieve records that are as accurate as possible,(Hsu and Arnold, 2006).

Overall legislation, policy and research has had an impact on direct work, legislation as discussed has reinforced and compelled the use of direct work in practice. This has can be seen as a positive influence leading to a child centred way of working which may be beneficial for children as they will have a voice and receive the required help. On the other hand research into how direct work can be effective for example; in observation can help to inform the direct work process and insure that children’s experiences and lives are being assessed accurately as possible.

According to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) every individual, regardless of their race, nationality, gender, age or disability, has a right to a free compulsory elementary education. The access to education is a requirement for full realization of the right to education (Article 26). Education is the key to child’s enjoyment of many other rights. It helps children to ensure to reach their full potential, their well-being, and to assure their short and long term interests. Indeed, Education right leads children to participate as an active responsible individual in society, and to enshrine the value of others and natural environment (Hodgkin & Newell, 1998). It also decreases their vulnerability to poverty; inequality and social exclusion (Hart et. al, 2001).

There are several responsibilities of local education authorities, schools and statutory provisions which have a bearing on this area including; Local authorities have to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need and provide a level of services which is appropriate to those children’s needs (Children Act 1989, Section 17). Moreover, LEAs and other organisations are required to participate in the exercise of functions. They are also required to make child protection enquiries if they find a reasonable cause to suspect a child in their area (Children Act 1998, Section 47). Furthermore; they have to make arrangements to ensure that their functions are accomplished with considering the safeguarding and promoting of children’s welfare with regards to Secretory of State guidance (Children Act 2002, Section 175). Education Act 2002 and The Education Regulations 2003 stated that the managers of independent schools and governing bodies of non-maintained special schools have to safeguard and promote the welfare of children at the school as approved by the Secretary of State (Non-Maintained Special Schools Regulations 1999). Local education authorities, governing bodies must consider the purpose of section 175 and 157 of the 2002 Act. They have to make arrangements with relevant agencies including district councils, police, the probation service and NHS bodies to collaborate in improving the well-being of children. LEAs also set out 11 standards, which should be met by educational, social and health services by 2014 (children Act 2004, Section11). Local education authorities and educational establishment’s performance are subject to inspection relevant legislation and guidance. Their performance will be judged not only by the available procedures but also by their effectiveness in terms of safeguarding children from harm (Morris, 2005).

Safeguarding Children in education

According to Children Act 2004, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as protecting the children from maltreatment, preventing them from health or development impairment, ensuring children to growing up in safe circumstance and effective care; and enable children to have optimum life chances and successful adulthood. The main aspects of safeguarding are; minimizing the risk of harm to children’s welfare and working in full partnership with other agencies to agreed local policies (Department for Education, 2004).

Although protecting children from maltreatment is essential in preventing the impairment of health or development, they are not on their own adequate to ensure that children are breed in safe and effective care. Under Section 10(2) of the Children Act 2004 various aspects of safeguarding and promoting welfare is set out. Five outcomes are considered for children’s wellbeing including: “physical, mental and emotional health; protection from harm and neglect; education, training and recreation; making a positive contribution to society; and social and economic well-being”. For this purpose, State provided range of services for helping parents to take good care of their children, such as universal services of health, education, housing and income support. Furthermore, early intervention to deal with the adverse effects of socioeconomic disadvantage is a key priority for UK Government by providing an easy access to stimulating environment for parents to support. In 2010 Graham Allen was commissioned by the Government to undertake an independent review, investigating how children at greatest risk of multiple disadvantages get the best start in life. In 2003, second form of early intervention is embodied in the Every Child Matters reforms. These reforms looking for increasing the involvement and contribution of different services which working with children and their families to observe and respond to their difficulties. Sure start is designed to support the Communities First initiatives in disadvantage areas. It gives particular attention to the early years (0-3). In 2004, for early year education intervention, the Welsh Assembly Government aimed to provide a good quality education through Flying start.

According to Department for Education (2006) local authorities and schools safeguarding covers more than a child protection in relation to individual children. It also covers issues such as health and safety of the pupil, bullying, and a range of other issues, for instance school security, drugs and substance misuse, providing first aid and medical needs of children with medical conditions. To achieve the children’s protection, children must feel supported and valued by a group of reliable professionals. As stated by Department for Education guidance Safeguarding children and safer recruitment in education (2006), schools must provide a safe environment and move towards identifying and protecting children who are at risk of significant harm and taking appropriate action and making sure that they are kept safe both at home and in the education setting. Indeed schools are responsible for preventing unsuitable people from working with children to increase safe practice and it requires that all staff should be suitably trained and be aware of action to take. Besides, schools have to work in partnership with other agencies which provid services for children. Local authorities are responsible for providing model policies and procedures on all aspects of safeguarding to ensure that schools are aware of, and fulfil, their responsibilities. For that reason, they offer advice and training for schools’ staff and governors (DfE, 2006).

Recruitment and selection

Staffing Guidance under section 35 (8) and 36 (8) of the Education Act 2002 stated that education setting, local authorities, schools and agencies which supply staff to the education sector should adopt robust recruitment and vetting procedures which help to prevent unsuitable people from working with children. Face to face interview, checks and professional and character references should be carried out on people as part of the recruitment process, to check if an applicant is physically and mentally is capable of preforming the job tasks. Criminal record must be undertaken routinely and should be mandatory. The Criminal Records Bureau and any necessary checks of the POCA list and List 99 can illuminate the majority of unapt applicants. According to School Staffing Regulations (2006) and intended Further Education Regulations (2006), all who seek positions in schools which involve contact with children such as volunteers as well as checking employees and supply staff, are subject to enhanced background checks.

Staff Protection Training

Basic child protection training is vital for all staff who is working with children (Lord Laming’s report The Protection of Children in England, 2009). Bandele (2009) on his report on safeguarding training within the education sector inferred that schools need to offer appropriate safeguarding training to all staff in order to ensure, they are confident about their day-to-day work in terms of safeguarding children (Munro, 2011). According to Ofsted’s (2010) survey of social worker across England, professional development and training of the social workers have progressed considerably. In general, social workers have been reported that such training helps them to have a better understanding of children’s needs and their work.

The LSCB child protection procedures are in consistent with ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (Children Act 2004) and the All Wales Child Protection Procedures (2008). Staff needs to have the knowledge that equips them to recognise and respond to child welfare. Applicants working through Protocol Education are well placed to observe abuse or neglect. According to Department of Health (2003) it is an applicant duty who is working within a school or nursery to consider not only major incidents, but also signals which give cause for suspicion or concern. When this occurs the applicant must report any concerns to the school’s designated member of staff with particular responsibility for child protection work. It is also his or her responsibility to follow the specific guidelines which set out in school’s Child Protection Policy. It is an applicant’s duty who is working outside of the school or nursery environment to report any concerns to the Social Services Department. Applicants have a responsibility of explaining on first contact and they cannot keep information confidential. If abuse is suspected the concern should be reported at branch level and then discussed with the Operations Director and then reported to Social Services (Safeguarding Children in Education, 2008). If a candidate has a reason to believe that a child is being abused then the safety of that child has to be a vital consideration in deciding what action needs to be taken. If there is a complaint of abuse made against an applicant who is working through Protocol Education it should be reported to the Branch Manager and Line Managers( Welsh Assembly Government guidance circular, 2004). The necessary action will be taken in accordance with Protocol Education’s Complaints Procedure. An applicant should never interfere on his/her own (Children Act 1989, Section 47).According to Protocol Education ,all applicants of the position outlined in the 1996 Education Act, are forbidden form any form of physical contact and corporal punishment. Under certain circumstances teachers and other staff are allowed to use reasonable force to control pupils which have been authorised by the head teacher. All schools should have a policy about the use of force to control or restrain pupils. Failure to comply with the relevant legal requirements will result in removal.

Child Protection Training

Another step to protect children in the education sector is to develop a curriculum that improves children’s understanding about safeguarding and welfare. Training children is as important as staff training. As a part of developing a healthy and safe lifestyle, Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum materials (2010) provide resources which enable schools to challenge issues regarding healthy relationships, such as, bullying, abuse and domestic violence. Personal safety’s discussions can reinforce the point that any kind of violence is unacceptable. For example it makes children and young people to be aware of the behaviour that is not. In 2011 PSHE education became a statutory subject in schools in England. PSHE provides the opportunities for children to learn about how to keep safe; and who to ask for help if their safety is threatened. For example, recognising risks in different situations and managing how to behave responsibly. Indeed it helps them to judge what kind of physical contact is acceptable or unacceptable. Also help them to recognise when pressure from others threatens their personal safety or develop effective ways of resisting pressure, including knowing when and where to get help. In all schools corporal punishment is forbidden for all pupils. Teachers or other staff member are outlawed from using any degree of physical contact which is intentionally intended to punish and to cause pain, injury or humiliation.

In UK recently, relevant legislation improvements in safeguarding have been widespread such as, The Children Act, Every Child Matter and The Education. Almost all schools now give high priority to getting their safeguarding procedures right. In Ofsted’s Annual Report (2009/10), Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector wrote:

“Safeguardingaˆ¦is an issue addressed not only with increasing sureness by those responsible for keeping children and learners safe, but one felt keenly by those most vulnerable to harm and neglect.”

Children’s welfare, safeguarding, and early intervention for children should be the main priority of Government. Government policy must enable vulnerable children to be treated as children first. The Department for Education have overall responsibility for the welfare of all children in school through promoting programs, policies and creating a safe learning environment by developing comprehensive child protection policies, inter agency cooperation, early education intervention and children’s protection training.

Abuse can be defined as maltreating, making bad use of, oral and corporeal attacks, insulting , the mistreatment of, or the possessions of unjust or dishonest exercises on an object, individual or being both (Thomas, Holland, 2010). Actions filling the above descriptions and specifically directed towards the child could be termed as “Child Abuse”. These particular types of abusive action, the child personality together with the prevailing environment contribute to how the abuse may affect the child, both at the time of abuse as well as later (Reder et al., 1993). However, this is not a simple concept and involves the duty of child’s guardians to enable their child protected from the conditions of harm (Reder, Duncan 1999). Generally, the child’s guardians may be one or both of the biological parents, but this may not be always. Regardless of who the potential guardian is, the critical duty to safeguard the child from the significant effects of harm remains the same (Quinton, 2004; Powell 2007). Recent statistics by the government of United Kingdom on Child Abuse show that, the illegitimate deaths of children owing to child abuse and specifically, killed by their parents increased to about seventy percent and this percentage was found to be higher with the statistics taken in 2001 (around fifty percent) (Department of Health, 2000). This essay provides a critical analysis of issues associated to child abuse and considers the role of family support in protecting and safeguarding the needy children.

Among various different forms of abuse, physical, emotional and sexual types are considered by the government of United Kingdom. In the public sense, negligence (or neglecting others) was often believed to be as a form of abuse, though the regulations stipulate to consider neglect or negligence a linked but a different issue (Adams et al., 2002). Furthermore, it can be considered as the rising crisis. Most lately, this was highlighted by the civic and media objection with regard to the death of Victoria Climbie, slaughtered by her own aunt and uncle, the snitch ciphers of child abuse mistreated by copious professionals (Adcock, White 1998). On the other hand, the full horror story of Baby P was unfolded before the court by the year of 2008. The jury investigated about the case and it was observed that the baby’s father and mother were involved in the act of child abuse. The shocking signs pertaining to torn ears, absence of toe nails, finger nails and finger tips together with the lesions on the scalp summed up to the tragic and appalling incident in United Kingdom (Adams et al., 2002). The Cleveland Child Abuse Scandal can be taken as another example for the issues related to child abuse. This scandal occurred in Cleveland, England in the year of 1987 during which around 121cases of doubted child abuse were recognised and diagnosed by Dr Marietta Higgs and Dr Geoffrey Wyatt (Child practitioners in Cleveland County). After the court trials, twenty cases that included children from 12 families were identified by judges as incorrectly diagnosed, 100 cases among 121 children alleged to be sexual abuse victims, in rest of the cases, the child was subjected to a protection order and some of them were separated from their parents permanently (Adcock, White 1998). In the year of 2007 (March 21st), Dr Marietta Higgs said in an interview that she would perform the same act again by relying on facts and she suspected that number of individuals who were being abused were even higher than that of named 121 cases. Following these incidents, awareness was developed among the health officials in safeguarding the children in a way by applying proper procedures for the complete management of child protection and subsequent prevention of abuse (Department of Health 2003; Department of Health 2000).

Based on the above illustrations, it can be understood that safeguarding children is the prime responsibility of any social worker regardless of his biological reaction with the child. The vocabulary of child protection has undergone major changes over the last fifty years (Falkov, 1996). The exact meaning and ideology of these changes and their significance in policy and practice linked to welfare and child safety was little ambiguous. The effects of these changes in indicating a cosmetic, superficial updating terminology over time within the complex framework was not found to be intact (Department of Education and Skills 2003; Department of Education 1995). Questionably, these vocabulary changes till the year of 1990’s were suggestive of refinements in identifying, controlling and interfering in the cases of child abuse and neglect ever since its rediscovery in the 1960’s; the agenda related to safeguarding was found to herald more significant modifications. It can be explained as signifying a more methodical and comprehensive approaches to child welfare issues can reduce the incidence of Child Abuse and these approaches were further extended in Every Child Matters (ECM) initiative (Department for Education and Skills, 2004). Following the death of Victoria Climbe, an inquiry report was introduced and it involved strenuous efforts to certify no child slips by the use of preventative services, efforts to enhance information partaking and functioning together with skilled experts that incorporated the foreword of Common Assessment Framework, transformed methods to overcome social segregation and with an objective of providing children a tone of voice in public and government life (Broadhurst et al., 2009). Therefore, Safeguarding children is the key element of current communication in children’s services, still there exists certain ambiguity and overlies about the critical understanding these concepts and principles (Corby, 2006). Contemporary guidelines and developments in the United Kingdom have prejudiced strategies in protecting children to cuddle a great deal responsibility with a focus on recognition, early intrusion and deterrence (Davies, Duckett 2008).

With the concept of protecting the child and improving the quality of child protection services, Professor Eileen Munro published a review, The Child’s Journey by the year of 2007. The first report of this review helped in offering an analysis of unintentional consequences of past developments that aroused within child protection system (Munro, 2007). It completed by ascertaining that professionals are forced from maintaining attention on the child by the difficulty and inflexibility produced in investigations and conventions. Diverse areas recognized for development at this specific stage of re-examination associate, consequently, to these elements of the system (Munro, 1995). To support further changes, the review panel has been functioning in partnership with five different organisations who have appealed superior litheness when calculating the desires of children with an ultimate goal of distributing enhanced results and more directed approaches. This review explains that a good child safeguarding system must be concerned with child’s journey by a system from desiring and receiving help, keeping a clear focus on children’s best interests and throughout. This involves developing expertise and the presence of organisational environment that assist professionals in functioning with children, adolescents and families to provide more assistance (Munro1995; Munro 2007).

In addition, professionals working in various agencies with children and adults who possess parenting rights exchange a common commitment to protect and promote the welfare of the child and for many agencies this feature is underpinned by statutory duties (Howarth 2004; Howe 2005). The guidelines about these duties were explained in the document of “Making Arrangements to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children” published in 2007 (Department of Children, Schools and Families, 2007). Under the Education Act 2002, the laws governing the duties of local authorities in carrying out the functions with a view of safeguarding children and enhancing their welfare was depicted and the same duty was now imposed upon independent schools, academies and technological institutions and colleges (Education Act, 2002). Additionally, the Children Act 2004, independent schools that offer accommodation to children also contain a duty in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children under the threat of abuse (Children Act, 2004). The document on Every Child Matters: Change for Children, provides information about the local authorities and their arrangements in place to necessitate combined working with each other and with their parents in improving the child’s wellbeing and quality of life (Department of Education and Skills, 2004).

Besides these, to fulfil the responsibilities and to protect the child, each and every organisation must provide their specific services for children, parents and families must support or work with children and should have in place the following guidelines (London Child Protection Council, 2007):

Defined priorities for protecting and promoting the child welfare as stated explicitly in key documents that are concerned to policies and commissioning approaches (HMSO, 2004).

Social workers must develop a culture of engaging with the children, asking their views in the appropriate way to their age, understanding, analysing and considering the obtained views in establishing and developing specific policies as well as in improving the services (Bridge Care Development, 1996).

A determined commitment by senior officials and subordinates to the significance of protecting children and enhancing their well-being.

An unambiguous line of ascendancy and responsibility within and across the firms for providing and commissioning services for safeguarding the children (Department of Education and Skills 1988; Department of Health, 1995).

Developing an understanding about the work pattern in a way to keep the child safe with relation to innovative technologies by being properly equipped to mitigate the potential risks of new methodologies.

Designing procedures for dealing with the abuse and its allegations against staff members, volunteers, commissioners and providing contractual arrangements to make sure about the proper placement of these services.

Making arrangements for the staff and social workers to necessarily train the families who are involved in child abuse and this must be updated through refresher training techniques (London Child Protection Council, 2007).

Appointing child advisers and enabling easy access to staff during service delivery at times needed. Additionally, arrangements must be made to promote effective prevention of internal and external challenges and complaints in relation to access and service delivery (London Child Protection Council, 2007).

Nevertheless, implementation of these duties present a potential challenges for social workers and these may hinder the process of protection and promotion of child’s welfare. One such challenge can be on facing difficulties to reach the child abuse families and these include:

Cultural issues: relating to ethnicity and society.

Language Barriers: This can be observed with the families who may not be able to gain service access owing to their illiteracy and these families that demand an urgent need of interpreting service (for example, marginalised community like asylum speakers who may speak limited or no English). Nevertheless, the usage of interpreters may seem to be critically expensive and difficult in times of limited resources. Besides these, Domestic Violence also plays a significant role in making families difficult to reach by the social workers (Powell, 2007). The violent, aggressive and threatening families present complexities for the social workers in establishing the relationships with that family in order to spend time with the child, listening to them and understanding their views (Reder et al., 1993).

Functioning with families and disabled children: It can be understood that regardless of level of disability (whether moderate, mild and high), working with the disabled child critically presents a challenge to the social worker (Davies, Duckett 2008). Yet, the challenge remains still if the child’s speech is impaired. In such cases, the social workers must rely on the information presented by their parents and other professionals like (Doctors, Speech and language therapists and Psychiatrists, Nursing and other health care skilled workers) who are involved in working with the child.

Inter-personal conflicts: The behaviours pertaining to jealousy, job dissatisfaction, superiority feelings, certainty (being inflexible in one’s willingness in listening to others) and win-lose mentalities also present a challenge to the social workers. But these are minimal and can be avoided by a proper planning and involvement (Quinton, 2004).

In case, if the workers understand that they are being oppressed, Anti-oppressive practices may be employed in a way to identify the oppression in societies, communities, economies and cultures and aiming social work in such a way to negate the critical influences of oppression (Powell, 2007)

Lastly working with the individuals from distinct professionals may offer a challenge for the social workers. However this can be avoided by implementing medical and social models that imbibe the principles pertaining to both health and other fields (Quinton, 2004).

Further research is definitely needed to focus upon the effectiveness of current interventions and practices. In addition, the protocols that are relative to different techniques utilised by practitioners are essential and they must be implemented after testing. In addition, there exists a requirement to establish particular age-related treatment models for childhood abuse and this should be followed by specific longitudinal studies that focus on outcomes of treatment models for further more effective implementation. Although much research was been explored in the area of abuse, still more is needed to efficiently address the issues and this can be enabled by the presence of determined individuals and parents in understanding about the child development and protection.

Although it has been difficult to break down the gender blindness of development history, since 1970, gender’s role in family welfare was made as a visible social construct in development (Kingsbury et al., 2004; Bannon and Correia, 2006). Parallel to improvements made in women’s position in many societies, the importance of gender to economic analyses (Kadam, 2012) and their active participation in development has been one of the most troubled aspects of the development debate (Kingsbury et al., 2004). In the rural sector, the attention to gender issues is even more challenging. This means that understanding the linkages between gender equity and development effectiveness is essential aspect of rural studies. Therefore, gender issues have been a core priority of governments including Iran. Although Iran has made considerable progress in terms of human development, its rural areas face some important challenges. Today rural people have, more than ever before, access to education, health facilities and occupational opportunities. But close examination of their living conditions indicates that although the aggregate level of production and consumption has increased, the distribution of benefits continues to show persistent inequalities, including the need for more equitable income and wealth distribution, improved access to health and basic sanitation services. The concern for increasing the development of the rural women makes researchers eager to focus on enormous diversity of pathways to human development monitoring and evaluation. These attempts lead to determining list of indicators for monitoring and evaluation a range of economic, social and environmental goals. However, various life domains directly contribute to individual development. Perhaps, human development approach presents an opportunity not only to review achievements in human development domain, but also to determine challenges at different global, national and regional levels, systematically. Not surprisingly, the human development approach, which proved very popular in public discussion, has a crudeness that is somewhat similar to mechanical devices of economic development. Besides, this approach is concentrating on what remains undone especially for different regions. Therefore, the validity of the original human development vision has been criticized on a number of fronts. This paper discusses a modified index for measuring rural women development. The present study outlines different concepts important for concerning rural women development, specifically: (1) quality of life; (2) income; (3) social capital; (4) health and sanitation; (5) food security; (6) rate of education; and (7) life expectancy among rural women in Choram County, South-Werstern of Iran. These concepts provide understanding that rural communities are both an environment of care and a cause of disease.

Background

Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a series of annual Human Development Reports (HDRs) in which the human development index (HDI) is computed for each country (Sagar and Najam, 1998). HDI embodies Amartya Sen’s “capabilities” approach to understanding human well-being, which emphasizes the importance of ends (Stanton, 2007). This framework has continued to be the keystone of annual reports from the UNDP on dimensions of human development demand most attention in the contemporary world: to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge and have access to resources for a decent standard of living. Adult literacy and combined enrolment ratios have been selected as indicators for the knowledge dimension, life expectancy at birth as the indicator for a healthy life and an adjusted GDP as the indicator for the standard of living. In essence, the HDRs have pushed the development debate boundaries beyond a traditional economic perspective (Sagar and Najam, 1998). Despite the positive view of these qualities by many scholars (Streeten, 1994), yet not all sides of the story are positive. However, substantial progress has seen in many aspects of human development, even in countries facing adverse economic conditions (Human development report, 2010). In the other words, the progress was proved in improving health and education and raising income, which expand people’s social capital (power to select leaders, influence public decisions and share knowledge). But not in poverty and deprivation reduction to end the inequality and insecurity around the world. As much as the HDI has introduced new way of development thinking, it has also been faced with a number of criticisms (Sanusi, 2008). Unfortunately, over the years, the HDRs seem to have become stagnant, repeating the same rhetoric without necessarily increasing the HDI’s utility.

Progress has varied, and increasing inequality has also seen among people in different countries, across regions, and especially rural areas both within and across countries. The HDI is a measure which reflects its aims imperfectly; and other important questions concerning human development are left out of the HDI altogether. Srinivasan (1994) summarizes the HDI critiques in five main categories: poor data, incorrect choice of indicators, various problems with the HDI’s formula in general, incorrect specification of income in particular, and redundancy.

In fact, the authors have modified the index to address many of its sharpest criticisms, and thus the HDI has evolved over the seven issues of the Human Development Report. Plans that maximize the modified index directly trade-off the allocations to consumption, education and health against each other. This leads to plans that balance expenditures across the three components. Engineer et al (2008) consider net income, in education and health expenditure domain, as indicating capabilities not already reflected in the index and argue for a modified HDI that replaces the income component with a net income component; i.e. income that is net of expenditures on education and health. The multi-dimensional nature of poverty is being emphasized by many analysts and policy makers. Addressing these issues requires new tools. Hicks (1997) proposed a method of incorporating distributional inequalities of three measures of income, education and longevity into the HDI framework. He believed that Gini coefficients could potentially measure inequalities in human development (annual income, educational, and life-span attainment).

A number of attempts have been made to adjust the raw measure of life expectancy to take into account quality of life and time spent in poor health. One concern is that while females generally live longer, their quality of life may be lower due to poorer health than men. The Global Burden of Disease project popularized one such measure, namely disability-adjusted life expectancy (Murray and Lopez 1996). The World Health Organization (WHO) measures healthy life expectancy (HALE) based on life expectancy at birth adjusted for time spent in poor health.

Although, these new thinking approaches and thus the new measurement tools reinforce the continuing validity of the human development vision (HDR, 2010), the study of development in regional contexts, rural areas, bring a second debate on the fore, that focuses on the extent to which the definition and experience of development is culturally specific. And, are the standardised indicators appropriate applied devises for all regions?

Even when progress in the HDI is experienced in the country level, this does not necessarily excel in the local and regional levels. In the other words, as averages can be misleading, it is possible to have an acceptable rate of progress in HDI and be unequal. These patterns pose important challenges for how to think about human development dimensions, its measurement and the policies to improve outcomes and processes over time especially in regional areas and among the mass development neglected target groups, rural women.

Perhaps, the understanding, measurement, and improvement of human development especially in local level have been commonly expressed by the term quality of life (QOL) across multiple disciplines (including sociology, economics, psychology, environmental science, and medicine).

The term QOL is a complex, multi-faceted concept (Farquhar, 1995; Carr et al., 2001; Holmes, 2005) which according to Costanza et al (2007) is generally meant to represent either how well human needs are met or the extent to which individuals or groups perceive satisfaction or dissatisfaction in various dimensions of their lives. Similarly, Calman as stated by Vyavaharkar et al (2012) defined QOL as a gap or difference between hopes and expectations of a person and the person’s present experiences at a given moment in time.

The limited amount of research has focused on QOL in development studies. However, it seems that QOL in the rural setting according to Phillips (2006) is a multifaceted phenomenon determined by the cumulative and interactive impacts of numerous and varied factors (Zaid and Popoola, 2010) like housing conditions, services, infrastructure, access to various qualities and amenities, income, living standards, satisfaction about the physical and social environment (Phillip, 2006).

An integrative definition of quality of life contains two sets of subjective (Carr et al., 2001; Holmes, 2005; Phillips, 2006; Costanza et al., 2007) and objective indicators (Phillips, 2006; Costanza, 2007). The subjective indicator focuses on respondents’ own assessments of pleasure as the basic building block of human satisfaction, happiness well-being or some near synonym of their lived experiences. However, so-called “objective” indicators of QOL on the other hand, focuses on indices and data that can be gathered without a subjective evaluation being made by the individual being assessed (economic production and security, health, food security, literacy rates, life expectancy, …) and may be used singly or in combination to form summary indexes, as in the UN’s Human Development Index (Costanza et al., 2007).

However, there are well-documented differences in subjective QOL between men and women, and in different localities as reflected in various researches. While discussing the definition of well-being, Arku et al (2008) emphasized that the indicators can differ between urban and rural residents within a country and similarly between men and women within the same society because of differences in needs, priorities (Chambers, 1997). Shek et al (2005) and Diener and Suh (2000) mention that the indicators are socially and locally constructed based on the cultural values of communities. Veenhoven (2005) also arguing for the need of incorporation of cultural-specific indicators in determining people’s quality-of-life. Similar results are found in the study of happiness. In a recent exploration of this theme, Camfield et al (2009) revealed that the definition and experience of happiness is culturally specific.

To understand the position of Iranian rural women in the development debate, it is necessary to modify HDI and thus examine the status of women within household and community structures regarding indicators which were chosen to reflect the average quality of life (QOL) – defined as subjective social well-being, food security, social capital, education and training, income, and life expectancy.

Women living in rural areas of Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Iran, are generally known to be suffering from general deprivation including access to and control over land and other productive resources, services and infrustructures, opportunities for employment and income-generating activities, and access to health care. This paper sets out to evaluate development status of rural women in Choram County, Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad province, South-Western Iran. It proposes ways in which the modified HDI can be improved to better reflect its conceptual intent. The scope of this essay then is not to nit-pick on the finer details of the proposed index, but rather to conceptualize a constructive discussion on how the modified proposed index can be improved to better fulfill its own goal of measuring human development in rural areas.

A supervisor is someone who guides and oversees the work or activities of a student or another counselor. The three major goals of a supervisor include enhancing the skills and knowledge of professional and or student counselors, to ensure the welfare of the clients and maintain control between the client and the student. A supervisor’s responsibility is to mentor and teach students and professionals (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205). The supervisor will challenge, encourage and stimulate a student or professional counselor to help them gain the knowledge to become proficient (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205).

There are different purposes for a counseling supervisor, among them include improving the counselor’s professional and personal growth, encouraging a counselor’s knowledge and advancement of liable counseling services and programs. Among the roles of a supervisor include advocate, case consultant, collaborator and teacher. A supervisor helps counselors explore their counter transference issues. The supervisor support “interpersonal and intrapersonal exploration” of the student or counselor’s teaching and assessment. Supervisors explore diversity issues of counselor, student, and client. (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205).

Model of a supervisor includes developmental approach, models developed for the supervisor and theory-based. When a supervisor works from a theory based supervision model work with students and counselors in the same way of their counseling theory. “Some of the content, focus, and process of supervision are grounded in the supervisor’s counseling model include the developmental approach, models developed and theory based (Smallwood, 2010)

Models of Supervision with Michael Part I

Michael has worked as an intern student for two months under the supervision of Janet. Janet is a theory based supervisor. She uses the person-centered model of supervision (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205). Michael shows a lack of confidence. However, with the person-centered approach, he should gain more confidence because this approach encourages confidence. Janet will use Michael’s experiences to help him gain knowledge of his gain a personal awareness. Janet will not judge his mistakes; instead she will have empathy, and accept his mistakes as a means to learn. Janet will discuss Michael’s difficulties with him as a means of learning from his mistakes.

When Michael shares his concerns with his client, he is letting Janet is aware that he needs and appreciates her suggestions Michael is trying to learn from the way Janet would deal with this situation. Janet may get some ideas from Michael to help him see his own feelings regarding his thoughts (Smallwood, 2010). To help his gain confidence the supervisor works closely with the student and counselor and develops a working relationship. (Smallwood, 2010).

If Janet was a developmental model supervisor, she would encourage Michael to gain confidence by becoming aware of himself and other. She would encourage him to become motivated and gain independence. Michael would be going to Janet for advice because she is the supervisor, and she wants him to be relatively dependent on her. Michael should eventually become more independent and function unaided without seeking approval from his supervisor. (The International Child and Youth Care Network, 2001).

There are eight growth areas that Janet will be helping Michael to attain. These areas include assessment techniques, client conceptualization, interpersonal assessment, intervention, individual differences, professional ethics treatment goals and plans, and skill competence (The International Child and Youth Care Network, 2001).

The discrimination model of supervision is divided into three categorized patient centered, supervisee-centered, and supervisory-matrix-centered. This approach gives the supervisor much authority because their role is “didactic”, allowing the student or counselor to treat the patient. This model focuses on the client, not the student or counselor allows for some interaction between the counselor and the student. In Michael’s case this form of supervision may not work as he has little self esteem or confidence in himself (Smith, 2009)

Part II Importance of Supervision to counselors and professional counselors

The benefits a student or professional counselor gain from supervision include development in personally and professional, gain new strategies, have support, and are given the opportunity to develop professionally (Benshoff, 1992-12-00). Supervision is critical in learning, maintaining and improving professional skills of students and professional counselors. Counselors and professional counselors incorporate their academic training with hands on experience. Supervision also gives counselors the ability to learn about their own style of counseling and examine the strengths and weaknesses. Supervision is also effective in increasing the knowledge of the counselor by giving them the ability to help each other and learn from mistakes (Benshoff, 1992-12-00)

There may be times when supervision is impossible. This is when the counselors work together in what is called a triadic model by rotating the tomes of counselor, commentator and facilitator with peer supervision sections. This helps counselors develop professional counseling skills by implementing them effectively with clients (Benshoff, 1992-12-00).

Supervision helps counselors to learn by teaching or mentoring them. The supervisor challenges, encourages, and stimulates the counselor to give them the knowledge to gain confidence. Supervisors help counselors to develop into exemplary counselors by promoting their personal and professional development by teaching, mentoring, collaborating, and consulting. (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205).

Heading for Conclusion/Summary

Supervision is essential to challenge, stimulate and encourage counselors and professionals by gaining knowledge from advocating, mentoring, teaching, training and collaborating. The focus of counseling supervisors is to facilitate the counselors’ development professionally and personally. Supervisors also consider the diversity of counselors and professionals in the counseling relationship and respect differing opinions and beliefs (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205). There are different models of supervising including the theory based, developmental approach and the models developed for supervision (book). The person centered theory is when supervisors try to build a working relationship with the counselors in order to gain their trust. Supervisors show empathy and genuine concern for the counselor pointing out mistakes, in a way that is not demeaning (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205). A supervisor who correctly uses the person centered theory will help the counselor to have self confidence and the ability to understand the counseling process. When a supervisor uses the cognitive behavioral model they are teaching the counselor appropriate behavior and helping them to develop specific skills needed to allow them to become motivated and gain successful knowledge. (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205). The supervisor assesses the counselor or professional for each issue and helps them work through issues, so they can move on to the next of the three levels. The eight domains of professional counseling that are addressed include assessment techniques, client conceptualization, individual differences intervention skills, treatment goals and plans and theoretical orientation and professional ethics. (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205). Other theories of the discrimination model include Intervention skills, conceptualization skills and personalization skills (Erford, 2010, p. 202-205) .

Introduction

The definition of social work is very complex and controversial. There is no generally accepted definition of what social work is. Social work sits within the broader range of the social care sphere. (Horner, 2003, p.2)

There are three views of social work. The first is the reflexive-therapeutic views. This view sees social work as seeking the best possible well being for individuals, groups and communities in society. (Payne, 1997, p.4) The other view is the socialist-collectivist views; this view sees social work as seeking cooperation and mutual support in society so that oppressed and disadvantaged people can gain power over their own lives. (Payne, 1997, p.4) The last view is the individualist-reformist views. This view sees social work as an aspect of welfare services to individuals in society. (Payne, 1997, p.4) There is a general consensus amongst writers that the three different views are present within the social work discourse. (Payne, 1997, p.6)

The International Association of Schools of Social Work and the International Federation of Social Workers defined social work as a profession that, ‘’promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well being…social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environment. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work ’’. (Citied in Horner, 2003, p.2)

Another definition of social work that was propounded by the former minister for health, Jacqui Smith is as follows, ‘’social work is a very practical job. It is about protecting people and changing their lives, not about being able to give a fluent and theoretical explanation of why they got in to difficulties in the first place .New degree courses must ensure that theory and research directly informs and supports practice. The requirements for social training work set out the minimum standards for entry to social work degree courses and for the teaching and assessment that social work students must receive ’’. (Horner, 2003, p.2) The major difference between these two definitions is that the first definition fails to emphasise the control element of social work practice, which involves the use of legislation by the state to intervene and protect vulnerable children and young people who are at risk, to enforce mental health treatment and services and to protect vulnerable older people. (Horner, 2003, p.3) The second definition focuses on social work as a ‘rational technical activity and its inherent anti-intellectualism’. (Horner, 2003, p.3)

This essay will examine the current roles and functions of social workers in England and Wales.

Key roles and skills of social workers

A lot is expected from social workers. Society expects social workers to protect and care for citizens deemed in need of protection and care and at the same time to care and protect the community as a whole. (Horner, 2003, p.5)

A social worker is employed by the local authority, on behalf of the state and has to work within the confines and constraints of the law. (Horner, 2003, p.4) A social worker must at all times been conversant with relevant legislation and procedure and must abide to them. The social worker is always faced with balancing the rights of vulnerable individuals to fulfil their wishes, whilst at the same time carrying out the state’s need to protect all vulnerable people, sometimes by restricting rights and liberty of others. (Horner, 2003, p.4)

Generally, a social worker is there to give help and support to people who are going through a difficult patch in their lives. A social worker has to ensure that the rights of service users are identified and promoted. (Lymbery and Postle, 2007, p.23) A social worker is a paid professional, ‘’who aims to assist people in overcoming serious difficulties in their lives by providing care, protection or counselling or through social support, advocacy and community work’’. (Collins, 2006, p.516) The role of a social worker is to assist people who are socially excluded from society and are experiencing difficulties in their lives, to get back on their feet. The process of social exclusion revolves around five components: poverty and low income; lack of access to the job market; lack of social support and networks; the overall condition of the local neighbourhood; and exclusion from services. (Collins, 2006, p.505) The role of the social worker is to tackle social exclusion and promote social inclusion. The social worker needs to address approach to practice that will effectively strengthen social networks, maximise options for income and ensure that services are more accessible. (Collins, 2006, p.505)

Social workers have specific legal duties that distinguish them from other groups. A social worker investigates allegations of child abuse. A social worker can apply where necessary and appropriate for a person to be detained in hospital, when his or her mental state presents a risk of harm to self or to other members of the public. A social worker also supervises children in care of the local authority. (Thompson, 2000, p.2)

A social worker requires skills in making assessments personally or jointly with service users and their families in order to discover the strengths, needs and preferred need for each particular service user. The social worker needs to treat each service user as a unique individual and accord the service user the respect he or she deserves. A social worker should be skilled and knowledgeable on how to handle hostile and aggressive situations, without putting her safety or the service user at risk. Most importantly, knowledge of the law, policies and regulations affecting social work practice must be mastered by the social worker.

A social worker is charged with caring for the entire community by protecting and promoting the welfare of the community as well as that of the individual. This might mean enforcing some elements of control over an individual. This at times leads to conflicts and tensions as the social worker is caught in between the community and the individual. (Thompson, 2000, p.3)

Social workers work with young people and their families as well as the elderly. Social work is divided in to adult services and Children services. Adult services includes, working with people with mental health problems or learning disability. Adult services can also include working with people in residential care, working with offenders in the community or working with the elderly.

Children and family social work, is a branch of social work, where the social worker provides assistance and advice to keep families together. It can also involve work in children’s home or providing support to younger people leaving care.

I will focus on children and families social work. Social work with children and families spans a wide range of activities primarily directed at protecting the child. (Cree and Davis, 2007, p.15) It is often a very controversial and volatile area because of the state interference with family life. The government has introduced a lot of policy and organisational changes in children and family services in recent years that have greatly changed the terrain of children and family social work. The 1989 and 2004 Children Acts as well as key policy document such as Department for Education and Skills 2003, Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills 2004 and Secretary of State for Health 2003, have all combined to create a role for social workers which combines contributing to the assessment of the needs of children and young people, protecting them from harm and consulting with other relevant agencies to deliver services that promotes the children’s well being and safety in partnership with the social workers and their families. (Cree and Davis, 2007, p.15)

Social work within the social policy frame work

Collins defined social policy as, ‘’government policy in the area of welfare, and the academic study of its development, implementation and impact’’ (Collins, 2006, p.507)

Modern social work is no longer based on the poor law parish structure, but is governed by legislation and delivered through local government structures, however, some voluntary sector organisations, many of which have their origins in the established and non-conformist churches still provide some services for those that are socially excluded. (Horner, 2003, p.17) Contemporary social work can be seen to play a crucial role in relation to current social problems, concerns about wide spread substance abuse and problems of social disintegration among others. (Horner, 2003, p.26)

Social work deteriorated in the 1980s and 1990s in Britain under the Conservative government. There was little direct political concern with social services during the Conservative, Thatcher administration. (Payne, 2005, p.97)The reasons for the deterioration were: ‘’service failures, particularly in the area of child protection; a professional attack, both from the right wing and the left wing on its social policing role and a political attack on its role in the welfare state’’. (Payne, 2005, p.94) The Labour government under Tony Blair came in to power in 1997. According to Payne, ‘while social care was not a major plank of policy, it was affected by general government policies and priorities, which focused on education and health’’. (Payne, 2005, p.103) The government initiated a modernization agenda which focused on effective delivery of services; including cooperation amongst the multi-agencies and involving service users’ own priorities. The government laid a lot of emphasis on improved care for children and the mentally ill. However, most of the labour government’s policy were slowing building on past policies and did not take a new direction. (Payne, 2005, p.103) The labour government introduced the quality improvement projects. The labour government also brought about increased legislation in to the realm of social work. The General Social Care Council was also set up to take over responsibility for regulating social work education.

Mental health social work has seen a lot of changes in recent years. The 1980s and 1990s saw the closure of the many long stay Victorian asylums and the development of community based alternatives. (Cree and Davis, 2007, p.60) The Mental Health Act 1983 was a land mark legislation in many respects. Section 114 of the Act requires local authorities to provide an approved social worker for mental health service users.

The NHS and Community Care Act 1990 provided a frame work for the organisation and delivery of services under existing legislation. The Act tried to alter the balance of care in four fundamental directions: ‘’ from institutional care to community based care; from public sector to independent sector provision; from NHS to local government responsibilities and from supply led services to needs led services’’. (Horner, 2003, p.76) The social worker had a key role to play in identifying the range and location of services. (Horner, 2003, p.77)

The Children’s Act 1989 reformed the law relating to children. Contemporary social work practice with children, young people and their families is largely governed by the Children’s Act of 1989. (Horner, 2003, p.46) The Children’s Act 2004 provides the legal basis on how social workers, collaborate with other agencies to ensure that the best interest of the child is protected and achieved at all times.

The Human Rights Act 1988, incorporated in to English laws, the European Convention on Human Rights. It gives individuals the power to challenge gross abuses of civil liberties and it also requires legal an administrative action to take account of human rights in the course of any action they under take. (Payne, 2005, p.104)

The future of social work in England and Wales appear to lie in a range of roles in diverse services, heavily regulated by the government and the development of multi professional work, where the social worker interacts with other professions roles. (Payne, 2005, p.105)

Professional principles and values of social work

Social work is a highly regulated profession these days. It is a very difficult and complex profession and any one coming in to the profession will need to exhibit the right temperament. You will need to be in control of your emotions at all times and also avoid being judgemental or stereotyping people. There are professional principles and values social workers must exhibit.

A social worker at all times must maintain the dignity and worth of service users. The social worker should always bear in mind, that she is there to help the service user get back on his feet and not to control him or run his life. A social worker ought to be aware and value the rights and duties of individuals, their families, groups and the entire community at all times.

A social worker must believe in the principle of social justice. This includes ‘’fair access to public services and benefits to achieve human potentials; social development and environmental management in the interests of present and future human welfare’’. (Horner, 2003, p.135) A social worker will need to treat all service users with respect and without any bias based on their sex, colour, or creed. For example, a social worker should have an open mind when working with a paedophile or some one that is mentally unwell.

A social worker’s primary objective is the promotion of social justice. The social worker has as one of his fundamental goals, to meet the personal and social needs of service users in order to help them meet and develop their potentials.

One core value of the social worker is confidentiality. A social worker must maintain absolute confidentiality when dealing with a service user. The social worker should not divulge any information without first obtaining the consent of the service user. This also goes to show that the case worker respects the service user. A social worker must possess integrity. This comprises all the elements of honesty, reliability, openness, equity, and fairness. A social worker needs to be competent in the discharge of her duties. This entails keeping abreast with new laws and legislations in the field of social work.

A social worker needs to address at all times, injustice in the system and explore ways of eliminating them. The social worker should also expose any bad policies that contribute to hardship and social exclusion in society. The social worker should also at all time up hold the civil and political rights of service users as well as their economic and social rights.

Conclusion

Social work has a long way. The profession of social worker is highly regulated today in England and Wales. The work of the social worker is to help vulnerable people in the society, within the constraints of legislations, so that they can get back on to their feet and get on with their lives. A lot of professional principles and values are expected to be imbibed by the modern social worker. Despite the very complex nature of social work and countless policies and legislation, the value of the social worker in our society today can not be overemphasised. Social workers today are highly trained professionals who despite their challenging and demanding jobs continue to ensure that vulnerable people and those that are socially excluded are given all the protection and support they need in order for them to take back control of their lives.

Bibliography

Collins (2002) Internet based dictionary of social work, Harper Collins, Glasgow

Cree, V.E and Davis, A (2002) Social work, voice from the inside, Routledge, Oxon

Horner, N (2003) What is Social work? Context and Perspectives, Learning Matters, Exeter

Koprowska, J (2008) Communications and interpersonal skills in social work, 2nd Edition, Learning Matters, Exeter

Lymbery, M and Postle, K (2007) Social work: A companion to learning, SAGE, London

Payne, M (1997) Modern social work theory, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke

Payne, M (2005) The origins of social work, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke

Shardlow, S and Payne, M (1998) Contemporary issues in social work: Western Europe, Arena, Aldershot

Thompson, N (2000) Understanding social work, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke

Introduction

A common issue in the behavioral science field is attempting to determine who is in need of services, determining where best to spend resources, and in general trying to determine a model of prediction to determine juvenile delinquency in order to apply prevention techniques. It is the goal of this proposal to show that the General Theory of Crimes concept of self-control and the influence it has on determining juvenile delinquency is the better method than other more common models.

Research has shown that self-control moderates some (if not all) of the relationships other theories have with delinquency. One of the more recent theories, the general theory of crime (Gottfredson, Hirschi. 1990), suggests that the concept of self-control is the single best forecaster of crime. Self-control refers to a person’s ability to think of the long-term consequences of antisocial behavior, (Hirschi, 2004). Substantial attention to this theory has resulted in remarkable empirical support for its direct effects on delinquency, yet various external factors (i.e. friends) still appear to have significant additional effects as well, (Pratt, Cullen, 2000). In contrast to relying upon a particular viewpoint, for example those used in the general theory of crime; others suggest using multiple theories at the same time, (Messner, Krohn, Liska, 1989).

Researchers have been investigating the extent to which self-control moderates the association between a variety of outside factors and criminal behaviors; however it is only recently that researchers have started to look at how much self-control influences criminal behavior. Some studies have found that outside factors, such as the area they live in, will have a more significant influence for those with a greater level of self-control, (Wikstrom, Loeber, 2000). In other words, some have suggested that outside influences are simply insignificant for those with low self-control, (Gottfredson, Hirschi, 1990).

As a result, those with some level of self-control will have an influence by outside factors. On the contrary, others have found that social influences (i.e. delinquent peers) have definite effects for those most at risk. For example, Wright and colleagues (2001) suggest that those with little self-control have a greater tendency towards deviant behavior and therefore harmful social influences serve only to worsen that tendency. In contrast, those with high self-control are able to defy the temptation of these negative social influences.

However, it has been suggested that certain individual characteristics could possibly moderate the effects of factors such as those found in social learning theory, (Agnew, 2006). Social learning theory has achieved a rather large amount of empirical support. Current theories may need to look at their concepts, and policies aimed at criminals who don’t have self-control may need to refocus their efforts on social issues that may not be as important for those criminals that show signs of superior levels of self-control.

As mentioned above, it remains uncertain how strong the connections are, and in what way their effects present, however it is believed that the General Theory of Crime presents a more defensible viewpoint to be the best predictor of juvenile delinquency, since it includes self-control. Moreover, the purpose of this proposal is to attempt to provide a greater insight into which of these theories best predict juvenile delinquency, in order to provide better treatment/prevention for this population (i.e. better management with impulses).

Literature Review

The behavioral science field has for a long time searched to find the best way to explain the broad ranges of criminal behavior. Numerous theories have developed due to this most often with distinct and more often than not incompatible suppositions to explain criminal behavior. These explanations vary from sociological factors and individual characteristics, to the more recent interaction between the two effects. Before describing these potential interactive relationships, a few theories will be discussed to show the important contribution each has made on its own.

Social Learning Theory:

Akers presented one of the best known social learning theories, and over the years has been given substantial support. Akers re-examined the theory of differential association put forth by Sutherland, in an attempt to explain criminal behavior that looked at the idea of differential reinforcements, imitation, definitions, and differential associations. The conforming or nonconforming of these factors will be determined by whether or not the behavior is balanced, (Akers, 1998). Differential associations are perhaps one of the most important parts of the social learning theory. The concept of differential association refers to the interaction with different groups, and how antisocial people associate more with each other than they do with those that would be considered pro-social, (Akers, 1985).

Differential associations happen first and provide the context for the conceptualization of definitions, introduction to reinforcements, and models to copy, (Akers et al., 1979). The rewards and punishments of recognized associations will influence the capability to create new associations and uphold the old ones, (Akers, 1998). The common groups with whom one differentially associates include, family, peers, church, neighbors, schools, and teachers, however they are not limited to just these, (Akers, 1985). The priority, duration, frequency, and intensity of each relationship establish its strength, (Akers, 1998). Specifically, those relationships that happen most often, begin earlier, last the longest, and involve those with whom one is closest will have the greatest sway on the behavior. The number of delinquent friends that one associates with is the best forecaster of criminal behavior, (Akers et al., 1979). In the end, it is this balance of these reinforcements (either as rewards or punishments) that provide to increase or decrease delinquent behavior.

The General Theory of Crime:

The General Theory of Crime unlike the previous theories seeks to explain delinquent behavior as the result of a single individual trait, (Gottfredson, Hirschi, 1990). This single trait, i.e. self-control, refers to a person’s ability to think about the long-term, negative consequences of antisocial behavior, and all of the possible consequences of a individual’s actions, (Hirschi, 2004). With the understanding that pain is experienced differentially and that pleasure is equally enjoyed by everyone, a person’s level of self-control will have an effect on how much a person works out consequences. Therefore, the less a person ponders prospective consequences, the greater the chance they will commit delinquent acts when the opportunities to do so arises, (Gottfredson, Hirschi, 1990). Hirschi and Gottfredson (1994) felt that their theory explains not only delinquent acts, but also a number of behaviors concerning instant gratification at the risk of long-term pain. Moreover, if one lacks self-control they are often described as impulsive, short-tempered, having risky behaviors, insensitive, and selfish, (Gottfredson, Hirschi, 1990).

Delinquent acts are committed in order to satisfy ones self-interest, and their immediate satisfaction. For those lacking self-control, these delinquent acts tend to satisfy their impulsive desires, and are often harmful to others, (Gottfredson, Hirschi, 1990). Additionally, because those low in self-control are more inclined to look for acts that offer instant satisfaction at the risk of long-term pain, one can assume that they will engage in delinquent behaviors (i.e. drinking and drug use. Furthermore, those committing one type of delinquent behavior are more likely to commit another type of delinquent behavior, which means ones past delinquent behavior is the best forecaster of future crime, (Hirschi, 2004). On top of variety, delinquent behaviors will be committed more often by those lacking self-control, (Gottfredson, Hirschi, 1990). According to Hirschi and Gottfredson, everyone is prone to deviate in the beginning; however it is through good parenting that self-control is acquired, and will remain somewhat stable throughout a person’s life (Hirschi, Gottfredson, 1994). Though, Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) felt that opportunity was necessary along with self-control they did admit that there were numerous opportunities to commit delinquent acts, and therefore diminished the part they play.

Summary

Research has shown that important concepts resulting from social learning theory (i.e. associations, definitions, and reinforcements), and the general theory of crime (i.e. self-control) are linked to antisocial behavior. Concepts from each of these theories have shown to have an effect on delinquent behavior; however there is also evidence that shows that there are interactive effects as well, though they have failed to agree on the exact way this interaction takes place. The theories discussed earlier attempt to show why people commits deviant acts through direct and independent measures, and can be considered as either a social causation or social selection model. Social causation proposes delinquent acts are the result of deviant social relationships, which social learning would fall under since it suggestions factors outside the person lead to antisocial behavior.

On the contrary, social selection suggests delinquent acts are the result of individual characteristics, which the general theory of crime is a good example of since it proposes that self-control predicts a person’s involvement with deviant peers or having attachments that are weak to other people that are more generally open. Looking at only social causation or social selection model has led to a partial description of delinquent behaviors, and has been shown that the effects of outside factors remained considerable when individual measures (i.e. self-control) were included, (Wright, Caspi, Moffitt, Silva, 1999). For that reason, a model that includes both processes would present a more defensible viewpoint, (Wright et al., 1999).

Methodology

The aim of this research project is to target adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years in both middle school and high school in the Lexington, KY area. Two surveys, one based on social learning theory and another based on the general theory of crime, will be designed to examine crime and delinquency in both middle and high school students. Two weeks before the surveys will be distributed to the students and an informed consent form will be passed out detailing information about the researcher, that the surveys are voluntary and not required by the school to be taken, their purpose, and explaining how the surveys and their collections will be confidential. Both parents and students will need to sign the consent form indicating that they have acknowledged the above and give consent for the student to participate in the survey, which the student would be required to turn in at the time of the surveys. Multiple (4+) team members will be required to be on hand in order to assist the students with any questions, and to insure that the survey sheet is placed in a sealable envelope and that there are no identifiable markings on the survey. All surveys once completed would then be gone over and any with identifiable marking would then be destroyed and the rest would be shuffled to insure that someone could not tie a particular survey to a particular student.

Delinquency, the dependent variable, would then be measured by asking the students how many different crimes they have ever committed; spread over multiple different types of delinquent behavior questions, i.e. have you ever used alcohol, have you ever stolen something worth $50 or less, and as such. The independent variable social learning theory would then be comprised of three items, which are reinforcements, peer associations, and definitions. Definitions are defined as the student’s attitude towards a behavior that they recognize as positive, negative, or neutral. Peer associations, would then be measured by asking the number of their friends that had committed any of the acts of delinquency previously mentioned. Finally, reinforcements would then be measured by asking whether or not their friends would respect the student getting away with any of the acts of delinquency previously mentioned. The independent variable general theory of crime would then be broken down into two measures of self- control, which are behavioral and attitude; with self-control being defined as being impulsive, insensitive, physical, risk-taking, short-sighted, and nonverbal (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990). Behavioral would then be measured by behaviors similar to crime (i.e. I’m more likely to hit vs. talk when mad), and attitude would then be measured by the students character traits (i.e. I often act on the spur of the moment without stopping to think). After all of the data has been completed I would then compare the two results to each other and see which of the variables showed the greater correlation.

Works Cited

Agnew, R. (2006). General strain theory: Current status and directions for further research. In F. Cullen, J. Wright, and K. Blevins (Eds), Taking Stock: The Status of Criminological Theory (pp. 101-123). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Akers, R. (1985). Deviant behavior: A social learning approach, 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Akers, R. (1998). Social learning and social structure: A general theory of crime and deviance. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

Akers, R., Krohn, M., Lanza-Kaduce, L., Radosevich, M. (1979). Social learning and deviant behavior: A specific test of a general theory. American Sociological Review, 44, 4, 636-655.

Gottfredson, M., Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Hirschi, T. (2004). Self-Control and Crime. In R. Baumeister and K.Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications (pp. 537-552). New York: The Guilford Press.

Hirschi, T., Gottfredson, M. (1994). The generality of deviance. The Generality of Deviance (pp. 1-22). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

Magnusson, D. (1988). Individual development from an interactional perspective: A longitudinal study. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Messner, S., Krohn, M., Liska, A. (Eds). (1989).Theoretical integration in the study of deviance and crime: Problems and prospects. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Pratt, T. Cullen, F. (2000). The Empirical Status of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime: A Meta-Analysis. Criminology, 38, 3, 931-964.

Wikstrom, P., Loeber, R. (2000). Do disadvantaged neighborhoods cause well-adjusted children to become adolescent delinquents? A study of male juvenile serious offending, individual risk and protective factors, and neighborhood context. Criminology, 38, 4, 1109-1142.

Wright, B., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T., Silva, P. (1999). Low self-control, social bonds, and crime: Social causation, social selection, or both? Criminology, 37, 3, 479-514.

Wright, B., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T., Silva, P. (2001). The effects of social ties on crime vary by criminal propensity: A Life-course model of interdependence. Criminology, 39, 2, 321-351.

Introduction

Each age group in society has its own role and this is important in many different ways. Youth as a description of a sector of society has many definitions

depending on the perspective being used. For the purposes of this discussion youth will be considered to be the stage of life involving transition into

adulthood: approximately age 15 to 25.

Young people are often considered to represent the future as they bring new ideas and energy to add to the pool of knowledge that currently exists. They

can bring enthusiasm and vitality which can lead to new discoveries and developments that can benefit society or even the world at large. Although not the

only drivers of social change, young people are seen to be one the key drivers engendering change. Whether this is inherent in the beliefs of young people

or the hope for the future is placed upon them by older generations is not clear. However, India is changing and developing, and this affects the lives of

the people living there in varying degrees depending on their individual circumstances. Therefore, there are many new opportunities becoming available that

can provide very different futures for today’s youth that were not available to previous generations. This essay will consider the role of youth in a

changing Indian society.

The Role of Youth

In order to consider the role of youths in India it is helpful to first consider the overall situation in India as this provides the context in which

young people are growing up. There are two areas in particular to consider: the transition towards being a developed country and the changes in population.

India has made great strides in technology and other areas, including the space programme. However, much of the country remains unaffected by such

developments and there is still much to be done to create an inclusive society where the living conditions for the whole population are brought up to an

acceptable level and absolute poverty is eradicated. The differences between castes and religions also still remain a factor in the cohesiveness of the

population as a whole.

The population of India is also still increasing substantially and is expected to exceed that of China by the middle of this century. The population in

2012 was estimated to be 1.22 billion. In line with world trends life expectancy has also increased in India from 62.3 years for males and 63.9 years for

females in 2001-2005 to 67.3 years and 69.6 years respectively in 2011-2015. Birth rates, however, have fallen slightly from crude figures of 22 per 1000

population to 21 per 1000 population between 2011 and 2012 (The World Bank, 2014). However, given the size of the population this still represents a large

number of births. One health issue that is also particularly important is HIV/AIDS as there are estimated to be 2.4 million people in India living with the

condition (MedIndia, 2014).

These are some of the key elements that affect India at present and which overarch the role of young people in society.

Young people in India today

The youth of India make up approximately a quarter of the population and thus represent a substantial sector of society (Adlakha, 2014). The environment in

which they are living is very different to that which was experienced by their parents. As a result many of the traditional values and cultural behaviours

are being challenged by the influence of other cultures, particularly those in the West. Therefore, it can be seen that there are competing ways of life

that exist which may be considered either a choice or a cause of confusion for young people. However, there are also good role models such as the first

Indian-born woman to go into space, Kalpana Chawla, that show what can be achieved by Indian people male or female.

Young people in India are considered to be vitally important as they will bring new ideas and developments to improve their country where older people are

viewed as unable to be innovative or deal with new ideas. This perception differs from the views of young people and indeed the structure of society in

general that exists in the West. Western perceptions do place young people in a strong position but, possibly due to a substantially longer life

expectancy, there is a less dismissive view of older people, certainly in respect of those of working age. The roles of people in a other age ranges in

addition to young people are considered to be valuable as each contribute differently to society as a whole. This does not extend in many cases to the

elderly, however, but the longer life span in the West presents a different set of issues (Kruger & Poster, 1990, p. 72). India is keen for their young

people to become involved in civil society and develop political interest as this seen to be a vital part of the development of the country. In many ways

there would appear to be a great deal of pressure being placed on the younger generation to move India into more developed and progressive country.

The ability of the young people to fully participate in this way, however, is inhibited by two main factors. The first is the level of education, which

also will be indicative of their wealth status, and the second is their caste and/or religious position. The better educated the young person is the more

likely they are to participate more fully in civil society according to available research. Therefore, increasing the level of education across the country

is important to develop the skills in the young people to enable to undertake the type of jobs that will help India develop. There is a substantial problem

with illiteracy across the population, and even children attending school are leaving education still illiterate. This is particularly the case for the

children from the poorest sectors of society. Unesco’s 11th Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report suggests, amongst other factors, that at the

present rate of progress the poorest women in India will not be universally literate until 2080 (UNESCO, 2013/14). Therefore, unless this is addressed the

pressure on young people to improve India will not produce the required results as there will be insufficient desire and capability to make the

improvements a reality. There may also need to be a change of thinking generally in society to develop a desire for education and a belief that education

is important to improve the standards of living for everyone. For the poorest people earning a living may be more important than education and even young

children are needed to contribute. Child labour is still a major issue in India and will impact on the children’s ability to ever improve their lives

(US Department of Labour, 2013, p. np). There is legislation in place in the form of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (Indian Child

Line, nd), which, if observed and enforced, should prevent this.

The caste system and/or religious beliefs also present barriers to a cohesive progress despite the changes made to eliminate these problems

(Zezulka-Mailloux & Gifford, 2003, p. 156). This is a complex system with many ramifications which will not be discussed at length here but which does

have a substantial influence on how people live in India. The way that different groups within the population view each other can be divisive, with even

those people considered to have more secular views not wishing to eat with others from a different group, in some cases not even wanting to speak with

them, or other similar types of segregation. This creates an atmosphere in which some people are more likely to be able to progress whilst others will be

open to oppression. Thus the overall situation has many factors working at the same time, some which are conducive to progress and others that are

barriers.

The specific ways in which India is planning progress into the future are contained within the India 2020 Report which considers the vision for the future

of India, the opportunities and the challenges in respect of human development, infrastructure, energy and many other areas (Kalam & Rajan, 2002). The

Report indicates that the changes already taking place in the country are bringing about shifts in many areas such as in the population with lower birth

rates and anticipated increased life expectancy. The effect of these changes is likely to be felt in different ways depending upon how affluent the person

is. For poorer people their situation is still very difficult and much more will need to change to enable and empower this group of people to improve their

lives. The India 2020 Report also identified Nodal Points for Indian prosperity. In order for these Points to be effective the population will need to know

what is required and pull together to achieve these goals. Within this plan there is clear evidence of the reliance that is being placed on young people to

carry out these plans and be the key changing force in the country. However, whilst acknowledging the levels of poverty and all the other barriers that

currently exist to gaining good levels of education and an improved standard of living across the country, the impact of poverty does not always seem to be

seen as a major factor in the ability of the young people to fill this role.

India 2020 proposes a range of factors that will improve the country for the whole population. This includes aiming for full employment, improvements to

the judicial system and legislature to create systems that are seen to be operating with integrity, fairness and transparency, cleaning the environment,

achieving literacy and numeracy for all and making India a major nation in the world. This must, however, be achieved by creating a fair society for every

part of the population. One element that is of concern is the ‘brain drain’ of skilled people leaving the country. India needs to finds ways of

retaining well trained young people to carry out the vision for the future. At present many young people perceive that there are more opportunities for

them elsewhere rather than wanting to stay in their home country and improve conditions there (Glennie & Chappell, 2010). If the country wishes young

people to take a major leading role in progress it will be necessary to provide the appropriate motivation for them to want to do this. Furthermore, in

order to improve the conditions in the country as a whole more trained people are needed to create and fill the jobs that will increase prosperity. There

must, of course, then be relevant jobs for the young people to take. Creating an environment that places value on education, work, and creating a good work

ethic is very important to making effective progress towards a more economically successful country. This process will also begin to reduce the disparity

between the rich and poor, with the ultimate goal of absolute poverty being eradicated (although eradicating relative poverty may prove more difficult) and

improving the lives of the poorest in society.

The spiritual aspect of life is important in India and many people are guided in their lives by their beliefs. There are even newer beliefs such as

Baha’i, which places emphasis on a number of areas that are important in the changes indicated by India 2020. Baha’i places importance

on training for a trade or profession, and particularly on the often neglected area of education for women. In addition there is also a focus on ensuring

young people have every opportunity to enter work which is of service to others by virtue of one’s skills and abilities (Baha’i, 2014).

This type of approach could be very helpful to young people to help to develop a good work ethic and the sense of community by helping others. It also

emphasises the need for good moral and spiritual standards to support the young person’s working life. This is only one of the religions/beliefs in

India, but it does indicate the way in which secular and religious aspects of life are more integrated than is common in western countries.

The desire to adhere to religious beliefs can be both a positive and negative factor for young people depending on their particular religion and the way in

which is directs them to behave as people. One area of concern in this respect currently is that of the recruitment of young people by terrorist

organisations. This is clearly an issue from the point of view of the activities of such organisations, but it also takes valuable young people out of

society.

The International Year of Youth (first held in 1985),was supported by Baha’i, who continue to support the ongoing activities of that organisation

(United Nations, 2014). This has widened in scope in the form of The World Programme for Action of Youth (United Nations, 2014). In order to promote youth

involvement it is recommended by Baha’i that young men and women should be encouraged to take part in projects that aim to improve living

conditions, increase the quality of human life, and develop the self-reliance of their communities. Projects that are improving the situation for rural

communities are particularly highlighted as ones which are important for young people to engage with. Young people can also play an important role in the

quest for world peace.

Young people have been a main focus for some time in India, and specific initiatives have been sought to involve young people in a range of topics. The

Youth Day 2008 focussed on “Youth and Climate change: Time for action.” During this event Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, addressed

the meeting (Pandve, et al., 2009, p. 105). In this address he indicated that young people are adaptable and can easily incorporate carbon saving methods

into their everyday life. Therefore, it was important that young people were actively included in local, national and global level decisions on climate. In

this way they will improve the world for their own futures and that of their children. Involving young people in making changes to their everyday life is

one main aspect of the role they are required to play in society.

Further initiatives will be needed to address many of the difficulties to support young people. Looking at those offered in other countries could provide

useful information, such that of “The Promoting Tolerance and Dialogue through Interactive Theater” in Eastern Indonesia. This is a one-year

program funded by Great Britain’s Strategic Program Fund and implemented by IREX Europe, IREX and the Center for Civic Education Indonesia (CCEI). This is

a programme that uses theatre to provide the dialogue to work on prevention of conflict, extremism and intolerance (IREX, nd). This particular programme

has now ended but could be used as a model for future activities. With the difficulties that are currently being seen as a result of terrorism this is an

area of extreme importance and different methods of approaching the topic can be used to spread the message to young people.

The call for young people to be involved in India politics began with Gandhi, who asked the youth of the day to come forward to become actively involved in

the freedom movemen (Atkin, 2012, p. np). However, there are still few young people involved in the political arena. Most elected politicians are aged 50

or over whilst most of the voting public are under 40 (Ruland, et al., 2005, p. 181). This suggests either that younger people are happy with this

situation or perhaps that they have little interest or enthusiasm for politics. There can be confusion here when there is a suggestion that the older

leaders should make way for ‘youth’, because in this context the word ‘youth’ is used just to mean people younger than others, i.e.

perhaps people in their 30s or 40s rather than very young people with no experience. This is something that is discussed widely in the media (Jain, 2009).

This use of ‘youth’ to mean different age groups, between 15 and 40 plus, can present a confusing message to readers.

Poverty reduction is a major issue in India and there has been work across the world that suggests that involving young people in creating change to reduce

poverty, and other important such issues, is vital and more effective than allowing them to simply be the target for development. This may be promoted from

within India or it may be helpful for outside agencies already working in this area with young people to help set up relevant initiatives (The National

Council of Swedish Youth Organisations, 2009, p. 8).

It is interesting to consider the more popular representations of the role that young people should play in society. There is a marked view that older

people should step down in preference to younger people because only younger people have the ability to create change. The knowledge and experience of

older people is acknowledged but it can frequently be seen that there is pressure for them to take a ‘back seat’, and only advise and guide,

but not to actively participate (Kumar, 1998, p. 234). There does not as yet appear to be any research to demonstrate how this will affect society and the

way that younger people feature, particularly in political and other such positions. However, it does appear to reduce the respect and reverence in which

older people have customarily been held, which could be seen to be more in line with a more western approach where youth culture has become prominent.

Conclusion

India is a vast country with an enormous population that is increasing quite rapidly. There is a definite move towards becoming a developed country but

there are still many problems to be solved. Comparing the situation in India with western countries presents challenges, as the cultural and social

situation is very different and there are very different belief structures. One key factor is that young people are considered to be almost the

‘saving grace’ for the country. Great reliance is placed on young people becoming educated and increasing the status and economic profitability

of the country. This is set, however, against poverty and poor educational offerings and achievement for large sections of the population. Providing more

equal opportunities for men and women and eradicating child labour are two areas that will take great effort to resolve given and enormous number of people

involved.

There have been great improvements in areas such as IT and space development which has meant that some sectors of the youth have been able to move into

those areas. However, in order to make the progress that is sought for India to become a developed country, young people need to be motivated in directions

that will achieve that goal. There is a substantial concern regarding young people being drawn into terrorism, and major changes in law and order remain to

be achieved. So it can be seen that there is much to be done and directives in place to work towards those aims. However, this does appear to place a great

deal of responsibility and reliance on younger people to make this happen.

Bibliography

Adlakha, A., 2014. Population Trends :India. [Online]

Available at: https://www.census.gov/population/international/files/ib-9701.pdf

[Accessed 24 October 2014].

Atkin, C., 2012. Education and Minorities. London: A & C Black.Chapter 9 Available at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BsO_xqyNNfwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 24 October 2014]

Baha’i, 2014. The Baha’i Faith. [Online] Available at: http://www.bahai.org/

[Accessed 23 October 2014].

Glennie, A. & Chappell, L., 2010. Show Me the Money (and Opportunity): Why Skilled People Leave Home — and Why They Sometimes Return. [Online]

Available at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/show-me-money-and-opportunity-why-skilled-people-leave-home-%E2%80%94-and-why-they-sometimes-return

[Accessed 23 October 2014].

Indian Child Line, nd. CHILD Protection & Child Rights. [Online]

Available at: http://www.childlineindia.org.in/child-labour-prohibition-and-regulation-act-1986.htm[Accessed 23 October 2014].

IREX, nd. Promoting Tolerance and Dialogue through Interactive Theater in Eastern Indonesia. [Online]

Available at: http://www.irex.org/project/promoting-tolerance-and-dialogue-through-interactive-theater-eastern-indonesia [Accessed 23 October 2014].

Jain, R., 2009. Role of Youth In Indian Politics. [Online]

Available at: http://theviewspaper.net/role-of-youth-in-indian-politics/

[Accessed 23 October 2014].

Kalam, A. A. & Rajan, Y., 2002. India 2020 A Vision for the New Millenium, New Delhi: Penguin. Available at http://acemlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/india2020.pdf [Accessed 24

October 2014]

Kruger, A. & Poster, C., 1990. Community Education and the Western World. London: Routledge.p.72

Kumar, C. S., 1998. The Scheduled Castes in India. New Delhi: p.234

MedIndia, 2014. AIDS – HIV Positive Cases in India 2009 – 2012. [Online]

Available at: http://www.medindia.net/health_statistics/general/aidsindia.asp

[Accessed 24 October 2014].

Pandve, H. T., Deshmukh, P. R., Pandve, R. T. & Patil, N. R., 2009. Role of youth in combating climate change. Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 13(2), p. 105.

Ruland, J., Jurgenmeyer, C., Nelson, M. & Ziegenhain, 2005. Parliaments and Political Change in Asia. Pasir Panjang: Institute of Southeastern

Asian Studies. Available at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cPuOBcME6osC&pg=PA181&dq=most+politicians+in+india+are+over+60+years+old&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cY1JVJS_L8PH7AaDkIGoCA&ved=0CDYQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=most%20politicians%20in%20india%20are%20over%2060%20years%20old&f=false [Accessed 24 October 2014]

The National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations, 2009. The Role of Young People in Poverty reduction, Stockholm: The National Council of

Swedish Youth Organisations.

The World Bank, 2014. Birth rate, crude (per 1,000 people). [Online]

Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.CBRT.IN

[Accessed 24 October 2014].

UNESCO, 2013/14. Teaching and Learning Quality for all, UNESCO.

United Nations, 2014. The International Year of Youth. [Online]

Available at: http://www.unric.org/en/component/content/article/2-articles/26530–international-year-of-youth [Accessed 23 October 2014].

United Nations, 2014. The World Programme of Action for Youth. [Online]

Available at: http://www.un.org/events/youth98/backinfo/ywpa2000.htm

[Accessed 23 October 2014].

US Department of Labour, 2013. India 2013 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, Available

athttp://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/india.htm [Accessed 23 October 2014]

Zezulka-Mailloux, G. E. M. & Gifford, J., 2003. Culture + the State: Alternative Interventions. Edmonton: CRC. Available at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=B064aJShLDgC&pg=PT156&dq=the+caste+system+in+india+today&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5-9IVPTFAeep7Aahx4C4DQ&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=the%20caste%20system%20in%20india%20today&f=false [Accessed 24 October 2014]

This essay will outline and explain why inter professional collaborative practice in social work is important. It will also examine key factors that help or hinder effective inter professional collaborative practice. It will explain why it is important that professionals work together and effectively as a team and the consequences that can occur when professionals fail to collaborate successfully.

There has been a great deal of political and professional pressures for the development of inter professional collaborative practice. From the late 1990’s onwards there were vast amounts of official documents to promote the importance of collaborative working within the health and social care sector. The 1998 social services White Paper Modernising Social Services (DoH, 1998) and The NHS Plan (2000) devoted entire chapters to the subject. It has been argued that inter professional working has advanced further in relation to services for older people than it has in relation to children and families. The Green Paper Every Child Matters (DfES 2003) recognised this and one of the main elements of this paper focused that improved collaboration was required so as not to repeat the tragic events of the Victoria Climbie case (this case will be discussed in further detail later in the essay). Government recognition suggests that many social problems cannot be effectively addressed by any given organisation acting in isolation from others. That is, when professionals work together effectively they provide a better service to the complex needs of the most vulnerable people in society. Inter professional collaborative practice involves complex interactions between a range of different professionals and is when professionals work together as a team to reach mutually negotiated goals through agreed plans. It is a partnership that can be defined as a formal agreement between the different professions who agree to work together in pursuit of common goals. Collaborative is defined as putting that partnership into operation or into practice. It involves the different professions working together and using their own individual skills instead of working in opposite directions to meet the needs of particular service users. It is suggested that when social workers and other professions work collaboratively the service user gets a better deal. ‘Willing participation (Henneman et al, 1995, cited in Barrett et al, 2005, p.19) and a high level of motivation’ (Molyneux, 2001, cited in Barrett et al, p.19) have been stated as vital aspects of effective inter professional collaboration.

Social workers have certain ethical obligations to society that they must follow and this comes in the form of The British Association of Social Work (BASW) Code of Ethics and the National Occupational Standards for social workers. The Code of Ethics follow five basic values, Human Dignity and Worth, Social Justice, Service to Humanity, Integrity and Competence whilst the National Occupational Standards outline the standards of conduct and practice to which all social workers should adhere to. Whilst working in collaboration with other professionals, social workers should follow these Codes and Standards to ensure that the best possible outcome is achieved for the service user.

In the past inter professional collaborative practice has been difficult with many disadvantages and that this has caused problems between the different professions involved. This has in the past led to catastrophic tragedies as in the case of Victoria Climbie. Shared accountability is important for effective collaboration and all professionals should be accountable. Each profession should support one another, not be seen as self interested and that no one profession is higher than another. Some of the problems that can occur are when there is not a logical distribution of power. ‘Unequal power distribution can be oppressive’ (Payne, 2000, cited in Barrett et al, 2005, p.23) and can limit participation for some group members. Struggles for power are rooted in professional tradition and social difference. It is believed by some critics of social work that ‘social workers have often been located in settings where they were considered as subordinate to other more established professional groups’ (Brewer and Lait, 1980, cited in Wilson et al, 2008, p.401). Traditionally there have been difficulties within the medical profession and Cooke et al, (2001, cited in Barrett et al, 2005, p.23) suggests that ‘general practitioners felt threatened by a redistribution of power and had problems letting go of their traditionally held power base’. Social work in the past has been described as a semi profession and similar to nursing and teaching and not comparable to the ‘learned profession of medicine or law as it does not have the required features of those professions’ (Freidson 1994). Payne (2000 cited in Barrett et al, 2005, p.23) identifies this as ‘people’s capacity to get what they want’. Power in inter professional collaborative practice should be shared and distributed and no hierarchy of power should exist. If some professionals see themselves as more powerful than another they are not meeting the needs of the service user. Being territorial and not sharing information and knowledge has long been a problem in inter professional collaborative practice. Molyneux (2001, cited in Barrett et al, 2005, p20) ‘found that professionals who were confident in their own role were able to work flexibly across professional boundaries without feeling jealous or threatened’. ‘Professional adulthood’ was an expression used by Laidler (1991, cited in Barratt et al, 2005, p.20) to describe professionals who were confident in their own role to share information and communicate effectively with other professionals. These professionals do not feel territorial about relinquishing their knowledge and understanding to further enhance good inter professional collaborative practice. Stapleton (1998, cited in Barrett et al, 2005, p.20) suggests that ‘a combination of personal and professional confidence enables individuals to assert their own perspectives and challenge the viewpoints of others’.

Open and honest communication is a vital and probably one of the most important aspects of inter professional collaborative practice. It requires professionals to take into account each other’s views, be respectful, dignified and to listen to each other without being highly critical of one another. Constructive criticism needs to be undertaken alongside constructive suggestions and encouragement and should take place at a time when other professionals are receptive. Active listening is an important skill. To be able to recognise and respond to what is being communicated is a fundamental skill. Professionals working collaboratively should demonstrate this verbally and non-verbally to each other. This is greatly helped if all concerned put aside the typical stereotyping of each other’s professions in order to hear and listen to what the speaker is saying. Keeping good eye contact and having good body language is just as important. ‘It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of communication is non-verbal, i.e. something is communicated through ‘body language’ – by a body movement, a posture, an inflection in the voice’ (Birdwhistell, 1970, cited in Wilson, 2008, p.297). A breakdown in communication and the lack of sharing of information between the professions in the past have been major failings in inter professional collaborative practice for example in high profile child protection inquiries and this has led to tragic consequences. Effective systems of communication and knowing what information should be shared are essential not just between the professions but also between the service users.

Trust, mutual respect and support are key features to inter professional collaborative practice. Trust was highlighted by many professionals as one of the most important factors in successful collaboration. When trust is absent professionals may feel uncomfortable and insecure in their role and this in turn can lead to defensive behaviour to counteract their insecurities. Stapleton (1998, cited in Barratt et al, 2005, p.22) suggests that ‘trust develops through repeated positive inter professional experience and develops gradually over a period of time’. Trust cannot be gained overnight so it is important for professionals working collaboratively to give one another time for trust to develop. When professionals feel valued, they feel respected. This can be achieved by actively listening to each other and having an insight into one another’s professions.

Conflict between the professions can have a huge impact on the different professionals and service users. Loxley (1997, cited in Barrett et al, 2005, p.24) suggests that conflict is ‘interwoven with collaborative practice’. To counteract some of the problems associated with conflict it may be beneficial to all concerned to form ground rules. These ground rules could go some way to prevent and help the management of conflict and could include; open discussion and the obligation to be able to give each other honest feedback. Most importantly these ground rules need to benefit all parties involved.

A great deal of emphasis is placed on social workers to critically reflect their practice. It literally means that social workers reflect on their practice before, during and after, thinking through tasks carefully. Other professionals may not do this in line with social workers beliefs of critical reflection or in the same way or see that reflection on their own practice is an important aspect of successful inter professional collaborative practice.

To illustrate the above points a practice example will now be explained. The inquiry into the death of ten year old Victoria Climbie highlights the disastrous consequences when communication in inter professional collaborative practice fails. This child death case was fraught with communication breakdowns across the range of professionals associated with the case. In Lord Laming’s report (2003) he draws attention to and illustrates lack of communication as one of the key issues. Victoria Climbie was failed by a system that was put into place to protect her. Professionals failed in this protection by not communicating with each other or with Victoria herself. One of the criticisms in the Laming Report (2003) was that none of the professionals involved in the case spoke to Victoria about her life or how she was feeling and suggests that even basic service user involvement was absent. There was an opportunity which is highlighted in his report that a social worker missed an opportunity to communicate with Victoria by deciding not to see or speak to her while she was in hospital. It could be argued that if basic levels of communication with Victoria herself had been implemented, then more could have been achieved to protect her. It was not only a lack of communication with Victoria herself but a lack of communication between the professions that were investigated in the Laming Report (2003). Communication is equally important between the service user and the different professional bodies. Professionals are less effective on their clients’ behalf if they cannot communicate precisely and persuasively’. (Clark, 2000, cited in Trevithick, 2009, p.117). For successful inter professional collaborative practice to work a combination of personal and professional skills are required, together with competent communications skills to enable the different professions to challenge the views of others. Recommendation 37 of the Laming Report (2003) states ‘The training of social workers must equip them with the confidence to question the opinion of professionals in other agencies when conducting their own assessment of the needs of the child’. On at least one occasion, this did not happen when a social worker did not challenge a medical statement which turned out to be professionally incorrect which in turn led to the tragic eventual death of Victoria. Had the social worker challenged the medical opinion in this instance then it could be argued that more efficient communication and less confusion in the case may have saved Victoria. Alan Milburn (Hansard 28 January 2003, column 740, cited in Wilson et al, 2008, p.474), the then Secretary of State commented when introducing the Children Bill in the Commons that ‘Victoria needs services that worked together’ and that ‘down the years inquiry after inquiry has called for better communication and better co-ordination’. Communication lies at the heart of high quality and successful inter professional practice and Victoria is just one case of when there is a lack of communication between the professionals and the devastating consequences that can arise.

In conclusion, successful inter professional collaborative practice has many elements and all these different elements require that the different professions adopt them. Although inter professional working practice has been around for many years and is not new, it still needs to be continued, developed and incorporated into the daily work of all professions. When health and social care professionals from different disciplines truly understand each other’s roles, responsibilities and challenges, the potential of inter professional collaborative practice could be fully realised and many of the barriers alleviated, giving a more successful outcome to the service user.