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School shootings are one of the common events that achieved a level of cultural symbolism and make fear within students, their relatives, and school personnel. It is not shocking that these shootings are still happening, since the source of the problem is sophisticated. School shootings promote depression and anxiety within schools and encourage the idea that schools are unsafe for many students; in this paper I will discuss the course of action in Virginia Tech and my role as a school psychologist during the crisis.

On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech experienced a terrible and unforgettable event in the American university history. An Asian student shot and took the lives of 32 students and faculty, staff. He left behind injured individuals and people with psychological problems, and then he killed himself. Moreover, victim’s families, friends and the university community have suffered horribly.

As a school psychologist in Virginia Tech, I think it is very crucial to collect the data about the student who killed the victims in order to know more about the real causes that led him to shoot people and kill himself after. This will help to deal with students’ behavior to avoid and stop real causes before they get more complicated. The student murderer was skinny and looked younger than his age. He did not participate in class and did not want to speak. The professors reported that he was mentally ill and he asked him to seek counseling. I believed that it is important to work with students who have same symptoms like this person who needed an early diagnosis.

I believe that mental health clinics receive a big number of antisocial behaviors which is the most common disorder in our daily life. I think that early diagnosis of serious aggression that can be Conduct Disorder which begins as aggression in the early childhood and developed during adolescence and adulthood, it is very vital to know about these cases in order to help those individuals since they were diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Conduct is a disorder that refers to people who deal with specific behavioral and emotional problems during the childhood. People diagnoses with this disorder cannot focus and they have a hard time to follow rules. They are often referred as bad people or delinquent, ignoring that they mentally ill.

Course of action

Schools must be protected and safe places for children to study, however after this shooting event, a number of students and their families still feel threatened and their lives in danger by armed and dangerous classmates. As a member of school community we need to discuss our plan and how to deal with current students, families, professors and the other members who experienced the incident and help them to overcome and continue benefit from school. I believe that it is very interesting to work with survived students to trust us and discuss our plans to offer a safe place to learn. As school staff, we need to “work with parents and public safety providers (local police and fire departments, emergency responders, hospitals, etc.)” (National Association of School Psychologists, 2006) The school community needs also to enhance, and renew the school procedures to keep school building safe. Work with students to be able to discuss and talk aloud if something happened that makes them feel uncomfortable, worried or scared. Teach the students that everybody play a big role to maintain the school safety. School community needs also to offer “crisis training and professional development for all staff based upon needs assessment”. (NASP, 2006)

Anger and violence are progressively more significant issues to school psychologists and other professionals today. Those educators faced the effects of learning problems and social adjustment issues. It is very significant to provide monthly workshops for all students to identify their feelings and help them to know how to manage their feelings of anger, especially if they are taking drugs or having mental illness will be helpful. It is very important to teach and make students stay away from drugs and alcohol. Added to this, being away from guns and other weapons will be helpful as well. Teach students in early age that violence is not a solution to handle problems. Therefore, provide counseling sessions to all students, especially those who are struggling with anxiety, depression, or other emotional concerns that they cannot handle.

William Pollack, a Harvard Medical School psychologist, stated in the incident of the Columbine shooters “needed help, and what they got day after day was no one noticing. They were left alone. Adolescents, even though they say they want to be alone…they really want some kind of connection with an adult who understands and cares.” (USA today, 2009) As a school staff, we need to work on our safety programs as well. We will need to lock doors, provide security cameras and call systems. We need to encourage and build up the respect between staff and students, students and students. Respect the students’ potential and performance is very vital also. The interaction between counselors or professors and students is very important to be able to recognize students’ feelings and alert any serious emotional issues or mental health problems.

“Check and connect” is a good strategy to provide to school staffs in the workshops. In this approach, every day, one professor or more should talk about a specific student’s case.

As the initial responsibility we have as school staff, we should help people experience the event in an appropriate context. We need to provide counseling and psychological treatments and we have to work with them to be able to continue their studies and help them to achieve their goals as they came for the first time and may be better. We have to work with those people who were in the event on the traumatic that may happened and they will think about all the time. We need to be able to help them to forget it and start a new personal and educational safe life.

It is obvious that people who commit this kind of things and shooting usually have mental disorders such as severe depression or other emotional problems. Those individuals usually feel unwanted and badly treated by others, they are dissatisfied in their academic performance and goals, and therefore they go for suicide and shooting in order to do revenge. Moreover, these students always prepared for their plans previously and they talked about their purposes in advance. Hopefully, we will have time to know about their plans and help them recognize their feelings to be able to intervene early. That is why I believe that we need to build up confidence and communication with students and promote them to ask for help whenever they feel that they need it.

As people working in schools, the event is hard to experience, but we may be able to better control the school and in preventing more shootings. Moreover, students who are under medications for anxiety, depression or other concerns and are currently in university, they need to be in contact with their doctor, therapist as well as their family. It may be also appropriate for students who have faced a prior traumatic event as well.

I believed that school shooting is one of the biggest issues that need more than a single solution; poor parenting and early identification are big terms to think about dealing with such incidents. Most shootings in schools occurred primarily because of revenge against society.

Specific people such as parents, friends, and roommates know how to help professionals to diminish specific psychological outcomes of a traumatic incident by using observation as a method to watch students who are at greater jeopardy and assist directly. Awareness of the issues that can lead to cruel psychological distress may assist adults to differentiate those students who need mental health assistance.

As school community, we should plan cooperatively to invent a safety within schools to decrease violence by utilizing various approaches in order to meet each school’s needs. For an effective result, it is helpful to include the following components such as making “school-community safety partnerships, establishing comprehensive school crisis response plans” (NASP, 2006) As a course of action, schools should adopted new laws and strategies to cope with this new style of showing such brutal aggression in instructional establishments, such as forbidding violent behaviors by issuing a disciplinary rules and punishments against individuals who are attempting to be involved in aggressive behaviors in schools settings. Besides, schools need also to offer a proper and effective counseling therapy for people who still under the shock of a shooting incident and help them to overcome the crisis time. As far as community is concerned, it should be a priority to protect students who experience aggressive events and make them regain confidence to pursue their academic and emotional life. Improving classroom environment is also presented in our school plan by endorsing such a positive school discipline “School climate is a relatively enduring quality of the entire school that is experienced by members, describes their collective perceptions of routine behavior, and affects their attitudes and behavior in the school” (Camilla &Sandra, 2007). Our program fights racism and intolerance and implements strategies to accept people from different cultures; in school program, the community promotes consultation, appropriate social skills, rising security in schools, and use disciplinary method to punish individuals who did not respect the school policy. Utilizing prevention programs for all students is one of the vital strategies we have in our program like talking about the federal law. Basically, we also implement some specific interventions in order to support students’ positive emotional development and educate them to utilize non-violent methods to decipher their personal concerns. Support students who show early signs of violation behaviors at schools and encouraging peer relationship by utilizing communication and mediation programs to resolve conflicts.

School-based mental health services are very wanted recently. As school community, collaborating with parents and policy makers we should scrutinize issues that can account for events in which a massacre happened in the establishment setting in order to assist students to accomplish their aims in schools and help them to identify their personal and social issues.

During the crisis, as member of school community, we were looking for manners in order to stop these events to re-happen. School Psychologists national association (NASP) team stated that, “Crisis has been frequently recognized as a time of potential danger as well as potential opportunity.aˆ¦ If our profession is able to manage the danger that is, manage the immediate crisis and quickly return the system to normal functioning then there exists a tremendous opportunity to stimulate long-term systemic change. Once seen as effective and credible, the psychologist has infinitely more opportunity to move the system in the direction of prevention” (Kathy, 2008).

School psychologists can be a terrific source to the institutional community in the improvement of efficient mental health services to discuss students and families’ needs. It is also fundamental that school psychologists become very important and positive individuals in endorsing their task as mental health service providers and programs in schools.

My role as a school psychologist

As a school psychologist, I need to be able to identify student in need for extra help and aid in recognizing proper referral sources in the community. I would also use the psychological triage as a technique to establish the crisis intervention cure. The use of this approach is particularly significant when the psychological trauma victim surpasses the number of available people who can intervene.

According to National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), there are various things that we can do as people working in schools that may insure that schools are secure places for students and enhance the comfort level of individuals such as inform parents by the school safety policies and calamity avoidance efforts. As a school psychologist, I need to be active within schools, communicate with students and their parents. I need also to visit classrooms frequently. Work on students’ behavior and help school community to teach students the appropriate and expected behaviors, provide interventions and supports. Talk and make a link with community colleagues to evaluate emergency response plans and discuss the needs that may be noticeable to the current crisis. “Highlight violence prevention programs and curriculum currently being taught in schools and emphasize the efforts of the school to teach students alternatives to violence including peaceful conflict resolution and positive interpersonal relationship skills. Cite specific examples such as Second Step Violence Prevention, bully proofing, or other positive interventions and behavioral supports” (NASP, 2006).

My role as school psychologist as well is to prevent those individuals who homicide others and suicide. An article by NASP stated that society needs to ease closer relations as a replacement of watching television and using computers in the rest of the evenings, visit friends, classmates, and neighbors, walk you dog or go for picnic will help to stop murders to realize their plans and crimes. As a course of action, we should work on the relationship between students, their professors, and other school workers (NASP, 2006)

My role as a school psychologist also is to examine the psychological disorders of students who appeared to be at risk such as those individuals who may have post traumatic stress syndrome, depression, Schizophrenia, and other mental health problems. It is very significant to early diagnosis those people with the previous disorders in order to be able to intervene and help them to live normal people and act responsively.

My job as a member of the community is to be aware of some people who refuse to talk about their experience in the past and hide their traumatic events. In this point, I need to be able to help survivors of this horrible crisis to talk about it and assist them to be able to identify and discuss their feelings from it. I need to be able to aid those people by using psychotherapy sessions and advanced techniques. As a school psychologist, I can be trusted to help with delicate personal and family situations that interfere with schooling. I can also help prevent future problems when I intervene with learning problems early on, and I can also recognize that changes in the school environment and at home can improve the quality of life for children and their families. For most victims, cognitive-behavioral therapy is the best treatment that I can use in order to change distorted and possibly harmful perceptions of post-traumatic stress, severe anxiety, depression, pleasant mental imagery, and relaxation techniques. Other counseling and therapy techniques may help those people achieve a good perceptive of the illness and the factors that protect against it. There are also stress inoculation training and visualization techniques that can be used as treatment to help those victims in our school setting. All these treatments need to be taught to survivors in order to practice it on their own. I need also to share with them my feelings, experience, and signs to help decreasing feelings of fear and helplessness.

In terms of intervention, as a school psychologist I should work and consult with teachers in order to choose, implement, and evaluate interventions that best work for the different needs of different students. As expert I need to be able to teach students, teachers, parents, and other professionals’ problem-solving strategies to address issues related to students’ academic, behavioral, and psychological problems after the incident. I need also to be able to assist teachers, parents, and other professionals use data-based decision making to improve student and systemic outcomes. Besides, I have to help teachers understand the unique needs of students, especially those diagnosis with mental health problems. It is very important to consult with those individuals’ doctors and counselor as well in order to keep in truck, know more about their current situations, and help them to release their pains. NASP promotes that “school psychologists to take a leadership role in developing comprehensive approaches to violence reduction and crisis response in schools” (NASP, 2006). Since school psychologists are capable to involve in the whole school personals in enhancing and applying positive behavioral interventions that support social-emotional development of students. School psychologists are also important members who are skilled by using and implementing different intervention strategies that may decrease violent behaviors within school settings and with different students. As a school psychologist, I can discuss with other school members the implementation of social skills activities and other techniques used in order to educate students how to solve their personal issues. My other role is to offer consultation process to promote schools form calamity planning teams. As part of the evaluation program, I need to reduce aggression activities among students and help those who were presenting during the incident physically, psychologically, and social seclusion. As far as my role, I will help school to response to this emergency case. As a school psychology, my role also is to be well aware of the advantage of the early intervention and prevention efforts.

“Traditional crisis caregivers include emergency response professionals, mental health providers, medical professionals, victim assistance counselors, and faith leaders” (NASP, 2003) those professionals are all well skilled to handle different cases and to help sufferers to manage their life and handle their problems. Teachers and administrators are the most people who interact with our students; however some of them did not get any training to offer mental health services and intervention. As a school psychologist, I think that will be very helpful to provide trainings and help those professionals to be able to intervene.

These roles of school psychologists are very vital elements as plans of school safety. To guarantee that school psychologists are well trained to offer leadership in school violence prevention. NASP helped school psychologists to get the necessary comprehension and skills to apply aggression prevention and the crisis in schools during their programs and through their life experiences.
Summary

Very serious violent problems occur in school settings and have sophisticated causes, unknown sources and valuable consequences. Besides, fights, sexual harassment, and bullying that occur every day in all school establishments in the world. We started to experience shootings people at schools and suicide. These affected the schools environments, safety, and made many students, relatives and school staffs to undergo horribly. Thus, the efforts to decrease aggression at school settings need to be multi-faceted.

School settings are trusted to protect children and keep them secure during the school day. Teachers, principals, and all school staff do big efforts to keep students safe and away from any danger. Many students trust schools and they feel happy and comfort in the school staffs who save them from harms and protect them. There are various cases and huge number of shoots and suicide in school settings, therefore schools and professionals community need to prepared in order to have a minimum damages and handle crises, in order to keep students and staff out of harm and able to learn and teach.

In my opinion, I think that a successful and effective program will guarantee the safety of all students and school staff. It is crucial to create programs that lead to stop and reduce aggression and responding rapidly and efficiently whenever violence happens. Aggression decrease plans have to also affect on all student approaches to violence, educate them and school workers to be able to solve their skills in an effective away, and help the school to make an environment that encourages acceptance and tolerance between students and staff.

School safety programs are very efficient when we involved other groups of violence prevention efforts such as “local law enforcement, juvenile probation, public health personnel, and other parent and community groups” (NASP, 2006) This will help to reduce aggression and anger among students in order to ensure life of all children and youth and improved their performance to achieve their goal. I believe that all families, friends, and school staff have the responsibility in this massacre, by ignoring the murder mental health history and let him lived in the campus as a normal student. The safety group of the campus has also a big responsibility and failed to intervene in the appropriate time to stop the killing show was happening. The uncontrolled guns are big issues as well that led to kill those innocent students easily. All school psychologists have the responsibility to give hands to educational institutions and involve in the methodical group structure and problem solving process. They have the responsibility to analysis the data and identify students’ problems. All these plans should be discussed in objective data of school databases.

Typically my role as a school psychologist is that I cannot make diagnosis, but I can provide data by using various number of assessments tools like doing observations, interviews, and consulting with parents and other professionals. There are very big numbers of interventions that can be used by school psychologists to assist those individuals in order to comprehend their goals and try be able to deal with it.

In general, most of us will agree that not everyone is suitable to be a crisis helper because there is no one trade that can suit for all. I personal feel that it is irresponsible to give a conclusion of whether is everyone suitable or not to be a crisis helper before exploring what qualification or characteristic does a crisis helper require. Hence, in this essay, I would like to briefly discuss about the definition of crisis, resources for crisis intervention and the qualities of a crisis helper before giving my conclusion.

Crisis Definition

Although there are many definitions of crisis, Richard. K. James presented 6 in his book, Crisis Intervention Strategies. They are: 1) Crisis is because people important life goals face obstacles. 2) “Crisis results from impediments to life goals that people believe that they cannot overcome through customary choices and behaviors (Caplan, 1964, p. 40)”. 3) When people know that they have no responses to handle their situation, the situation is consider a crisis. 4) When, due to a situation, one cannot control his life consciously and it immobilizes him, a crisis is formed (Belkin, 1984, p. 424). 5) “Crisis is a state of disorganization in which people face frustration of important life goals or profound disruption of their life cycles and methods of coping with stressors. (Brammer, 1985, p. 94). 6) Crisis develops in four distinct stages: (a) a critical situation occurs in which a determination is made as to whether a person’s normal coping mechanisms will suffice; (b) increased tension and disorganization surrounding the event escalate beyond the person’s coping ability; (c) demand for additional resources (such as counseling) to resolve the event is needed; (d) referral may be required to resolve major personality disorganization (Marino, 1995)”.

Kristi Kanel uses Trilogy definition to reflect the three essential parts of a crisis. “The three parts of a crisis are these: (1) a precipitating event; (2) a perception of the event that causes subjective distress; and (3) the failure of a person’s usual coping methods, which causes a person experiencing the precipitating event to function it a lower level than before the event. ( Kanel, p. 1) “

Through Richard and Kristi crisis definitions, we realize that crisis can be a situation that has disrupted a person life cycle or a person having malfunction coping mechanism. Situation that person A has considered as a crisis may not be a crisis to person B because everyone’s coping ability is different. The situation that causes Person A to be stressful and anxious may not create the same degree of stress and anxiety for person B; hence, for a crisis worker to handle a client successfully, he needs to have sharp analysis and quick reponse. The eventual goal of a crisis helper is to help the client to return to a precise level of functioning. As a result, although anyone who is trained can be a crisis helper, he may not handle the situation well due to crisis’ versatility.

Crisis Intervention Helpers’ Qualities

The first step in cultivating the skills needed to help people in crisis is to construct a definition of crisis. Crisis worker must “tune into” a client’s level of mastering reality in order to set up realistic goals and problem- solving strategies.

In Lindemanns (1944) work with survivors of the Coconut Grove nightclub fire of 1943, he discovered that premature cessation of the expression of feelings is harmful. Therefore, it is essential for crisis workers to allow clients to express emotional actions. However, crisis workers must also ensure that the expression of these feelings is not harmful to the client or others. Crisis workers must be aware that whether the expression of emotional reactions to crisis events is it healthy (Myer, 37)

Crisis workers must be willing to share the client’s pain. Empathy that demonstrates to clients shows crisis workers understand their frame of reference in the crisis situation. (Myer 38) Care must be used to guard against allowing crisis workers’ personal issues to influence the assessment process. For example, a crisis worker, while a child, may have seen his or her mother abused by the father or another person. As a result, the crisis worker may become angry whenever abuse is an issue. Being a crisis helper, he must not handle the client’s situation personally; therefore, the ability of assessing the client thought and action is important.

Assessing clients’ cognitive and behavioral reaction to a crisis can be troublesome for crisis workers. Simply knowing that a client has seemingly done nothing or has made several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the crisis is not enough. Crisis workers must see beyond the content of what clients report to truly understand clients’ reaction. (Myer 86) Too often, crisis workers have difficulty distinguishing their perceptions from clients’ perceptions of the crisis. ( Myer 57)

After knowing clients’ cognitive reactions and the life dimension that is affected by crisis, it helps crisis workers target their intervention efforts. However, crisis workers must also evaluate the severity of clients’ reactions in order to determine if this area should be addressed first and how direct the intervention process should be. ( Myer 73)

Ethical and legal concerns are particularly relevant in the assessment of behavioral reaction because during the assessment process clients may disclose information about child or elder abuse, sexual abuse of minors, suicidal ideations, intent to harm someone else, or other equally disturbing material. Crisis workers can be caught off guard hearing this information; once it is disclosed, what are they to do? ( Myer 86)

Certain personality traits may interfere with coping and also with accepting intervention. Some people have problems accepting help or being strong. Others are paranoid or avoid conflict. These people present challenges to counselors, in contrast to clients who are open and trusting.

According to Kanel, there are factors for a crisis helper to determine whether a crisis presents a danger to his client or his client needs additional help. A trained crisis helper not only needs to be psychologically trained, his personality and experiences can also be a great asset during crisis intervention. Thus, not everyone can be a crisis helper well.

Resources for Crisis Intervention Work

Not everyone who experiences a stressor in life will succumb to a crisis state and no one is certain why some people cope with stress easily whereas others deteriorate into disequilibrium. ( Kanel, 7). But, Kanel writes that material resources, personal resources, and social resources seems to determine the level of an individual coping mechanism after a crisis. ( Kanel, 7)

Material resources are money, shelter, food, transportation, and clothing. Money may not buy love, but it does make life easier during crisis. For example, a poorer woman with minimal material resources [money, food, housing, and transportation] may suffer more in a crisis than a woman with her own income and transportation. A woman with richer material sources has the choice of staying at a hotel or moving into her own apartment. She can drive to work; she can afford to pay for counseling sessions. ( Kanel, 7)

After her material needs are met, the woman can begin to work through the crisis. Her personal resources, such as ego strength, previous history of coping with stressful situations, absence of personality problems, and physical well-being will help determine how well she copes on her own and how she accepts and implements intervention. ( Kanel, 7)

Ego strength is the ability to understand the world realistically and act on that understanding to get one’s needs and wishes met. Many times a crisis worker will be called on to be the client’s ego strength temporarily (as when a person is psychotic or severely depressed) until the client can take over for himself or herself. These clients can neither see reality clearly nor put into action realistic coping behaviors. They need someone to structure their behavior until the crisis is managed successfully, often with medication, family intervention, and individual counseling.

Social resource

Conclusion

Some clients may display extreme emotion to a minor incident; others may exhibit an almost undetectable affective reaction to a significant crisis. In addition, people react differently to different crises. Just because a client reacts with anger in one crisis does not mean that he or she will react with anger in another crisis (Myer 52). Client may be overwhelmed by the situation and find it difficult to vocalize any feelings; perhaps, they may vent their anger to the crisis worker. If the crisis worker is not prepared, he or she may be bewildered by the client’s display of feelings. Hence, “the intensity of the client’s emotional expression may result in the crisis worker feeling uncomfortable and out of control” (Myer, p. 37)

According to Myer, crisis worker need to be prepared to face clients’ raging screaming or sobbing uncontroably. During crisis intervention, crisis workers must use their knowledge of human behavior, sensitivity to cultural norms, and their clinical experience to make sound judgments. As a result, I agree that it is not everyone suitable to do crisis intervention work because not everyone can handle intensity of the job scope.

The case of Sabina Akthar is a tragic case, which shows negligence of the Crown Prosecution Service(CPS). Sabina Akthar and Malik Mannan had married through arrange marriage in Bangladesh. When Akthar found out that her husband had a mistress, problems occurred in their marriage. Akthar had faced domestic violence from her husband and as result made complaints to the police. Mannan was arrested and about a month later he was released on bail. Mannan’s bail conditions included clauses such as; he was not to contact his wife or visit her home. After Mannan had broken his bail conditions on several instances he was re-arrested. However on this occasion he was released without charge and also his bail order was dropped. After Mannan was released he carried on sending Akthar text messages in which he threatened to kill her. Few days after these messages Mannan had stabbed Akthar from her heart, which caused Akthar’s death. After the young woman’s death the Crown Prosecutions Service accepted that they were negligent in the way they have handled the case and apologised to Sabina Akthar’s family (Guardian 2009).

The British Crime Survey’s (BCS) measurement of the culture effect on domestic violence is different to the police statistics. According to statistics the culture effect on domestic violence plays an important role here.

The aim of my research is to define how culture has an effect on domestic violence in the United Kingdom amongst the white ethnicity. Due to the experience I have gained through volunteering in the Coventry Refugee Centre I have gained knowledge about different countries and the cultures those countries have.

In the United Kingdom victims of domestic violence are mainly women and children. For many women their home is where they suffer abuse at hands of somebody who is really close to them. Most victims of domestic violence face long term physical and psychological damages. The person who abuses them does not give them any chance to make their own decision; therefore after a while some victims believe that there is no way out of their sufferings and gives up on trying to escape.

This research seeks to determine the impact of cultural effect on domestic violence in women and children in United Kingdom.

Key literature

Domestic violence also known and expressed as fie beating or intimate partner violence usually coexists with child abuse about half of the time (Hamel. J, Tonia L. Nicholls 2007). Husbands who beat their wives are much likely to apply for permanent residence for their undocumented wives than husbands who do not beat their wives. Therefore immigration status appears to be another way in which abusive husbands control their wives in the UK. Abusive husbands often threaten their wives with deportation if they do not comply with the husband’s wishes. Frequently undocumented abused wives are afraid to cooperate with child protection authorities for fear that their husbands might retaliate by turning them into immigration authorities. Women who cooperate with investigations of child abuse and or domestic violence have unusually good access to legal permanent residency but they are unlikely to be aware of this. Battered immigrant women face several impediments to seeking protection and services. These impediments including language barriers, negative perceptions of the law enforcement and legal system, fear of deportation, cultural and religious issues and discrimination (Gabriel 1994).

When it comes to the culture effect on domestic violence Uganda has the highest crime rates of domestic violence, 41 % of women reported being beaten or physically harmed by their husbands. This can be related to the economic factors and conditions as well as different life styles and cultural variation in Uganda.

According to the statistic the media has been considered one of many contributing factors in domestic violence. It has been criticized for its portrayal of violence in movies, television and printed form resulting in the desensitization of people with regard to their tolerance of violence. On the other hand the media has also been used as a modern communication tool in increasing public awareness of domestic violence and increasing support for ongoing research, funding education and prevention and treatment programs and support for improvement in the laws the criminal justice system and the public policy.

The impact of income inequality and social structure may also create more domestic violence towards women. Men’s unemployment or part time employment has been associated with increased rates of domestic violence. (Natalie, Sokoloff and Pratt 2005). Recent study found that unemployment was a significant predictor of violence. This suggests some men might perceive employment as a critical component of their masculine identity and resort to violence as an effort to regain lost status.

Some studies report that middle class Asian women are more likely to experience domestic violence than white middle class women among some ethnic and racial minority groups are attributable in part to poverty. Some research has suggested that the discrepancy between employment and income places women at risk. When women earn more than men or have a higher education qualification and employment skills, many men feel psychologically threatened and some use violence to reassert power in their relationship.

Many immigrants coming to England to find a better life to live for themselves and for their children but the barriers the immigrant face are really tremendous. New culture that they face as well as language barriers their husbands take advantage of this and start intimating their partner’s that their husbands may report their views to the UK immigrations service. Different countries and cultures may have their own values and attitudes toward a woman place family, marriage, sex roles and divorce and women may not notice that the domestic violence is against the law they may not know that they have the legal option to end the abusive relationship.

Domestic violence can occur in families from all cultural and ethnic group and beliefs and intervention policies and practices in treating battered women should accommodate their diverse cultural backgrounds. The British Crime Survey statistics shows that one in five women has experienced domestic violence in their lifestyle and many of these women ended their relationship because of abusive relationship. . According to the survey shows that woman chose to stay in abusive relationship because of fear if the women attempts to leave they will be tracked down and beaten or killed because of this the most women think that any prison time would be temporary and the subsequent and consequences even worse.

Methodology

My research approach will reflect a subjectivism. I believe this perspective is most appropriate for my investigation because people got their own ideas and it will be in subjectivism way the result that I will get in the end it will not be based on one interview. My methodology will be based on interviews, qualitative, subjectivism and interpretivism. Every interview that I will do will have different view and different ideas in it.

I will be dealing with human views rather than materials. In order to finish my dissertation I need to understand how women are expected to behave within different cultures, believes and religions. For example as I have spent two years at the Coventry Refugee Centre as an interpreter and a case worker this has given me a good knowledge about diverse people and I understand their opinions and feelings. Therefore I believe the experience that I have gained within that work environment will be very helpful to me while I am conducting my interviews.

To update my literal review I will also use secondary data. As my secondary data resources I will use books and contemporary articles. This will enable me to widen my knowledge and understanding of the general theory aspects on culture effect on domestic violence. I will also get some help from the Coventry Refugee Centre by going on their websites and also by speak to them face to face when needed. This secondary data will help me to design the interview questions in order to get the best answers.

For my research I will also do face to face semi-structured interviews to understand the effect of culture on domestic violence. I will also use internet searches. I have applied to volunteer within the victim support scheme. I am hoping that the experience I will gain from this work placement will give me the opportunity to find out more information about victims of domestic violence which will help to finish my dissertation. I will do some interpretivisim to assess the meaning of domestic violence. This will provide me a good feedback about the domestic violence and the trust in the police and Criminal Justice System. These questioners will provide me some quantitative data. In order to get answers that are representative and non-biased these questioners will be given to randomly selected women.

The qualitative result that I have gained from the interviews will be used in two ways. First of all I will compare them to the secondary data which is the theory aspect of the research. Secondly I will compare the questionnaire results (practice). Through comparing these data I will examine the views on domestic violence. As the results that are gained through the interviews will be qualitative, which means these statistics will give me an opportunity to analyses the results in order to create some charts, graphs and pies. As I worked as an interpreter and a case worker at the Coventry Refugee Centre it is easy for me to access into the centre and get the support that I need. I have decided to choose my participant through my work experience place, because my topic is based on culture effect on domestic violence and there are many women who been victims of domestic violence in their home countries. I will hopefully do my interview at the Refugee centre and I will inform my participants that everything that they say throughout the interview will be confidential and that no one will be allowed to see the answers that they have given in the questionnaires. However there are some difficulties to do this interview for example some of the participants may not speak English. Therefore I will also try to arrange an interpreter for them where needed in order to finish my research proposal.

Ethnical issues

Researching about domestic violence is not easy. While I am doing my research there are several ethical issues which I need to pay close attention to not to cause further distress to the participants. For example some question may cause distress to participants if they are asked in a certain way. Therefore I will need to design my questions in a way which my participants will not feel uncomfortable to answer them. Conducting a research on domestic violence might be a stressful investigation. This is because the topic is a very sensitive topic as it is not psychologically easy for people to talk about their tragic experiences. Therefore this study might cause potential or further pain and harm to the individual who have or still experiencing abuse by reminding them events that they do not wish to remember. It may also expose incriminating information and expose individual to risk. Consequently I need to be fully prepared to deal with the likely effects of the research. For example the effects of my research on participants on their families and on the researchers themselves (conduction such research may be distressing) may be defeated by a debriefing session at the end of the research. In this debriefing session participants will be able to speak to professional psychiatrists about their experience within the research. During this session participants can discuss any particular concerns they have about the research.

Another example of a sensitive issue is false memory and recovered memory. This is a debate which has been going on over the past 20 years. A famous memory psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has written about the validity of recovered memories of childhood abuse. According o Loftus’s studies these memories commonly come to light only after therapeutic sessions with people who use techniques such as guided imagery to explore early life experience. This domestic violence research is socially sensitive because there are potential consequences for people who have claimed to have recovered memories and for their families. Therefore to complete my research I need to consider including some ethnical guidelines document. I will sign this document and included in my proposal to state that I have tried to deal with ethical issues as best as I could.

Also the questions that I will ask during the interview have to be approved by my tutor. I will also ask my participants to sign a consent form which will state that the interviews done are totally confidentially and that they are willing to take part in this research. Data that will be collected through the interviews will be confidential therefore I will be keeping this data with me at all times until my research is complete and I will not let anyone else to see it.

I will be dealing with woman with cultural views, being sensitive to other cultures is easier said than done. Cultural sensitivity has nothing to with the art and music of a culture and almost everything to do with respect, shared decision making and effective communication. Too often researches ignore these values, the life style and the cognitive and affective world of the subject. soz jus on the phone to ma man. bu ma cwk is on my laptop n im on my pc bu jus write bou wha research method u gna use like for mine im doin case stdies n interviews n lyk u gta say whether u gna use qualitative method or quantitative methods n why u using those methods das it reallyysoz jus on the phone to ma man. bu ma cwk is on my laptop n im on my pc bu jus write bou wha research method u gna use like for mine im doin case stdies n interviews n lyk u gta say whether u gna use qualitative method or quantitative methods n why u using those methods das it really

Reflection

I have learnt too many things about the research method and technique that are used in it. Having completed this research that is based on culture effect on domestic violence improved my argument skills in a paper. Through using and collecting data and with example of statistics my arguments have become much better than how it was used to be.

My researching skills also improved in a positive way during this research proposal. In previous researches for my study I used to get stuck on how to gather information but now I am able to use largely different resources I can now understand the topic more widely and it also helps me to make a better argument. In my opinion this research is my best research paper that I have done in my life. The grade that I will get for it might not show a good grade but what I learned from it will benefit me for my future researches. I spent about two days just for doing the actual research. It will be useful for the next year when it come to the dissertation by using these new techniques that I have learnt from this research proposal, hopefully then I will be able to put my points across more effectively and clearly. How to write a research proposal will benefit me in future lessons in my life. Due to the experience that I have gained while preparing this proposal I will be able to give good examples about the topics that I will be preparing a proposal for in my future academic life. I will also be able to give and create a better arguments and counter-arguments in my future research proposal.

To do my dissertation I have to stay focus on my chosen topic in order to complete it by using different skills that I have learned from this research proposal.

According to the Home Office findings, Rape is defined as ‘forced to have sexual intercourse (Vaginal or anal penetration)’. The legal definition stipulates it to be ‘penile’. In general terms, rape is an act of aggression and violence against another; it is not an act of sex but is one of specifically dominance and power.

Key points of the findings of the Research, Development andStatistics directorate of the Home Office published in 2002 are listedbelow. 0.4% of women aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales said they hadbeen raped in the year preceding the 2000 BCS, an estimated 61,000victims. 0.9% of women said they had been subject to some form ofsexual victimization (including rape) in this period. Around 1 in 20women (4.9%) said they had been raped since age 16, an estimated 754,000 victims. About 1 in 10 women (9.7%) said they had experiencedsome form of sexual victimisation (including rape) since age 16.

Age is the biggest risk factor for experiencing sexual victimisation; women aged 16 to 24 were more likely to say they had been sexually victimised in the last year than older women. Women are most likely tobe sexually attacked by men they know in some way, most often partners(32%) or acquaintances (22%). Current partners (at the time of theattack) were responsible for 45% of rapes reported to the survey.Strangers were responsible for only 8% of rapes reported to the survey.18% of incidents of sexual victimisation reported to the survey came to the attention of the police; the police came to know about 20% of rapes. 32% of women who reported rape were ‘very satisfied’ with theway the police handled the matter, 22% were very dissatisfied. Lessthan two-thirds (60%) of female rape victims were prepared toself-classify their experience as ‘rape’ and less than three-quarters(70%) of women who self-classified themselves as having been victims of ‘attempted rape’.

Amnesty international reported that there were 14,000 recorded rapesin 2003 and 11,441 recorded rapes in 2002, representing a 8% increase.According to the Home Office, in the year ending March 2003, the totalnumber of sexual offences recorded by police in England & Wales was 48,654, a 17% rise over the previous year.

A victim of rape feels the “fight or flight” response that humans have built-in; which means that when the incident is over, one is leftwith a feeling of devastation, exhaustion, confusion, sadness, etc. The lingering psychological disorder is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The most effective therapeutic approach for long-term,severe PSTD appears to be talking treatment sessions with a clinicalpsychologist, in which the person is encouraged to talk through theirexperiences in detail. This may involve behavioural or cognitivetherapeutic approaches. Antidepressants may also be prescribed torelieve concurrent depression, a common feature in survivors, andenable the person to get the most out of any psychological treatment.Counselling may be helpful too in the early stages of recovery,particularly from counsellors experienced in the treatment of PTSD.

Before we go into detail on counselling for rape survivors, it is essential to take into account the effectiveness of counselling in general. According to the Department of Health (2001), Counselling hasbeen defined as “ a systematic process which gives individuals anopportunity to explore, discover and clarify ways of living moreresourcefully, with a greater sense of well-being ”. The use ofcounselling as a means of responding to people in distress and turmoilhas been increasing rapidly in recent years. This has generated adebate on the effectiveness of counselling process itself. The methodsof evaluation of effectiveness is also highly controversial. Theconcerns in the qualitative and quantitative evaluation is discussed indetail later.

Bondi summarises from her reports on controlled trials conducted inhealth care settings. They seem to indicate that counselling is aneffective intervention, clinically and economically. Its costs andbenefits are broadly comparable to those of antidepressant medication. Moreover, it seems to be a popular choice with many patients. Cautionis sometimes attached to the results of these trials. This may be dueto the fact that it only involves a small trial when compared to thelarge trial group of medication. Studies of counselling in othersettings indicate a high level of satisfaction among clients. Bondialso writes that there is good evidence to suggest that counselling hasa capacity to reduce demand on psychiatric services. This is becausecounselling prevents less serious problems from becoming more seriousand helps people to maintain reasonably good levels of mental health.

Choice of treatment of survivors of rape has been one of increasing significance within health care and also highlights the need toconsider factors other than clinical and cost-effectiveness.Counselling is not the only form of talking treatment available. Otherforms of talking treatment include psychotherapy, cognitive behaviourtherapy, self-help groups and support groups.

Counselling attaches a great significance to the autonomy of the victim and therefore it cannot be administered to the unwilling. The success of counselling, therefore, depends on active participation. For counsellingof rape victims, feelings caused by abuse may be quite overwhelming and difficult to deal with. The Department of Health (2001) has recommended counselling as one of the types of psychological therapy for depression, anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety and phobias andpost traumatic disorders. These problems can be mainly related tosurvivors of rape.

The National Center for Victims of Crime (2004) recommends that counselling can help cope with the physical and emotional reactions to the sexual assault or rape, as well as provide necessary information about medical and criminal justice system procedures.

According to the reports by the Brunel University (2005) on sexual abuse and rape, sharing experiences in a safe, understanding and confidential setting may help to manage their feelings by being heard and taken seriously. Counselling enables to make sense of the present, in relation to the past. Some survivors of sexual abuse maybe plagued by memories in the form of distressing flashbacks, mental images or nightmares. Talking about the images and memories while being heard and supported will often ease the problem. It may beeasier to share incidents and feelings with a professional counsellorconfidential, rather than a friend. Some people prefer to talk to ahelpline so they do not have to face the person they are disclosing to.

According to Bondi’s summary of her studies on the effectiveness ofcounselling that sceptics often voice doubts of counselling because itappears to involve nothing other than one (or two people) “chatting” toa counsellor. However, in spite of these doubts, communication takesplace when counselling is effected, whereby a special kind ofrelationship is developed between the counsellor and the victim. Bondiattributes this to the fact that human beings are social creaturescapable of connecting with others. It is worth to note that allapproaches to counselling share a commitment to apply insights andunderstandings about the importance of these connections to offertherapeutically effective relationships.

Impacts of counselling on rape survivors often depends on the development of a helpful working relationship between the counsellor and survivor. According to the STAR findings, some women feel nervous and unenthusiastic about seeing a counsellor. Therefore, it is essential that they feel relaxed and comfortable to be able to talk freely. Setting up of a pace comfortable for the victim is important as it recognises the interlinked nature of people’s lives (Skinner andTaylor, Home Office report 51/04).

According to Bernes (2005), effective counselling leading to a good counsellor-victim relationship follows the following dynamics. They are an emotionally charged, confiding relationship between the patient and therapist; warmth, support and attention from the therapist in a healing setting; a positive therapeutic alliance between patient and therapist; a new rationale or conceptual scheme offered with confidence by the therapist; the passage of time; installation of hope and expectancy and finally techniques consistent with patient expectation and efficacy.

Common process strategies in counselling include gathering sufficient information, listening well and with understanding, helping the individual reflect and gain insight, helping in decision-making and goal setting, and providing options and ideas for client consideration (Korhonen). According to the Home Office reports on the STAR scheme, the data collected from the survey did not give any indications that anyone counselling technique works better than another. Methods likedrawing or making lists of feelings, events, concerns and workingthrough them were found to be effective by some rape survivors. Some found making plans for the future, for example, symbolic moves such aschanging the decor of the room seemed to indicate a new phase in their lives.

Others indicated that a flexible integrated approach with respect, a respectful politeness, support and even the smiling face of the counsellors seemedto have helped them. The need for administering couna respectful, supportive and caring environment is also essential. Also, them cope development of a programme of work that enabled them to look at themselves in a logical, positive and respective manner athem cope with their emotions and move forward at their own pace is essential.

The university of Dundee has introduced a computer counsellingtechnique called ‘ENHANCE’ for rape victims. Often, women who have been raped find it hard to talk about their feelings and research evidence shows that in sensitive and potentially embarrassing areas of human functioning, some people may find it easier to talk openly to acomputer. ENHANCE, a computer based facility which includes a diaryfacility for free writing, a visualisation tool to describe feelingsand graphic manipulation and exploration, an information base to accessa range of supportive information, leaflets and contacts and the optionof what to destroy or save it for later reference. Further work is being done to develop ENHANCE and the researchers feel that their workcan be transferred to other agencies in future. Furthermore, it is inan early stage to be assessed for effectiveness. Computer counselling is, therefore, new and brings to attention to the fact there is very few online support available for rape survivors. This can be a good sourceof data for qualitative research as it reduces some of its ethical risks which are discussed in detail later.

It is very difficult to assess the effectiveness of counselling forrape survivors as due to the dilemmas in relation to the ethicalpractises of counselling, training and qualifications of counsellors and the evaluation of counselling and little published information.Counselling services are offered in a wide range of settings, which influences the kind of outcomes (Bondi). Bondi, in her review ofdifferent counselling orientations writes that similar effects may beusually reported. This is consistent with the argument that it is thequality of the therapeutic relationships offered by the counsellorswhich determine the effectiveness of counselling.

Effectiveness of rape counselling can be studied by either qualitativeor quantitative research. McLeod (2000) reports from his paperpresented at the 8th Annual International Counselling, University of Durham that counselling in Britain at the beginning of the twenty-first century does not have a clear vision of the role of research. It is worth mentioning that very few studies have focussed on research methods to measure effectiveness of counselling for rape victims. McLeod also reports that, in general, published studies of counsellingand therapy in dominated by quantitative research like up to 95%. Ingeneral, cultural assumptions are concerned with the development ofmethods that are valid and reliable. Quantitative research reduceshuman experience and action to variables. Hypothesis are framed interms of the relationships between these variables, which can often beinterpreted a rational voice allowing no expression of feeling orpersonal experience (McLoad, 2000). There has been no reports relating to quantitative research on counselling for rape.

Qualitative research has been used lately in the health care settingsand voluntary organisation for rape survivors. Qualitative research refers to research conducted in an interpretive or critical tradition. Research conducted in this tradition generally includes ethnographies, naturalistic observation or intensive interviewing studies, and usessome type of content analysis of words or texts to generate themes, which summarize the results of the study. The goals of qualitative research are not usually to generalize from the findings to some largertruth, but rather to explore or generate truths for the particular sample of individuals studied or to generate new theories. There is often an emphasis in qualitative research on perception or livedexperience.
There are quite a few ethical concerns in qualitative research of assessing the effectiveness of counselling of rape victims. Knapik (2002)in his paper summarises the ethical concerns of qualitative researchwhich mainly revolve around an assessment of benefit versus harm,confidentiality, duality of roles, and informed consent It is oftenassumed that qualitative data does not involve physical manipulation orintrusive procedures on victims. But it can pose certain risks to the victims.

Moleski and Kiselica (2005) highlight the dangers of a dual or multiplerelationships between the counsellor and victim. During research involving in-depth interviews or focus group discussions on such asensitive as rape, the researcher (generally a counsellor, but called aresearcher in this context as the data collected is for the purposes of qualitative research) develops a relationship of trust with the victim. The relationship may be misinterpreted by the participant as atherapist-client relationship. The data may be interpreted in waysunflattering or damaging to participants. It is therefore important toassess the harms and benefits in dealing with real clients.
Secondly, risks to individuals participating in qualitative researchmay often not be anticipated. This is because the method and researchquestions are always evolving and changing from the various organisation’s approach to the case. These risks should be made clearto the participants from the beginning and also during the course ofthe experiment.

Thirdly and most importantly, qualitative research always generatesquestions on the ability to protect confidential information. Usually, names and personal data are excluded from published results, but quotations, cues from the publications can always identify theparticipant to those familiar with the research. Reasons for this maybe because of the nature of sensitivity of the rape abuse problem, trial groups always being small and trials being conducted in smallcommunity structures.

Reports were published by the Home Office on the ‘STAR young person project’ on assessing the counselling services offered to rape survivors. Young women primarily had a positive counselling experiencebut a small number reported some level of dissatisfaction. One of the reasons were the short sessions of counselling, as they could not continue working with their counsellors on a long term basis. This indicated the issue of assess to a restricted number of sessions. Another issue was the pace at which information is disclosed to thecounsellor, as a small percentage of the women disliked gettingstraight to the information or having to answer questions pertaining tothe incidents within a shorter period of contact between the victim andthe counsellor. This may be because a certain time span is needed toestablish a counsellor-victim relationship which varies from case tocase and depends on the severity of the case.

Another small percentage of the STAR participants felt that the counsellor was not equipped to work with areas of the case and thatthey were given unhelpful advise or irrelevant information or help in away which was not the one suited for the particular case. This throwslight on the training issues of counsellors, whether they are properly equipped for the job. Another percentage of the women, said that thecounsellor disapproved of them being late or related issues whichindicate an over-protective or over-controlling issue which can causenegative impacts on the counselling experience. The findings indicatethe need for a more flexible approach during counselling experiences, longer-term counselling and support by the counsellor, proper trainingfor counsellors and more research into counselling methods and theirevaluation.

According to the findings of the British Crime Survey (2002), it isdifficult to assess the level of support for victims of rape due to the small number of victims in year 2001. Also, the British Crime Survey(2002) reports that support services are under-funded, relative tosupport services dedicated to victims of domestic violence. In UK, therapy services for rape survivors are available from charity andlistening services, health services provided by the universities forstudents, NHS and few religious movements. In the NHS, there areusually long waiting lists sometimes up to a year for patients toaccess counsellor services. In voluntary and charity services there maynot always be round-the clock assistance for rape survivors. Telephone access is restricted to certain times of the day.

Findings of research on women rape victims are available in a varietyof forms and from a variety of places. Professional journals such as Violence Against Women, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Aggression & Violence Behavior, Violence & Victims, and the Journal of Family Violence include research conducted by psychologists, social workers, sociologists, advocates, and others. In addition to professional journals, findings of research are presented at domesticviolence conferences, described in the popular press, found on websites devoted to ending violence against women, and are available aspublications from government agencies like the Home Office, UK orprivate research organizations (various voluntary organisation’swebsites).

Research reports published in scientific journals are subject to peer-review. Research published in scientific journals thus gives thereader some confidence in the scientific credibility of the researchfindings. Scientific credibility, however, does not necessarily meanthat the findings represent “the truth”. Research released directlyfrom an organization sponsoring the research does not usually gothrough the peer review process. So there is a real need for independent qualitative research into the counselling services for rape victims in the UK. The UK Home Office should actively engage inindependent evaluation of counselling services for rape victims.

The STAR project recommendations the following for future research. There is need for piloting and evaluating peer support systems. New research projects into contexts and circumstances of rape is requiredto throw new light on the academic and practitioner’s knowledge. More research is needed into the needs of victims from internet supportservices while reviewing the current internet support service toprovide guidelines for practise. More creative approaches in regards toservices for survivors were also required.

It is also recommended that counsellors be given appropriate training to improve the services to rape survivors. According to Bernes (2005), there are five critical components forbecoming an effective counsellor. The counsellor should have aprofound, genuine and early draw to the field, a profound and genuinefascination to try to understand human nature, cognitive ability, arigorous and quality academic program and major field exposure.

There is therefore a genuine need for efforts to be focussed in creating effective counsellors to deal with rape victims. More funding to develop therapy services is required. There is a need to establish infrastructure towards organisations involved in treatmentand care of victims. Further research into the effective processes ofvarious approaches of counselling is recommended. Detailed research isneeded into the qualitative analysis of effectiveness of thecounselling processes. Also, independent qualitative analysis in victimsupport is needed to verify the results. In general, in the UK, counselling for rape survivors have still a long way to go.

The Role and Applicability of Counselling in Social Work PracticeIntroduction and Overview

Social work originated as a community help measure in the 19^th century and has since then become an organised discipline that aims to support and empower those who suffer from social unfairness. Apart from helping the disadvantaged to live with dignity, social work aims at achieving social inclusion and has been found to be effective in correcting disparities and in helping individuals to overcome impediments that arise from different aspects of life; apart from those that require knowledge of the physical and medical sciences. Social work practice has, over the years, become integral to Britain’s working life and current estimates put the number of active social workers in the country at significantly more than one million. (Parrott, 2002)

Whilst social workers can be called upon to assist all sections of the community, the majority of their assignments concern helping individuals in stressful situations and those experiencing difficulties with issues that relate to emotions, relationships, unemployment, work, disabilities, discrimination, substance abuse, finances, housing, domestic violence, poverty, and social exclusion. Such a range of applications has necessitated the development of (a) a variety of skills and techniques, (b) methods to transfer these skills to social workers, and (c) procedures for the delivery of social work in a variety of settings, which include schools and colleges, households, hospitals, prisons and secured homes, and training and community centres. (Parton, 1996)

Social work practice focuses on dealing with the problems of service users. The maintenance and improvement of their social, physical, and mental states is often dependent upon the effectiveness of social work intervention. (Miller, 2005) Users of social work services are largely economically and/or socially disadvantaged, and the vulnerabilities, which arise from these circumstances, frequently contribute to the nature of their relationships with service providers. (Miller, 2005) Social work makes use of a broad range of knowledge and incorporates information obtained from several disciplines; it empowers social workers in practice to use their acquired knowledge and skills first to engage service users and then to bring about positive changes in undesirable emotional states and behavioural attitudes, or in positions of social disempowerment. (Miller, 2005)

Counselling forms one of the main planks of social work practice and constitutes the chief mode through which social workers directly engage service users; it is considered to be the public face of the activity and is an integrative course of action between a service user, who is vulnerable and who needs support, and a counsellor who is trained and educated to give this help. Face to face and 121 interactions between social workers and service users take place mostly through counselling activities. Apart from the directly beneficial effect that occurs through counselling, much of the social work approach that needs to be adopted in specific cases for other interventionist activity is decided on the basis of feedback provided by counsellors. This assignment aims to study and analyse the importance of counselling in social work practice.

Commentary and Analysis

Social work practice, in the UK, has evolved along with the development of the profession, and with the progression of social policy, ever since the first social workers were trained at the London School of Economics, at the beginning of the 20^th century. (Parton, 1996) Whilst social policy, formulated at the level of policy makers, defines the broad routes taken to alleviate social inequalities, the actual delivery of social work occurs through social work practice, an activity carried out by thousands of social workers all over the United Kingdom. (Harris, 2002) Social work makes use of a range of skills, methods, and actions that are aligned to its holistic concentration on individuals and their environments. (Harris, 2002) Social work interventions vary from person-focused psychosocial processes that are focused on individuals, to participation in social policy, planning and development. (Harris, 2002) These interventions include counselling, clinical social work, group work, social academic work, and family treatment and psychotherapy, as well as efforts to assist people in accessing services and resources within the community. (Harris, 2002) Social workers, in their everyday activity, need to assume multiple roles that aim to balance empowerment and emancipation with protection and support. (Harris, 2002) Balancing this dilemma is often a difficult process; it depends upon the needs of service users and requires social workers to assume more than one role. (Harris, 2002) These roles, whilst being versatile and flexible, broadly consist of seven broad categories, namely those of planners, assessors, evaluators, supporters, advocates, managers, and counsellors. (Harris, 2002)

Whilst social work practice is spread over these broad functions, this assignment aims to examine and analyse the significance and application of counselling in social work, especially with reference to (a) the complexities involved in its practice, (b) combating oppression and discrimination, and (c) from the viewpoint of service users.

Counselling, whilst being a catch-all term, used for describing of various professions, is, an important component of social work practice. (Rowland, 1993) It is a developmental process in which one individual (the social work counsellor) provides to another individual or group (the client), guidance and encouragement, as well as challenge and inspiration, in creatively managing and resolving practical, personal and relationship issues, in achieving goals, and in self realisation. (Rowland, 1993) Whilst the relationship of social work with poverty and deprivation necessitates that most counselling activities relate to such issues, counselling has now become an active and interventionist method to achieve change in social situations and empower people to improve the quality of heir lives. (Rowland, 1993) The activity depends upon client-counsellor relationships and includes a range of theoretical approaches, skills and modes of practice. The British Association for Counselling defined the activity thus in 1991:

“Counselling is the skilled and principled use of relationships to develop self knowledge, emotional acceptance and growth, and personal resources. The overall aim is to live more fully and satisfyingly. Counselling may be concerned with addressing and resolving specific problems, making decisions, coping with crisis, working through feelings or inner conflict or improving relationships with others. The counsellor’s role is to facilitate the client’s work in ways that respect the client’s values, personal resources and capacity for self determination.” (Rowland, 1993, p 18)

Part of the confusion regarding the actual nature of counselling activity stems from the fact that the phenomenon is of recent origin and is becoming increasingly popular both as a widely sought service and as a professional career. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999) Whilst social researchers have floated a number of theories to explain the growth in counselling in social work, most experts ascribe its increasing usage to the diminishing impact of religion, the breaking and scattering of family life, and the removal of previously existing family and community social structures. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999) Priests have ceased to become confidantes and advisors; New modes of disempowerment have also led to the creation of a vast range of emotional and physical stresses with adverse effects on the psycho-emotional states of numerous people and their consequent need for counselling. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999)

Counselling has its origins, both in the past, and as an up-and-coming discipline, in various professions. It fills the intermediate gap between psychotherapy and amity, and thus becomes a particularly useful tool for intervening and touching upon the private, societal, professional, medical, and educational aspects of people. (Rowland, 1993) Whilst it grew organically, its effectiveness in diminishing distress led to its progressive assimilation in social work practice. Again the idea of the social worker as a person, who works with or counsels persons, has been a persistent concept in social work all through its emergence. (Pease & Fook, 1999) Counselling has also been connected with some of the critical principles of social work, particularly with regard to recognising the innate value of the individual and respecting the human being. (Pease & Fook, 1999) Counselling and casework also find favour with those who look at social work, in its entirety, as a process where different components work synergistically with each other in helping and supporting individuals. (Pease & Fook, 1999) Also inherent in the role of the social worker, as a counsellor, is the idea that change will be involved in the behaviour or outlook of the service user. It is in fact the diminution on the role of counselling role, which has been one of the major apprehensions regarding provision of social work through services. (Pease & Fook, 1999)

Counselling, in its basic form, involves the meeting of a counsellor and a service user in a private and confidential setting to investigate the emotional and mental difficulties, and distress, the service user may be having because of varying person-specific reasons. (Rowland, 1993) Counselling, as is evident from its increasing usage, has been found to be of great help in a variety of situations; in treating people with mental problems of varying severity; in helping those suffering from trauma, anxiety or depression; and in aiding people with emotional or decision making issues. (Rowland, 1993) Whilst it has been found to be applicable across different locales, for example, in schools and colleges, disturbed domestic settings, and in workplaces, it has also proved to be effective in helping people afflicted with serious illnesses like cancer and aids, victims of road and industrial accidents, and people in various stages of rehabilitation. (Coney & Jenkins, 1993)

Counsellors meet the requirements of people who experience traumatic or sudden interruptions to their life development and to their social roles. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999) Prominent among these counselling functions are those in areas of marital breakdown, rape and bereavement. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999) The work of the counsellors in such cases can be clearly seen to arise from social problems, namely from shifting social perceptions of marriage, reassessments of male and female roles, and new patterns of marriage and family life. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999) Counselling provides a route to helping individuals to negotiate this changing social landscape. Counselling has also been found to be helpful in the area of addictions. Specific counselling approaches have been developed to assist people with problems related to substance abuse, gluttony and for giving up smoking. (Pease & Fook, 1999) In some areas of counselling, which deal with addiction, for example, with users of hard drugs, counsellors engaged in social work practice, function side by side, with sets of legal restrictions and moral issues. (Pease & Fook, 1999) The possession and use of cocaine, for example, is not just viewed to be morally incorrect but also a criminal activity. (Pease & Fook, 1999) “The counsellor working with a heroin addict, therefore, is not merely exploring ‘ways of living more satisfyingly and resourcefully’ but is also mediating between competing social definitions of what an acceptable ‘way of living’ entails.” (Pease & Fook, 1999, p72) Some of the different objectives counsellors try to achieve in their dealing with service users relate to (a) providing them with an understanding of the origins of emotional difficulties, (b) enabling them to build meaningful relationships with other people, (c) allowing them to become more aware of blocked thoughts and feelings, (d) enabling them to develop a more positive attitude towards their own selves, (e) encouraging them to move towards more fulfilment of their potential and (f) helping them in solving particular problems. (Pease & Fook, 1999)

The following example provides an instance of how counselling helps individuals to overcome serious personal traumas.

“Paula had been driving her car. Her friend, Marian, was a passenger. Without any warning they were hit by another vehicle, the car spun down the road, and Paula thought ‘this is it’. Following this frightening event, Paula experienced intense flashbacks to the incident. She had nightmares which disturbed her sleep. She became irritable and hyper vigilant, always on the alert. She became increasingly detached from her family and friends, and stopped using her car. Paula worked hard at trying to forget the accident, but without success. When she went to see a counsellor, Paula was given some questionnaires to fill in, and he gave her a homework sheet that asked her to write about the incident for ten minutes each day at a fixed time. In the next counselling session, she was asked to dictate an account of the event into a tape recorder, speaking in the first person as if it was happening now. She was told to play the trauma tape over and over again, at home, until she got bored with it. In session 3, the counsellor suggested a way of dealing with her bad dreams, by turning the accident into an imaginary game between two cartoon characters. In session 4 she was invited to remember her positive, pre-accident memories. She was given advice on starting to drive her car again, beginning with a short five-minute drive, and then gradually increasing the time behind the wheel. Throughout all this, her counsellor listened carefully to what she had to say, treated her with great respect and was very positive about her prospects for improvement. After nine sessions her symptoms of post-traumatic stress had almost entirely disappeared, and she was able to live her life as before.” (Starkey, 2000, p37)

Counsellors need to keep in mind that socialisation leads to the development of perspectives on issues like race and gender. (Moore, 2003) Many of these perspectives are assimilated to such an extent that people have little control over them and are bound to impact the working of counsellors if not understood, isolated and overcome. (Moore, 2003) “In an anti-oppressive framework, these views are broken into six main lenses; racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism, and class oppression.” (Moore, 2003) People are regularly excluded on account of their colour, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, age, and class. (Moore, 2003) Most of these factors do not occur in isolation and thus lead to multi-oppression, for example an aged female from a minority background could face oppression because of three factors, the whole of which becomes stronger than the sum of individual components. Oppressive perspectives occur through a common origin, namely economic power and control, and employ common methods of limiting, controlling, and destroying lives.

The PCS model developed by Thompson, in 2001, argues, in similar vein that inequalities, prejudice and discrimination operate at three levels, Personal, Cultural, and Structural, and by constantly strengthening each other, create powerful mental biases and prejudices against members of out-groups, people who are disadvantaged by way of colour, race, ethnicity, religion and language. Individual views, at the personal level, interact with shared cultural, historical and traditional beliefs to create powerful prejudices. (Thompson, 2001) Dominant groups within society constantly reinforce their superiority by driving home the inferiority of other groups through a number of overt and covert methods. (Harris, 2002) Whilst movements that aim to dismantle such stereotypes are emerging slowly, the biggest conflict is still within. (Harris, 2002) Internalised oppression is the oppression that we impose on our own selves due to environmental pressures. (Harris, 2002) The oppression is internalised from the prevailing society’s message through various institutions like the media, existing religious infrastructure, and other forms of socialisation. (Harris, 2002) Examples of such oppressive practices are the pressure put on working mothers to run an efficient household, in addition to putting in a full day at the office, or expecting mothers who stay at home to work from dawn until late night. (Harris, 2002) These prejudices are further strengthened by structural discriminations that are created by social and governmental structures, (as evinced by diminished employment opportunities for people with histories of substance abuse or the refusal of landlords to rent houses to members of certain communities), and create a complex web of mutually reinforcing social processes. Counsellors are prone to be oppressive because of assimilated perspectives, stereotyping, and because they hold power over service users. It is imperative that they recognise these imbalances and work towards eliminating them in their work as well as in the promotion of change to redress the balance of power. Looking at social issues through the perspectives of service users is thus critical to counselling activity. Social workers often face ethical challenges in their dealing with service users. There are many instances in social work where simple answers are not available to resolve complex ethical issues. Clients, for example, can inform counsellors about their intention to commit suicide or inflict physical harm on their own selves, ask for reassuring physical contact in the nature of hugs, and confide about their intentions to harm others. (Langs, 1998) There is a strong possibility of sexual attraction developing between counsellor and service user. (Langs, 1998) Such situations can lead to the development of dichotomies between personal and professional ethics, and to extremely uncomfortable choices. (Langs, 1998)

Conclusion

Counselling is a complex and demanding activity that demands knowledge, experience and people skills, as well as compassion, empathy and understanding. Above all counselling activity, as an integral component of social work, requires commitment to social good. Counselling theories have evolved over the last half century; they have multiple origins, are complex in their formulation, and whilst having common features, need to be individually adapted to the needs of service users. Whilst it is not easy to grasp and apply these theories, their comprehensive understanding and application are essential to the effectiveness of counselling work. Counsellors, by virtue of the nature of their work and their power in counsellor-service user relationships exercise enormous influence over the decisions of service users.

The diversity and heterogeneity of counselling reflects the sensitivity of counselling to the enormous variations in human experience. Whilst understanding of theory helps in discharging of responsibilities, counsellors are also limited by assimilated perspectives on oppression, career and money demands, and their own emotions. Their responsibilities are manifold, and include duties towards service users, towards the profession, and towards the wider community. Apart from being challenging, satisfying and rewarding, counselling also provides the opportunity to make profound differences to the lives of other human beings.

References

Bond, T, 2000, Standards and Ethics for Counselling in Action, Sage Publications Ltd. London

Corney, R. & Jenkins, R, (Eds.), 1993, Counselling in General Practice. London: Routledge

Counselling saves British business millions every year, 2003, British Association for Counselling and Therapy, Retrieved December 3, 2007 from www.instituteofwelfare.co.uk/downloads/welfare_world_24_full.pdf

Dryden, W, 2006, Counselling in a nutshell, Sage Publications Ltd. London

Dryden, W., & Mytton, J, 1999, Four Approaches to Counselling and Psychotherapy, London: Routledge

Feltham, C, 1995, What Is Counselling? The Promise and Problem of the Talking Therapies, Sage Publications Ltd. London

Harrow, J, 2001, Working Models: theories of counselling, Retrieved December 3, 2007 from http://www.draknet.com/proteus/models.htm

Harris, J, 2002, The Social Work Business /. London: Routledge

Hornby, G., Hall, C., & Hall, E. (Eds.), 2003, Counselling Pupils in Schools: Skills and Strategies for Teachers, London: RoutledgeFalmer

Langs, R, 1998, Ground Rules in Psychotherapy and Counselling. London: Karnac Books

Miller, L, 2005, Counselling Skills for Social Work, Sage Publications Ltd. London

Moore, P, 2003, Critical components of an anti-oppressive framework, The International Child and Youth Care Framework, Retrieved December 3, 2007 from www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-1203-moore.html

Nelson-Jones, R, 2000, Six key approaches to counselling and therapy, Sage Publications Ltd. London

Noonan, E, 1983, Counselling Young People. London: Tavistock Routledge

Now You’re Talking; Counselling Has Become a Big Business Employing Thousands. but Is It a Job for You? Bonnie Estridge Talks It through London Jobs/Opportunities, 2004, October 14, The Evening Standard (London, England), p. 61

Parrott, L, 2002, Social Work and Social Care, London: Routledge

Parton, N. (Ed.), 1996, Social Theory, Social Change and Social Work, London: Routledge

Pease, B. & Fook, J. (Eds.), 1999, Transforming Social Work Practice: Postmodern Critical Perspectives. London: Routledge

Retail Therapy: Beauty So Tell Me, What’s the Problem? Laura Davis Investigates the Growing Trend for Counselling, 2004, October 28, Daily Post (Liverpool, England), p. 8

Rowland, N, 1993, Chapter 3 What is Counselling? In Counselling in General Practice, Corney, R. & Jenkins, R. (Eds.) (pp. 17-30) London: Routledge

Shardlow, S. (Ed.), 1989, The Values of Change in Social Work. London: Tavistock/Routledge

Starkey, P, 2000, Families and Social Workers : The Work of Family Service Units, 1940-1985 /. Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press

Thompson, N (2001) Anti-Discriminatory Practice, Third Edition, London: Palgrave

Urofsky, R. I., & Engels, D. W, 2003, Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, and Counselling Ethics: Not an Abstraction. Counselling and Values, 47(2), 118+

COUNSELING EDUCATION FROM UPPER PRIMARY TO TERTIARY LEVEL OF EDUCATION: IN QUEST OF CONTROLLING SOCIAL ILLS AMONG STUDENTS (Kiambu County)

TABLE OF CONTENTS (JUMP TO)

Abstract

Background Information

Aim of the Research

Literature Review

Methodology

Ethical Issues

Data Dissemination

Timetable

Budget

References

Abstract

Case of drug abuse and early pregnancy in teenage girls has been on the rise. As a result; many girls are dropping out of school and young men indulging into crime due to addiction to drugs. You find that most of the time spend by young kids is spent in institutions of learning and therefore the need to invest a lot into this age bracket (9- 18 years). It is around this age that this children question things, seek to identify themselves with something or someone, there is also growth in reproductive health (E. Njagi, 2009). They are also very eager to try almost everything. A two to three hours session fortnightly would have less impact to their live. Instead, if it is incorporated into the curriculum; it would influence behaviors positively. The future of a republic is vested in this age. Hence, no one should ever neglect these children. Inclusion of guidance and counseling in curriculum would compel students towards embracing a culture of responsible behavior. This research proposal will therefore, seek to gather information so as to establish the way forward in advising making of policies in the education sector. This will be through action research

Background Information

Survey reports presents millions of young men and women indulging into socially unaccepted activities. This even with having departments in the government working towards ensuring that, the society is “clean”. It is evident that we might not get rid of drugs and substance abuse, crime and teenage pregnancy. But most ultimately we can work towards reducing the numbers. Whether one is rich or poor, if they are not informed about some things; they might fall victims. Even though my research is based in Kiambu County, it would go a long way in advising the government on policy making in the education sector.

We can immunize the degree of social ills if only we take responsibility. And one is by ensuring that guidance and counseling is included in the curriculum of upper primary, secondary and first year of tertiary learning.

It is alarming that according to F. Chesang (2013, pg 126), Up to 30 to 40% in class seven, eight and form one have taken drugs at one time or another. Drugs abused are available next to every family’s door. They are available next to every family’s door. They are available everywhere anytime, in kiosks, bars, social gatherings and over the counter. They are available in every street corner, sold by the street people and other specialised gangs. So, as investors and entrepreneurs mushroom everywhere around the society. The government should also advance their scope of protecting the promising population from manipulation and enticement into venturing into drugs and other social ills. It important that we establish ways to ensure that, a population is healthy. A healthy population is a productive population.

Aim of the Research

The aim of this research is to establish problems encountered by students, and they have no possible way of overcoming them. This problems include peer pressure, domestic violence etc. which as a result if there is no mechanism to counter the force; they might end up in drugs, drop out of school, engage in pre marital sex, venture into crime, abortion etc

This research would also help unravel social ills that might have been neglected, as a result leading to confusion of identity among young population. With confusion; there is likelihood of engaging into socially unaccepted practices.

There has been less contact at the learning institutions; in this case, as far as guidance and counseling is concerned. As result, the growing and curious students end up picking on bad behaviors due to lack of information.

It will endeavor to help the government come up with structure and strategies to ensure total protection of the juvenile as enshrined in the de facto constitution of the republic of Kenya. It is protection from anything that might challenge their academic and skills development focus.

This research will also seek to establish the prevalence of the drugs and knowledge about them

Literature Review

Many scholars and scientists have been able to identify many types of social ills and researchers disseminating diverse findings and statistic about them. One challenge that come about is the fact that schools have guidance and counseling departments but they are rarely up to task. Character and knowledge might be gotten from homes (J. Drescher, 1973) but institutions have got more to do in building character of its students. We can be proud of schools but, according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2012) there was an increase in number of reported offences from 9,929 cases (2009) to 10,016 (2011), in Central Province which is actually the highest compared to other provinces. Citizen Television last year featured, young men in Dandora as young as 14 years, having guns and actually already being in criminal activities

The age mentioned in my research is very critical. It holds the future of a republic. They are adventurous and therefore, they need to be monitored. The curriculum that exists is okey for children development, but it would be appropriate to have formalized guidance and counseling at all levels of child development (J. Greata, 2006).

R. Maithya (2009) says that Families can have a powerful influence on shaping the attitudes, values and behaviour of children. During socialization, parents and family members direct young peopleaˆYs conduct along desired channels, and enforce conformity to social norms. In traditional African society, socialization began with the birth of a child and progressed in stages to old age, building on preceding socially recognized achievements. Again, there are several levels of socialization apart from family, it includes, peers and school is also very important in socialization. It is the reason why there is needs to have guidance and counseling incorporated in the curriculum. It will only help create a culture of responsible acts.

It is important to note that we cannot isolate kids from their peers hence, the need to come up with ways to help them relate effectively without negative influence, from the age of 8, students detach themselves from their parents in need of some sort of independence, their employ logic in reasoning and experience improved understanding of concepts. It is where friends matters most and hence, kids can be easily manipulated by morally corrupt peers (J. Greata, 2006). As soon as students join secondary school.

They are at a greater risk of indulging into drug abuse and making it an obsession. All this happens in quest of recognition and seeking to conform to codes of a certain group. It could be through coercion, protection from bullies or extension of a habit that started in the final years of primary education.

With all this challenges, it is important to note that the young population contributes 50% of the total population (G. Ondieki, Z. Ondieki, 2012). According to Ndirangu (2004), traditional values and family patterns, which had, for long given the society coherence, sense of belonging and identity have been assaulted and in some cases, discarded altogether in our shrinking ‘global village'(cited in G. Ondieki and Z. Ondieki, 2014 pg 467) access to media content that would be violent or even explicit, exposure to western culture among other factors influence the lens they view the world with. The only placed to channel most resources is where this kids spend much of their time.

G. Ondieki and Z. Ondieki, 2012 also mention that, Kenya is committed to providing education for every child not just for human rights but also as a necessary element for social-economic development. Consequently drug use and abuse is therefore identified as one of the problems that hinder children from taking full advantage of educational opportunities. We can therefore understand the intensity at which lack of structured guidance and counseling affect the nation. It only by understands the fragility of teenagers that we can be able to embark on a lasting solution toward eradicating drug usage in Kenya; but by also putting up structures that will help save this generation.

Y. Ronen (2004, pg148) captures a very crucial point in the importance of allowing children to self actualize themselves in their identity, allowing them to explore. But again, it is the responsibility of the parents to ensure that they monitor their children while at home while the mandate shift while kids are in the institutions of learning.

Methodology

While in the field, I will employ diverse action research approach method. This is because; my endeavor will be coming up with qualitative data. Since I will be dealing with students, staffs, government officials and school drop outs, I will ensure maximum use of focus group discussion, and interviews where necessary (especially when dealing with staffs and government officials).

After each day activity in the field, in the evening we will be working on data interpretation and analysis. So, as not to leave out some data that might be of importance to our findings

This will also allow for informal discussion on topic defined by the researcher

Ethical Issues

As researchers there are different people to whom I pay my allegiance to. In this case, my respondents/interviewees are the ones that should show loyalty and integrity. Since they are vulnerable, while working with focus groups, I will ensure that there is total immunity from their identity being known to the recipients of my finding. So,

I will give name letters or numbers for the sake of their security.
While doing research, I will allow them to bombard me with information so that I can have a lot to withdraw data from.

The names will neither be known by readers of my work or policy makers if they take up the findings.

Any data surrendered to me will remain private and confidential.

Data Dissemination

As soon as I complete my research; I will focus on attending to seminars involving education sector and the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA). I also plan to submit my work to a legitimate publisher to be printed as books. Policy briefs will further my dissemination of my findings; especially meeting with policy makers on topical occasions. I also plan to send my work to journal publishers so that scholars can access and use it for their scholarly work.

One Month Timetable For the Field Work

WEEK

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

DAY

MONDAY

SCHOOL1

SCHOOL6

SCHOOL11

SCHOOL16

TUESDAY

SCHOOL2

SCHOOL7

SCHOOL12

SCHOOL17

WEDNESDAY

SCHOOL3

SCHOOL8

SCHOOL13

SCHOOL18

THURSDAY

SCHOOL4

SCHOOL9

SCHOOL14

SCHOOL19

FRIDAY

SCHOOL 5

SCHOOL10

SCHOOL15

SCHOOL20

BUDGET FOR THE EXECETION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

(ONE MONTH)

ITEM

AMOUNT

TRANSPORT

Lunch

20schools

@5sch per week i.e 8primary and 12 secondary.

Participant in schools and researchers

50,000

160,000

ACCOMODATION

5 participant

60,000

STATIONERY

Recorder

Notebooks pen

One laptop

100,000

ALLOWANCES

Researchers

[email protected] 4,000per day

[email protected],500per day

280,000

MISCELLANEOUS

65000

TOTAL

715000

References

E. Njagi, 2009, Child Growth and Development II, Longhorn Publishers, Nairobi, Kenya

R. Chesang, 2013, Drug Abuse Among the Youths in Kenya, International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, Volume 2, Issue 6

J. Drescher, 1973, Seven Things Children Need, Herald Press, Pennsylvania, USA

J. Greata, 2006, An Introduction to Music In Early Childhood Education, Delmar Cengage Learning

R. Njoroge, G. Bennaars, Social Education and Ethics, Transafrica Press, Nairobi, Kenya

Y. Ronen, 2004, Redefining the Child Rights to Identify, International Journal of Law Policy and the Family 18 , page 147-177

G. Ondieki, Z. Ondieki,2012, The Preconditioning Factors of Drug Usage and Abuse Among Secondary Adolescents in Kiamokma Division, Kisii County, Journals of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies(Scholarlink Research Institute journals)

R. Maithya, 2009 Drug Abuse in Secondary Schools in Kenya: Developing a programme for Prevention and Intervention (Project Submitted in November, 2009 for Socio-Education). University of South Africa

N. Pelt, 2009, Train Up a Child, The Stanborough Press Limited.

SOCIAL WORK: Contribute to care of people in a residential setting

TASK 1: Explanation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its application in the social services

The Treaty of Waitangi is an agreement signed between the Maori and the Crown in the year 1840. It has four principles that are being applied in the social services of today, and these are: partnership, protection, participation and permission. These principles are applied when social workers work together with the whanau and the client in the decision-making with regards to the kind of care the client needs. It is also applied when client’s cultural rights are kept safe and allowing them to practice their traditions if pleased.

These principles are applied in contributing to the care of people in a residential setting based on these following examples:

1. PROTECTION – A Maori resident who wants to keep his traditions such as removing shoes upon entering his room must be observed by the staff to show their respect of his cultural rights.

2. PARTNERSHIP – Social worker, client and whanau could organize a hui to discuss about the best alternative education courses to arrange for a Maori child who has been admitted at a CYFs residential home due to criminal offense.

3. PARTICIPATION – Client and social worker may have a regular weekly meeting to discuss about the effectiveness of being admitted in a residential home for the client. Client can work together with the social worker to develop a plan on how the activities and programs in the facility could be helpful to him.

TASK 2: Manage admission to residential care

Context/Setting

Hoani Waititi Marae

Individual/Group

Age Group

Summary of reason for admission to residential care

R.W.

teenager

R.W. is a 15 year old Maori female who has been arrested and admitted to CYFS residential care due to failure to abide by her set curfew time. R.W. was first sent to youth court due to robbery. She was sentenced to 3 months community service, required to attend Maori alternative education and was set a curfew until 7pm. However, on their latest visit to court, her grandma raised an issue to the judge that R.W. has been coming home past her curfew time in more than a few times, and when asked where she has been, she just walks straight to her room and not answer the question. She was given a police warning, but on her third offense, the police came and picked her up and set her to the residential home.

(Task 2) Placement Diary – (Student to Complete)

Student Name

Hannah Marie N. Manlangit

Workplace

Hoani Waititi Marae

Meetings and Communication (related to admission process)

Date

Notes/key points of information provided to the residents

16 Sept 2014

Nature of the alternative care placement where the client will be admitted to.

17 Sept 2014

List of recreational activities and alternative education that will be provided to the client once admitted in the residential care.

Summary of information gained to determine individual placement needs in the residence

Cultural and spiritual practices – Client is a Maori and has close relations with her whanau

which should be considered in her residential home. She should be able to have an open

communication with her whanau when needed.

Health and dietary requirements – Client needs to do karakia before meals as part of her

culture.

Support people:
Friends and family – Open communication with whanau and friends.
Government and community agencies – Client’s social worker should still be involved in the assessment process during her stay in the residential home.
High risk assessment – harm, failure to abide by set rules or run away etc.
Hobbies, activities – Client loves music and enjoys playing the piano. This can be integrated in

Her care plan and alternative education.

Notes/key points of how you managed admission in accordance with your workplace standards/ requirements

Our placement’s standards and procedures primarily focus on considering the client’s safety and well-being. Firstly, informed consent is gained before the admission process is conducted. The resident is informed of all expectations and a meeting is organized so that both parties are agreeable that the placement is appropriate.

Once a definite plan has been made and the client has agreed to be admitted in the placement, residential rules and procedures are laid down to her before she starts his stay in the facility. She is also informed of the residence programmes and resources that could help her in getting back on the right track. Resident rights and responsibilities are also discussed, as well as grievances procedures, should she not abide by the policies and procedures of the facility.

Client is also assessed before admission to allow the residential facility to obtain important and relevant information from the client sufficient for the purpose of determining individual placement and needs within the residence.

Other notes/reflections on the admission process

Admission procedures are completed in accordance with service provider standards.
Agencies will have different procedures when admitting a new resident.
The way one agency admits a resident may be very different from another agency. They may have

different protocols and procedures.

TASK 3: Contribute to planning for residential care of the resident

(Task 3) Placement Diary – (Student to complete)

Student Name

Hannah Marie N. Manlangit

Workplace

Hoani Waititi Marae

Contributions to planning for care of the resident

Date

Notes/key points of any meetings or other communication, details of actions related to planning for the care of the resident

16 Sept 2014

Social worker arranges a whanau hui with the family members, the client, her support person and a representative of the residential care to discuss about their plan of action to support the client.

17 Sept 2014

All agreed upon plans during the meeting will be written down in a minute of the meeting and sent to all parties involved in the hui by email or by post.

What factors were relevant to the planning of residential care for the resident?

Objectives for admission to the residence
Integration of the individual into the residence
Outcomes of the admission assessment
Ethical practice
Keeping information confidential
Following legislation
Encouraging self-determination
Reviewing the plan
Followed SW profession’s code of ethics
Followed agency’s code of conduct
Observed cultural practice
Service provider standards
Follow Social Work profession’s code of ethics
Follow agency’s code of conduct
Observe cultural practices

What were the essential features of the resident’s residential care plan?

Matching of the resident’s needs with the services provided by the residence
Objectives of the plan
Resources that are available to achieve the objectives of the plan
A time frame that is consistent with the use of available resources
The roles and responsibilities of people in the plan
Methods of evaluating progress

Other notes/reflections on the admission process

Before an alternative placement happens, the appropriate parties may meet several times to discuss and share relevant information, issues and needs of the client for their safety and well-being.

Legislation
Gender
Residential Rules

TASK 4: Contribute to residential care of the resident

(Task 4) Placement Diary – (Student to complete)

Student Name

Hannah Marie N. Manlangit

Workplace

Hoani Waititi Marae

Contributions to care of resident

Date

Notes/key points of any meetings or other communication, details of actions related to care of the resident

16 Sept 2014

During the whanau hui, client’s interests and hobbies will be taken in consideration to help make the alternative care stay would be beneficial to the client.

17 Sept 2014

During the stay in the alternative care, client’s cultural rights will be practiced at all times.

Outline your role and the main responsibilities you have in the residential care plan

Ensuring the safety and well-being of the resident (and other residents) as their first consideration at all

times.

The social worker has fulfilled all their allocated responsibilities in accordance with the social worker’s

role in the residential care plan.

What contact was arranged for the resident to have with their family/whanau?

Ongoing contact of the resident with their whanau throughout the period of residence is facilitated in

accordance with the plan.

Telephone
Mail
Visiting
Planned joint meetings with residential staff

What are the supervision and custodial care requirements of the resident?

Supervision and custodial care of the resident is carried out according to the plan and residential requirements:

Physical and behavioural boundaries
Legislative requirements
Health and safety management
Behavioural management

How does the residential care plan encourage self-determination of the resident, and discourage dependency on you, other social workers and the social service provider?

Part of the role of facilitation is to encourage self-determination of parties to the plan. This means encouraging all parties to the plan to fulfil their identified roles, and to take ownership of these roles. Dependency on the social worker or social service provider needs to be discouraged.

Encouraging self-determination:

Outlined agency’s objectives and appropriate legislation, backing up agencies mandate/kaupapa.
Informing client and whanau of the parameters and scope of the meeting, and allowed them to

define the best options.

Work collaboratively with the family to find a middle ground where agency mandate and whanauchoices aren’t aligning.

Discouraging dependency on social services:

Give space so the whanau can define their own possible solutions
Where possible the agency steps aside, so the family can step up.

Other notes (Reflect on the decision making process)

Social worker could give the client and whanau assistance in the best way she could but at the same time, give them options to allow them to make a decision on what they think would best suit the client’s needs.

TASK 5: Contribute to evaluation of the residential care plan

(Task 5) Placement Diary – (Student to complete)

Student Name

Hannah Marie N. Manlangit

Workplace

Hoani Waititi Marae

Contributions to evaluation of residential care plan

Date

Notes/key points related to the evaluation of the residential care plan

16 Sept 2014

Schedule a regular monitoring of the client’s progress in the residential care, for example, have the social worker visit her weekly.

17 Sept 2014

Make a care plan for the client and refer to the care plan and her progress in the residential care.

How did you assist parties to identify progress in achieving the objectives of the residential care plan?

Throughout the implementation (and at the conclusion) of the alternative care plan, progress against plan objectives needs to be determined, and documented.
Keeping an open communication with the client and asking her about how she feels about being in the residential facility. If she is happy with her stay and if she thinks if it has been helpful to her.
Encourage the whanau of the client to keep their support and assistance with the client and keeping the connection between them intact throughout the whole process.

How did you assist the parties to evaluate the safety and well-being of the resident and other residents?

The monitoring of progress also needs to specifically include monitoring of progress in terms of the safety and well being of the individual who is the subject of the placement.
Keeping in touch with the facility staff and asking for their observation on the progress and improvement of the client.
Discussing with the whanau of the client on how they think their connection with the client improved during the whole process of alternative care.

What further options (if any) were identified following a review of the resident’s care plan?

When implementation of the plan is complete, the plan needs to be reviewed. In some cases the

review will result in further options being identified. The review may also determine some different outcomes in terms of achievement of objectives and these also need to be recorded in the plan.

Plans can be reviewed as necessary: either weekly, monthly, every three months depending on

clients’ circumstances.

How did you keep all communications confidential?

Communications were kept confidential by ensuring that whanau huis are held in closed rooms with only the people who are closely involved in the case are present. I also ensured that all documents concerning the client are kept in a secured place that are only accessible to the social workers working in the client’s case and are not left lying around for people to see.

Outline the legislation that was relevant to this resident/situation, and how it impacted on your contribution to the resident’s care.

The most important legisltation applied in this process was the Privacy Act. The client’s personal information was kept safe by the residential care placement. As students, we were asked to sign a confidentiality form to ensure that we will be liable in case of information being exposed to parties not involved in the process.
Human Rights were kept in place throughout the whole process by ensuring that client’s cultural, physical, mental and spiritual rights were kept in consideration at all times. As a Maori, their tikanga were kept intact at all times and whanau involvement was highly encouraged.

Other notes (Reflect on the decision making process)

The relationship between client and social worker does not end once client is placed in a residential care. Monitoring of client progress once released from residential care is also vital and important to ensure that client does not go back to her old ways. Especially for young clients, social worker must assist the client on activities and hobbies that will help her divert her attention and not go back to her old ways and lead the straight path.

TASK 6: Application of social service theory

In this particular case, the social work theory on Working with Particular Client Groups was taken into consideration because we were dealing with a teenager. A client at this age has different needs and interests as compared to an adult client. Social worker must ensure to gain the attention and trust of the client to ensure her cooperation in the process. Gender is also taken into account, since the client is a girl, the social worker gave her residential care options that are friendly to her needs and in where she will feel safe and secure. Cultural rights were also taken note of. Client is a Maori thus, she was referred to a Maori organization to protect her tikanga and let her know more about her whakapapa. During her youth hearing the judge encouraged her to recite her pipiha to remind her of her whanangataunga and to practice their te reo which was very helpful to the client as it also encouraged her to get connected with her cultural roots.

Hannah Marie N. Manlangit13160103

Continuous professional development (CPD) A case study to examine why we need to have set criteria as to what constitutes continuous professional development.

This paper sets out a proposal to establish the means by which certain hypotheses around Social Work CPD may be tested, through primary research. It does so substantively through a limited, ‘pilot’ survey of the views of Social Workers themselves, focusing on the value and nature of their own current – and previous – CPD experience. The latter were also invited to comment on proposals for alternative frameworks for SW CPD. The objective of this process was to evolve specific lines of enquiry and areas of interest for wider research. As recent research by Doel et al. argues, ‘At an individual level there is clear evidence that professional development is highly valued, and that participating in these opportunities is more likely to increase confidence, but not for everyone.’ (Doel et al., 2008: p.563) The question is, what kind of CPD is most valued by practitioners themselves, and who determines the types of development paths they follow? Does the element of choice determine the utility of particular CPD for individual practitioners? How far does the current atmosphere of assessment and ‘managerialism’ impinge upon self-determination in professional development?

The issue of self-determination is a theme from the secondary literature which is embedded in this research. As MacDonald et al. argue, ‘…social work as an activity can be understood as an integral part of the modernist project of governance developed and institutionalised in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries…’ (MacDonald et al., 2003: p.195). Whilst this can be readily accepted, it arguably masks the dynamic of client age which government maintained, not only over social work, but other professional groups. The latter were invariably involved in some form of campaign to exert leverage on official circles for recognition in institutional terms. ‘In Britain, social work looked directly to the state for its legitimization…Accordingly, the political opportunity provided by the publication of the Kilbrandon and Seebohm Reports was seized by proponents of the professional social work project, who campaigned for the implementation of the Reports, for example through the Seebohm Implementation Action Group.’ (MacDonald et al. 2003: p.198). As this suggests, Social Work was liable to be co-opted into the social projects of the state on a utilitarian basis, with reciprocal implications for the independence of the profession. As Jordan and Jordan point out, ‘In essence, social work is not a means of implementing policy formally and directly, but of mediating the local conflicts generated by new programmes, and engaging with service users over how to fit new measures to their needs.’ They further argue that, ‘It is a waste of its potential for these tasks to treat it as a crude instrument for the imposition of government rules or the quasi-scientific application of research findings.’ (Jordan and Jordan, 2000: p.10).

What are the implications of this tension for CPD in SW? Potentially considerable, it is argued here. The debate around Social Work education has become focused on whether …‘there has been the supplanting of education by training: the sequestering of discourses of depth by those of surface: the setting aside of knowledge for skills, and the general triumph…of ‘competencies’ over the complexities of abstraction.’ (Webb, 1996: p.186)

It follows from this that the definition of ‘useful’ CPD represents a continuation of such debates through other means: another area through which to contest who exactly defines what is relevant, or ‘best’ practice, in terms of developing solutions for practitioners and service users. How far, for example, do such resources merely reflect the ideas of Lisham, that official ideas about practice ‘…tend to be externally imposed and based more on the requirements of managerial control and less on the professional responsibility to evaluate practice and policy and thereby increase their effectiveness.’ (Lisham 1999: p.4). Subsumed within this is a more subliminal question, which is, where is the space in which SW practitioners can express their views or develop dialogues about professional issues? It would appear that we now have a situation where the parameters defined by the GSSC represent the only ‘legitimate’ channels for debate.

Methodology and Research Issues

In essence the research enquiry followed two themes, one evaluative, one predictive. Within both, it was intended to elicit views without any leading or rhetorical influence, although current conditions in public sector SW may make this difficult to achieve, as will be discussed below. The specific evaluative enquiry offered practitioners the opportunity to briefly assess their own level of satisfaction with their current and previous CPD. The specific predictive proposal made was that CPD be more focused, through the establishment of an agreed range of activities, designed to augment and enhance SW practice. The overall theme of this was to explore the idea that CPD could be more relevant to SW practice, in the perception of practitioners themselves.

This proposal acknowledges the necessity for inclusion of both positivist (quantitative) and phenomenological (qualitative) elements in the enquiry. These labels are arguably less important than the characteristics they represent however. These will explored in more detail below, but it is important here to identify the positivist paradigm as supposedly value-free, and the phenomenological as (in relative terms) value bearing. Obviously, these two model absolutes represent the research ideal, and should not, in any case, be assumed to correlate with the parallel categories of objectivity and subjectivity. Research paradigms in either category would arguably rely on objectivity for their integrity and utility. It is here that the design and operation of a particular model will attract the most stringent scrutiny, especially from its assessors or counter-theorists. Also, when ascribing the different paradigm labels to particular research strands and evidence, it is perhaps important to consider Collis and Hussey’s idea of an unavoidable symbiosis between the two. ‘Although we have identified two main paradigms, it is best to regard them as the two extremes of a continuum. As you move along the continuum, the features and assumptions of one paradigm are gradually relaxed and replaced by those of the other paradigm.’ (Collis and Hussey 2008: p.48). In other words, the quantitative and qualitative paradigms become less discrete and more difficult to distinguish, once the process of interpretation begins. Absolute objectivity is maintained with difficulty, even in the context of an exacting statistical survey: meanwhile purely qualitative work starts to move along the continuum, as soon as repetitive patterns are sought for collateral in phenomenological terms. Various interpretations are possible in any statistical model, whilst even the clearest qualitative conclusions are arguably subject to bias, as soon as a possible conclusion begins to frame subsequent enquiries. As Patton argues, ‘A paradigm of choices rejects methodological orthodoxy in favour of methodological appropriateness as the primary criterion for judging methodological quality.’ (Patton 1990: pp.38-39).

In terms of this study, the methodological issues are basically two-fold. In the first instance, we have a very small sample of data in proportion to the overall scale of what is potentially a national issue. The sample employed here was obtained from one area, and so is immediately vulnerable to the charge that it fails to analyse possible regional variations in both strategy and best practice. Although it reflects differentiated levels of satisfaction with the CPD process, it does not incorporate the views of those who might express – with varying objectivity – the most exacting critiques: i.e., those who have left the profession due to dissatisfaction with the career structure, or CPD possibilities. In the second instance, we have three discrete form of data to integrate, i.e. binary yes/no questionnaire responses, written answers, and more in-depth, qualitative interviews, as well as information from secondary sources. The necessary fusion of these sources in a cogent form inevitably becomes an editorial process, vulnerable to charges of subjectivity and bias. This is arguably what Ely refers to as the ‘teasing out’ what is considered the ‘essential meaning’ of the data obtained. (Ely, 1991,p.140). (Quoted in Wright et al 1995). This, arguably, is especially pertinent because we are researching a matter of public policy, where positivist data tends to be adapted to value judgements by governments, and governing bodies. As Denzin and Lincoln point out, ‘Qualitative research is inherently multi-method in focus…However, the use of multiple methods…reflects an attempt to secure an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon in question. Objective reality can never be captured. We know a thing only through its representations.’ (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005: p.5).

In term of representation, the specific enquiries made here are designed to produce data at micro level, although their collective implications may have a meso function in terms of the local negotiation of control over CPD standards and access. Only a numerically wider and more varied study could produce data which might function at macro level. However, the eventual connection between micro and macro is implicitly accepted here: as Strauss and Corbin point out, ‘…the distinction between micro and macro is an artificial one.’ (Strauss and Corbin, 1998: p.185). The point is though that this limited sample cannot establish such tautology in absolute terms, only suggest ways in which it may be researched further.

To these two empirical issues may be added more complex ethical issues around confidentiality and contractual obligation. To employ the current parlance of Human Resources Management, all employees have a ‘psychological contract’ with their management, wherein informally agreed tenets of ‘fairness’ operate. As Williams indicates. ‘..this interpersonal aspect to fairness reminds us that there is a social basis to the exchange relationship between employer and employee and we might expect this to be part of the psychological contract.’ (Williams, 1998: p.183). It has to be conceded that any debate engendered around CPD has the potential to impinge upon the either side of the psychological contract, a fact which may influence and limit the format of questions.

30 brief questionnaires were sent out, of which 22 were returned: three of these respondents agreed to be interviewed, and the same interview pro-forma was employed in each context. There were 14 female respondents and 8 male: in keeping with contemporary guidelines, age was not elicited. The criteria for subject selection was that the respondent should be an established practitioner, i.e. have at least two years service, but no managerial responsibilities. The interviewees were invited to participate and the customary protocols followed in terms of permission to use the material, based on anonymity and the right to withold use of the material.

Analysis and Findings

The mode of analysis employed was substantially one of triangulation. The binary responses were tallied and are expressed as percentages. In Question 4 the written responses were sorted into those supportive, unsupportive and uncomitted with regard to the proposal (of an agreed ten-part choice of CPD activities). Based on this polarisation, qualitiative responses were then taken from the interview transcripts to illustrate and expand upon the themes identified.

22.75 per cent of respondents agreed that 90 hours of CPD was sufficient for SW’s over a three year period: 18.2 per cent thought it insufficient, whilst a majority, 59.15 per cent thought the whole idea of a prescribed amount of hours too arbitrary. 18.2 per cent considered that the current SW guidelines were effective, with an equal amount disagreeing with this proposition. A majority – 63.7 per cent expressed the view that some kind of change was necessary. Only 13.65 per cent of respondents thought that the CPD options available to them personally had been sufficient for their needs as a practitioner. 27.3 per cent meanwhile thought such resources had been insufficient. 22.75 per cent thought the available CPD had at least been consistent, whilst 36.4% disagreed with this idea.

The written responses still produced a fairly polarised set of information. 35 per cent of those who answered supported the idea of being able to select their own CPD activities from a ten choice range. Of the latter, a majority gave some kind of indication that they saw within such a development the opportunity for gaining more control over their own professional development. This was evident from responses such as ‘Yes, great idea, assuming practitioners are involved in drawing it up’, and ‘Yes, perfect. If we get to choose what’s on the list, otherwise its just another form of management control, and we already have too much of that.’ (Appendix 3). Interestingly, the same concern underpinned the rationale of the 55 per cent who did not support the idea. As one respondent put it, ‘I don’t think it could work because CPD is all about standardisation, this idea involves too much individual choice for the ‘powers that be’ to accept it.’ This was expressed more directly in the views of another, who remarked that No. CPD just ticks a management box, it doesn’t really help me, so I don’t want four or ten or whatever it is boxes to tick.’ (Appendix 3). The 10 per cent who were uncommitted raised concerns about relevance and the numbers of available options. (Appendix 3)

The twenty two tallied responses to Question 5, about practitioners preferences for CPD areas, produced an overwhelming choice for a specific vocational focus in the form of Multi Agency Working, at 36.4 per cent. All of the nine other activities suggested scored 9.1 and 4.5 per cent respectively. (Appendix 3)

As might be expected, the interview questions produced the most detailed qualitative data. When asked to evaluate the personal importance of CPD for them, two respondents identified pressure of work rather than management imposition as the main impediment to their pursuing more professional development. The first respondent stated that it was

‘Very Important. I know I don’t spend enough time doing it very often, but that’s just the nature of the job at the moment, where we are all running to stand still. It’s very difficult to commit a worthwhile timetable of CPD when you know for a fact that you won’t actually do half of it, due to unforeseen commitments.’ . The second respondent meanwhile acknowledged that it was ‘…Not as important as it probably should be. It’s a box I know I should tick, but in a department where we can’t even recruit at the moment, it’s not a priority. Sorry.’ (Appendix 5). The third respondent explained their lack of commitment to CPD in terms of their lack of control over it: ‘I know it’s vital, but who is it for exactly? If it’s just stuff they think I should be doing, rather than what I want to do, then I could well live without it.’ (Appendix 5).

In terms of the specific proposal, i.e. that of providing practitioners with a framework of choice for CPD, the responses were varied. Respondent 1 replied, ‘I can’t think of ten….for me personally at the moment, it would be team-building, and risk assessment, plus maybe multi-agency working.’ (Appendix 5). Respondent 2 indicated ‘Communication, risk assessment, leadership, policy development’ as their preferred foci. Respondent 3 indicated interest in ‘IT skills, communication, multi-agency working, risk assessment’, adding that ‘….the list is endless!’ (Appendix 5)

Provisional Conclusions

Concerns about who would take responsibility for more liberal and diffuse CPD should be noted here, as in the response , ‘Who would supervise it? I’ll bet it would just be an extra job dumped on somebody like me.’ (Appendix 3) Such objections reflect trends in management which have already been highlighted in the related literature. As Watson points out, ‘The drive for local and central government to modernise and become more accountable has led to a rise in responsibilities of managers for performance management and transparency in decision making.’ (Watson, 2008: p.330)

The extent of interest in multi-agency working as a useful area for practitioner CPD, is something which has already been noted in the related literature. As Farmakopoulou has indicated, ‘The main inter-organizational inhibitory factors were related to structural difficulties and lack of joint training. Education and social work departments embody different statutory responsibilities…’ (Farmakopoulou 2002: p.1064). Whilst this specific point is obviously vocationally limited, a wider one about inter-professional cooperation may arguably be abstracted from it.

In terms of generalisability, it has to be acknowledged that this research and its findings is vulnerable to usual charges of subjectivity which may be levelled at triangulation. As Denzin and Lincoln concede, ‘Triangulation is the simultaneous display of multiple, refracted realities. Each of the metaphors “works” to create simultaneity rather than the sequential or linear. Readers and audiences are then invited to explore competing visions of the context, to become immersed in and merge with new realities to comprehend.’ (Denzin and Lincoln 2005: p.6).

However, in terms of putative research questions, enough areas of potential interest have arguably been identified to warrant further investigation. Themes would be…

Involve a larger cohort of respondents.
Involve local management as respondents, to obtain views from both sides of the ‘psychological contract’.
Involve the GSCC on their views about possible change.
APPENDIX ONE:

Questionnaire. Are you male ….. female…..

For each question, please indicate the statement with which you agree most by ticking it.

Question 1.

a. 90 hours CPD is sufficient for a SW Practitioner over three years.

b. 90 hours CPD is insufficient for a SW Practitioner over three years.

c. 90 hours is far too arbitrary an amount of CPD for a SW practitioner: it should be varied for individuals.

Question 2.

a. Would you agree that the current SW CPD guidelines are effective?

b. Would you disagree with the idea that the current SW CPD guidelines are effective?

c. Do you think that changes are necessary in current SW CPD?

Question 3.

a. Has the available SW CPD been sufficient for your needs as a practitioner?

b. Has the available SW CPD been insufficient for your needs as practitioner?

c. Has the available SW CPD been consistent? Inconsistent? iˆ

Question 4 : Please explain why you would support OR not support the idea of a ten-criteria list from which to select SW CPD activities?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Question 5 : Which areas of professional competence would you include in a ten-criteria list?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

APPENDIX 2:

Tables of Questionnaire Results.

Question 1.

90 hours CPD is sufficient for a SW Practitioner over three years.

90 hours CPD is insufficient for a SW Practitioner over three years.

90 hours is far too arbitrary an amount of CPD for a SW

practitioner: it should be varied for individuals.

5

4

13

Question 2.

Would you agree that the current SW CPD guidelines are effective?

Would you disagree with the idea that the current SW CPD guidelines are effective?

Do you think that changes are necessary in current SW CPD?

4

4

14

Question 3.

Has the available SW CPD been sufficient for your needs as a practitioner?

Has the available SW CPD been insufficient for your needs as practitioner?

Has the available SW CPD been consistent?

Has the available SW CPD been inconsistent?

3

6

5

8

APPENDIX 3

Question 4 : Please explain why you would support OR not support the idea of a ten-criteria list from which to select SW CPD activities?

Why ten? It should be about relevance, not a number.
Yes I would, but only if I got to choose them, so they were relevant to my needs.
No, because it would expand what is already a drain on my time.
I don’t think it could work because CPD is all about standardisation, this idea involves too much individual choice for the ‘powers that be’ to accept it.
No: who would enforce or administer it?
Yes, although why settle on that number?
Yes, great idea, assuming practitioners are involved in drawing it up.
Yes, perfect. If we get to choose what’s on the list, otherwise its just another form of management control, and we already have too much of that.
Yes, if we can get everyone to agree on it.
No. It sounds to me like the thin end of a very large wedge which I’ll have to fit into my diary.
No. I’m still trying to catch up with my existing CPD, so I definitely don’t need any more.
No. One CPD target is enough, I wouldn’t want any more than that.
Yes, if it happens, but I can’t see it.
No. Wouldn’t this just be more ‘big brother’ stuff from the GSSC?
No. I imagine the bureaucracy the government would create around it.
No. Who would supervise it? I’ll bet it would just be an extra job dumped on somebody like me.
I like the idea in principle, but I think a smaller number of options would be more helpful.
No, because I think the current system is OK, and manageable within realistic constraints of time.
No. CPD just ticks a management box, it doesn’t really help me, so I don’t want four or ten or whatever it is boxes to tick.
Yes, its just what we need to give us more of a voice in our own professional development.

The 20 written responses obtained for Question 4, though qualitative in nature, have been sorted into three categories: supportive, unsupportive, and uncommitted.

Supportive: 35%

2.Yes I would, but only if I got to choose them, so they were relevant to my needs

6. Yes, although why settle on that number?

7. Yes, great idea, assuming practitioners are involved in drawing it up.

8. Yes, perfect. If we get to choose what’s on the list, otherwise its just another form of management control, and we already have too much of that.

9. Yes, if we can get everyone to agree on it.

13. Yes, if it happens, but I can’t see it.

20. Yes, its just what we need to give us more of a voice in our own professional development.

Unsupportive 55%

3. No, because it would expand what is already a drain on my time.

4. I don’t think it could work because CPD is all about standardisation, this idea involves too much individual choice for the ‘powers that be’ to accept it.

5. No: who would enforce or administer it?

10. No. It sounds to me like the thin end of a very large wedge which I’ll have to fit into my diary.

11. No. I’m still trying to catch up with my existing CPD, so I definitely don’t need any more.

12. No. One CPD target is enough, I wouldn’t want any more than that.

14. No. Wouldn’t this just be more ‘big brother’ stuff from the GSSC?

15. No. I imagine the bureaucracy the government would create around it.

16. No. Who would supervise it? I’ll bet it would just be an extra job dumped on somebody like me.

18. No, because I think the current system is OK, and manageable within realistic constraints of time.

19. No. CPD just ticks a management box, it doesn’t really help me, so I don’t want four or ten or whatever it is boxes to tick.

Uncommitted 10%

1.Why ten? It should be about relevance, not a number.

17. I like the idea in principle, but I think a smaller number of options would be more helpful.

Question 5 : Which areas of professional competence would you include in a ten-criteria list?

Team Building skills 2
Leadership skills. 2
Multi-Agency Working. 8
IT skills. 1
Risk Assessment. 2
Intercultural Skills. 2
Communication Skills. 1
Policy Development. 2
Strategic Development. 1
Self-Reflection: being a reflective practitioner. 1
APPENDIX 4:

Interview Pro-Forma.

Time in SW………… Current Post………

Question 1. How important is CPD to you as a Practitioner?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Question 2. Would you change any aspect of current CPD practice?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Question 3. What do you see as the principal issues in current SW CPD practice?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Question 4. Could you identify some of the areas you would include in a ten-item range of activities for SW CPD?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

APPENDIX 5:

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS.

Question 1. How important is CPD to you as a Practitioner?

Respondent One:

Very Important. I know I don’t spend enough time doing it very often, but that’s just the nature of the job at the moment, where we are all running to stand still. It’s very difficult to commit a worthwhile timetable of CPD when you know for a fact that you won’t actually do half of it, due to unforeseen commitments.

Respondent Two:

Not as important as it probably should be. It’s a box I know I should tick, but in a department where we can’t even recruit at the moment, it’s not a priority. Sorry.

Respondent Three:

I know it’s vital, but who is it for exactly? If it’s just stuff they think I should be doing, rather than what I want to do, then I could well live without it.

Question 2. Would you change any aspect of current CPD practice?

Respondent One:

Not all of it, as some of it can be very good. I would definitely give people more choice, and the group/team learning idea is a very good one.

Respondent Two:

Personally, I think it’s all about resources: I mean, I’d let people timetable for it, and relate it closely to what they needed as practitioners…but…that would cost money: money which, as far as I can see, we just don’t have at the moment.

Respondent Three:

Yep…I’d I either get rid of it….or do it properly…I can’t see either happening at the moment though.

Question 3. What do you see as the principal issues in current SW CPD practice?

Respondent One:

Time. All the time it’s an add-on, when it really needs to be a practice-centred activity which you could timetable for, and really concentrate on.

Respondent Two:

For me its all about relevance and real value. I can spend any amount of time becoming a more reflective practitioner, but that doesn’t help me if my case-load is increasing while I’m doing it.

Respondent Three:

Well, I can only comment on what they are for me….the real issue is, a lot of what I get given – or I should say, is inflicted upon me – as CPD, has very little to do with my case-load and the real problems I face. Maybe its because I’m old-school, pre-graduate and all that. Yes it’s all very interesting, but, well, I’m not an academic! There, I’ve said it! This is what I do, and no amount of CPD seems to change that.

Question 4. Could you identify some of the areas you would include in a ten-item range of activities for SW CPD?

Respondent One:

I can’t think of ten….for me personally at the moment, it would be team-building, and risk assessment, plus maybe multi-agency working.

Respondent Two:

Communication, risk assessment, leadership, policy development.

Respondent Three:

IT skills, communication, multi-agency working, risk assessment….the list is endless!

Bibliography

Brown, K., and Keen, S., (2004), ‘Post Qualifying Awards in Social Work (Part 1): Necessary Evil or Panacea?’ Social Work Education, vol. 23, No 1: pp.77-92.

Bryman, A., (1998), Doing Research in Organisations, London Routledge.

Bryman, A., (2007), Social Research Methods Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Bryant, A., Charmaz, K., (2007), The Sage Handbook of Grounded Theory, London, Sage Publications.

Collis, J and Hussey, R., (2003), Business Research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students, London, Palgrave Macmillan.

Crombie I 1996 Pocket Guide to Critical Appraisal London BMJ Publication Group

Department of Health (1998) Modernising Social Services London H.M.S.O www.doh.gov.uk Accessed 19-01-2006

Department of Health, (2000), Strategy for Social Car,e H.M.S.O., London www.doh.gov.uk Accessed 01-11-2006

Denzin, N.K., and Lincoln, Y.S., (eds), (2005), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, California, Sage Publications.

Doel, M., Nelson

In order to consider how child protection policy and practice has been shaped, a definition of child protection and significant harm and abuse is required. The Department for Education (DFE, 2011) defines child protection as the action that is carried out to safeguard children who are suffering, or are likely to suffer, significant harm. Furthermore the Children Act (1989) defines harm as ill-treatment including neglect, emotional, sexual and physical abuse. Interestingly, Parton et al (2012) suggested that determinations of what should be considered child abuse are socially constructed, and are therefore reflective of the culture and values at a specific moment in time.

To begin, childhood is a status that is documented worldwide and throughout history, which sometimes sees the child as innocent ,vulnerable, a consumer, a worker alongside other household earners, a threat to society and it is a construction that changes over time and place (Prout, 2005). Historians of childhood have argued over the meaning, such as Aries (1960) cited by Veerman (1992, p5) stated the concept of ‘childhood’ didn’t exist before the seventeenth century; therefore children were mini adults with the same rights, duties and skills. This idea was supported by the poor law (1601) which was a formalised system of training children in trades to contribute to society when they grew up (Bloy, 2002).

Another example came from Locke (1632-1734) and the ‘Tabula Rasa’ model. This proposes that children were morally neutral and were the products of their parents (Horner, 2012). The nineteenth century showed it was the parent’s responsibility to offer love and pertinent correction, to bring out the good in their nature thus helping them to become contributing members of society. This could easily lead to blaming the parents as good or bad based on the behaviours of their child, since the child was not considered as his own agent. The 1834 Poor Law Reform Act would support Locke’s idea and children who were sent to workhouses, would participate in schooling to imprint knowledge. Although this incurred a number of scandals, for example inmates eating the rotting flesh from bones, the government’s responded by introducing sterner rules for those operating workhouses, along with regular inspections (cited by Berry 1999, p29). Fox Harding (1997) described this era as ‘laissez faire’ which was based on family privacy and minimal state intervention that allowed families lives to remain private and behind closed doors.

An alternative concept from Rousseau (1712) suggested the idea of innocence; a child was born angelic until the world influenced them. This was significant in terms of child protection with the implementation children’s charities such as Save the Children (founded in 1919). They portrayed children in a variety of adult situations and as poor victims worthy of being rescued (Macek, 2006) using contemporary ideas of childhood. Interestingly the Children and Young Person’s Act (1933) was introduced to protect the welfare of the child, including any person legally liable to have neglected them in a manner likely to cause injury to his health. Nonetheless it could be argued that the cause of injury may not have been fully understood considering caning in schools was common until 1987. However some may argue this was legalised abuse, and in direct contradiction to legislation put in place to protect children.

Moving into the twentieth century took a wide shift from the laissez faire approach and along with the concept of childhood, became the notion of state paternalism. Child protection practice was based on extensive state intervention to protect children from poor parental care (Fox Harding, 1997). These changes led to a sharing of blame with their parents for children becoming anti-social (a demon) or a great achiever (an angel) in society. The demonic model illustrated by Pifer (2000) was already seen in childhood construction but blamed society, not the child, when as Rousseau noted “is the romantic discourse that becomes tainted with the corrupt outside world”. These historical concepts still dictated that children should be seen and not heard and every aspect of the child’s life should be determined by their parents or guardians. Although the shift is evident, it could be argued that the laissez faire and paternalist perspective shared a common view of children having limited capacity for independence and decision making. Pollock (1983) would argue that children were not miniature adults as Aries (1960) claimed, but actually were at a significantly a lower level of development and so had distinctive needs from adults. This suggests as immature people they could make mistakes and be excused from full responsibility for their actions.

Given the current high profile debates on children, it is public outrage and moral panics in the media that frequently changes the way things are seen. The research into child deaths has prompted changes in legislation (Parton et al, 2012). Key events such as the death of Maria Coldwell (1974), led to specialist workers instead of generic workers who dealt with the elderly. They were specific to the child and encompassed the needs of the whole family. Serious case review’s in to a child’s death was undertaken as a way of discovering how the tragedy occurred, who was responsible, what professionals were involved, rationalising individual actions and learning lessons for future practice (Rose and Barnes, 2008). The public’s perception of social workers placed more pressure on the notion of identifying risk before the child died which developed many theories and models for the professional to practice.

In contrast to the numerous child deaths, the Cleveland case in 1988 evidenced the over enthusiasm of state intervention. Children were removed from their families based on an anal reflex test to diagnose sexual abuse. The inquiry recommended greater rights for parents and children and suggests the separation from families was seen as abuse itself (Ashden, 2004). This, and proceeding enquires into the deaths of children, offered dilemmas for social workers representing the most visible agencies within the child protection system, in terms of whether a child should be removed or not. This event was a major policy driver and is reflected in the Children Act 1989, where parent’s rights have been replaced with responsibility in ensuring children turn out to be good citizens of society. However it could be argued that in practice today the Cleveland event still carries stigma with parents believing their children are going to be taken into care.

Given the models of childhood outlined in previous paragraphs it is quite predictable that children appear to fit within a particular construct. However children such the murderers of Jamie Bulger in 1993 were children carrying out unthinkable, far from innocent acts. These children had a dual status; they committed a crime as an adult yet still a child in need of protection. Society wanted to look at their background to decide if watching horror movies or having divorced parents or poor discipline made them kill a little boy. The thought in the media flowed from born bad, to being made bad which is the nature nurture debate. Moral panic through media fed into this case and although historically the view had been to protect children, society shifted to the concept of demonising children, newspaper headlines branding them as wicked and evil (Bracchi, 2010). It is interesting that throughout history, legislation was implemented to protect children yet it conflicts with criminal law, as it does not recognise them as children over ten years of age (Molan, 2008). It could be argued that criminal law agrees with Aries and children are mini adults, yet social workers guidance refers to children up to the age of seventeen. One could question how professionals can work in a multiagency way when conflicting legislation cannot agree what age a child is.

Further spotlight cases such as Victoria Climbie (2003) highlighted failings of multi-agency workers (Lamming 2003) and facilitated to shape the next change in legislation. The Every Child Matters green paper which outlined five outcomes to be achieved by all children was enshrined in law as part of The Children’s Act (2004). These were defined as, stay safe, be healthy, enjoy and achieve, achieve economic wellbeing, and make a positive contribution (Knowles, 2006) which gave professionals direction on the minimum requirements for every child, and allowed social workers to intervene to meet these needs in child protection practice. Nonetheless, the coalition government in 2010 abolished this agenda (McDermid, 2012) suggesting that families are not as important, even though it has underpinned social work practice for a number of years.

Nevertheless child deaths continued to be a growing problem, the Baby Peter case (2008) indicated that individuals are failing children and again multi-agency communication is poor in assessing risk. Another case that followed approximately a year later was the Edlington boys (2009) who tortured two young boys. Society then blamed foster placements and care systems suggesting they do not work and foster placements are as bad as the families they were removed from. Cases such as these developed blame culture, where children were perceived as being failed by the government workers; usually the social workers less often the police and the politicians (Community Care, 2012). The public outcry and criticisms of social services which followed high profile cases of child abuse make social workers practice to err on the side of caution. This suggests the romantic concept of childhood (i.e. protection of innocence), came to the forefront and children were seen as vulnerable and in need of protection. It appears that each disaster that happens the social construct of children changes.

Indeed, researchers into twenty-first century childhood such as Sue Palmer (2006) refers to a ‘Toxic Childhood’ which is the harm society is causing to children through a competitive, consumer driven, screen-based lifestyle. The media and internet evidence how much it has made it possible for children to consider adult ideas and behaviours, alcohol, sexual activity, drug use and teenage violence that show that distinctions between adulthood and childhood are fading. Nevertheless it could be debated that contradictory attitudes remain commonplace with children being constructed as innocent little angels and little devils, innately capable of the most awful types of crime until the adults in society influenced them.

Despite these criticisms the families that children live in are also judged to be secretive and deliberate abusers. As a result children may grow into poor citizens due to not being protected from their families. There is a notion of good families and bad families and very often poor families are classed as poor parents and certain constructions take place without the family even being assessed. To exemplify Tucks (2002) identified a connection between all forms of abuse and social deprivation, but a possible explanation for this is that perpetrators target vulnerable children or women to secure access to children; socially deprived neighbourhoods are characterised by relatively large numbers of lone parents. Through the pressures of their circumstances and in family crisis, parents had become caught up in a child protection system that was more attuned to assessing risk than to bringing out the best in parents struggling in adversity (DoH, 1995).

Moreover Owen and Pritchard (1993) identified the difficulties in classifying ‘at risk’ in terms of the criteria for assessing the levels of risk and what constitutes abuse. The role of professionals holding varying opinions and attitudes towards what constitutes abuse and risk could be argued that this in itself reduces the identification of risk to a child. Nonetheless professionals are still expected to protect children by the Children Act 1989 which outlines ‘significant harm’, but is very ambiguous and there is broad scope for authorities to further define what constitutes a child in need (Brandon et al 1999). The Munro report (2011) on Child Protection agrees that social work involves working with this uncertainty and not able to see what goes on in families which suggests little shift . The defensive practice comes from workers who are expected to manage this uncertainty and the issue is that evidence of abuse and neglect is not clearly labelled.

Since the implementation of the Children Act 1989 more emphasis was placed on the child’s rights but has become very controversial. The idea of protecting children and giving them rights may become problematic for adults in terms of taking children’s rights seriously. This could be that children have been under-represented in social theory and policy for many years). It could also be, that adults may be reluctant to relinquish power to the children because they still assume they know what is best for children as the early historians suggest. Franklin (2002) suggests a conflict between adult’s rights and children’s rights could offer explanations for ‘demonization’ of children. Another idea could be that giving children rights takes away a child’s ‘childhood’. This may have been viewed from the idealistic construction of childhood as a time of innocence where they consider that children should not be concerned with important decision-making and responsibility.

To further support children’s rights, the children Act 2004 updated the legislation to include the abolishment of physical punishment (NSPCC, 2012). However, Owen and Pritchard’s (1983) idea of ‘cultural relativism’ whereby specific behaviours in some families is attributed to cultural practice, question the concept of what how significant harm can actually be measured. In cases of child abuse, black and ethnic minority children are therefore at a higher risk because warning signs that would otherwise have been picked up are ignored and accepted to cultural practices and norms. For instance Rogers, Hevey and Ash (1989) state that the beating of West Indian children can be viewed as traditional use of chastisement within that culture, rather than observed as physical abuse of children. Owen and Pritchard (1983) propose this aspect to ‘racist beliefs’ and stereotyping, where culture is considered deviant rather than the actions of a caregiver.

Conversely Munro (2008) considers Effective Child Protection and points out the significance on the value of relationships between families and the worker and suggests this leads to better outcomes by understanding the families and cultures. An effective assessment and intervention in child protection draws from having good interactions and in turn aids parents to disclose information and collaborate with authorities. It could be argued if a worker does not believe in certain cultural practices that children could become at risk when maybe they are not.

Another point to consider is the risk posed by professionals that work with children; previously society has created an assumption that the rich, social workers, teachers and other professionals that work in child focused roles follow the legislation on protecting our children from significant harm. Yet through the power of trust professionals appear to abuse ‘safe’ spaces designed for children. For example the police report in to the murder of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by the school caretaker in 2002, identified ‘significant failings with regard to police vetting procedures’ (HMIC, 2004). The Sexual Offences Act 2003 which included offences of grooming and abusing positions of trust was incorporated with a vetting and barring system to adults working with children and introduced into the safeguarding vulnerable groups Act 2006 (NSPCC, 2012).

Equally Nursery manager Vanessa George in 2009 abused children in her setting. The review found a systemic failure in communication throughout and highlighted a common theme of assumption provided a fruitful environment in which to abuse, a point that has been proficiently highlighted by the mainstream press. The child protection policies and procedures were inadequate and rarely followed, as she feared children would be moved to other settings. The report highlighted how culture had within the nursery preventing staff from challenging George’s inappropriate behaviour.

Cases such as this called for a review of vetting adults who work with children and formed a piece of legislation, the protection of freedoms Act (2012) which focuses on roles working closely with vulnerable groups. Some children related posts such as governors and school inspectors were being removed from the lists although they require having contact with children (Kelly, 2012). Additionally supervised volunteers will no longer be classed as working in ‘regulated activity’. Therefore, individuals barred from working in ‘regulated activity’ can still volunteer at your school, as long as they are supervised. It could be argued that although the government is keen to scale back the cost of vetting, it does not take into account the risk of grooming which is not negated by supervision. Furthermore, the new process does not allow schools to check the barred list when recruiting volunteers which suggests it is providing a false sense of security for all.

A further report into child protection by Munro A child centred practice in 2011, established that a universal approach to child protection is preventing the main focus of the child. Munro recommended that the Government and local authorities should continually learn from what has happened in the past, however this could be difficult when cases such as Jamie Buglers that buried the hatchet to protect the boys. One could question what professionals can learn from such secretive cases. Additionally, it could be argued that Munro’s child centred approach offers a potential negative impact on children and professionals. For instance, if the government removes the prescriptive practice that professionals may be using as guidance, this could create the potential to miss the signs of a child being abused based on judgement alone.

Having considered this idea, future risks assessment needs to change a theoretical and practical model for possible state intervention in cases where a caregivers ability to care for a child is questioned. The British government will be pivotal to play a major role in reforming existing legislation and constructing new strong legislation to allow involvement by care services in the most high risk cases of child abuse. This request upon the government is an outcome of the philosophy of risk now prevalent in the UK, where it is assumed that the government has the ability to foresee and prevent abuse and maltreatment which holds the government when this does not happen.

In conclusion, the historical views of childhood can be seen throughout the numerous ideological discourses and demonstrate how society’s constructions of childhood can, has and will carry on to influence laws and legislation regarding the ways in which child protection is shaped. Although it is recognised that childhood warrants some degree of protective status, socioeconomic and cultural circumstances do affect young children’s behaviour and the way professionals practice. Those changed conditions also influence adult beliefs about rearing children and how protecting children should be. The emphasis on risk and assessing risk has changed over time, what was a risk in the 1980’s is very different to what is a risk today.

As outlined there are some recurrent issues such as the recognition of significant harm, taking appropriate action, effective communication and achieving an appropriate balance between supporting families and disruptive intervention to safeguard and promote children’s welfare. Nevertheless child protection has been around for a number of years and indicates that there is a correlation between legislation, society and the construct of childhood which continually mirrors each other.

Social policy is about social well-being and its policies are designed to promote this, social well-being is for everyone and it’s to ensure that everyone gets treated impartially and according to their needs. This may include areas such as housing, education and social care. According to the HM Treasury’s spending review 2010-11 the vast majority of money was spent on Welfare and Health this illustrates that these two sectors especially welfare are major factors within our society and are a priority. However some political ideology can have impact on social policy in regards to how money is spent and in what ways.

Social welfare and policy is provided by the government and social policies are developed for the public and certain groups who need them. Social welfare on the other hand is given to people who are seen to be in need and may be seen as people who need a public service. Welfare services and healthcare are the key services in social policy. Social services and the healthcare system are in place and are provided to give a service to help aid with people’s well-being. For example these include people who are going through a crisis or serious personal issues to do with their health or personal lives. Social policy is incorporated with social welfare provision; social welfare provision is about the needs of the people. The government plays a big part in social welfare because they decide on what to spend on such as housing and education. Social Policy is made by the government which are made up of party’s politicians and parties that deliberate and decide on how to manage the country and its political needs. Politically speaking Social policies work together with employees of social welfare such as social workers as well as healthcare and the law. All these organisations help to make up social policy and work on and for the state. Local Government are councillors which have been locally elected for example a local MP and also local authorities, these may include people such as school governors and members of the community health councils, these selected people work together to govern and implement what key policies are needed locally, and these are tailored policies specifically for their local communities. The local government may make decisions on housing and other local factors such as developments that may be needed and transport. The private sector is made up of businesses individuals, local and central government who purchase welfare services such as private care homes and employ carers privately to care for service users. Social workers as well as the healthcare workers are involved in social policy for the reason that they will be putting whatever is decided in social policy in practice. Central government is the political party who is elected nationally in the UK. At the last national election the conservative party were voted in with this came their own political ideology in running the country and many changes were made.

Political Ideology is a range of ideas and thoughts which can range from social wellbeing to laws being made it is also beliefs on society and social welfare. This can come from a right left wing approach of thinking politically. This affects social policy and how social policy is approached because the decisions that is made effects people’s lives. For example when new labour was elected in 1997 its approach to social policy was a mix and right and left wing perspectives. The new right perspectives to social policy consist of views such as distinguishing between the deserving and underserving poor. What is known as the deserving poor are those who are thought to deserve to receive welfare, an example of this is someone being poor through no fault of their own, while an undeserving poor is someone who may be poor due to their laziness such as not wanting to work. The title of deserving and undeserving varies from one individual to another, this is because everyone’s circumstances are different therefore it is harder to determine who is deserves to receive benefits from who does not. The new right approach suggests that the welfare system was making people depend on benefits and making them lazy. This was also referred to as the nanny state, however those who are welfare such as single parent families struggle and what is given is actually only enough to live on because benefits are accessed on what the government believes is enough for individuals to live off. David Cameron the current Prime minister stated that he wanted to “end the “culture of entitlement” and a bigger debate into welfare would be needed as the wrong signals were being sent out to unmarried and single parent families. This suggests even more cuts for those who are dependent on benefits as a way to get people off benefits and back into employment. Political ideology affects social work because these values affect practice. Ideas of political ideology shape practice and action, these actions can also influence ideas of ideologues which respond to the environmental pressures which surround them. (Marquand 1996,6.)

Marxist had the view that the welfare state was biased and favours the working class to prevent a revolution. For the modern day welfare state this couldn’t be any truer as we have seen with the conservative’s party that the biggest spending cuts have hit the poor the worst.it seems as though especially to those who are worse off, for example families who receive benefits such as tax credits etc. These are the people who are feeling the cuts the most while the rich have had far fewer cuts being made. Last year we saw that most of the changes being made were affecting the poor and working class the most, while the rich had their tax reduced. This is indeed an unfair change in regards to welfare because the changes seem to favour the rich more. The Guardian newspaper online reported that the poorest households would be hit the worst by benefits cuts, in reported government plans and the Department of Work and Pensions. It also stated that in a bid to save 3.1 billion working benefits would rise to 1% hitting the poor hardest.

The guardian online featured a letter by MP Michael Meacher who pointed out that the recent welfare benefits reports bill and its percentages on cuts leaving the rich richer by paying less percentages in tax while the unemployed receiving benefits such as the job seekers allowance were being cut. It also argued ministers had failed to realise that the 20% cut that was going to be imposed would work out as less money for people to live on. The cut was argued to be applied because it was seen to be unfair that those unemployed had had a 20% rise while the lowest paid only had a 10% pay rise. Even so those who are in less paid jobs are still financially better off than those on JSA, so again why are cuts being made to the poorest people in need. It was also pointed out that the richest that are on over ?3000 a year had their income tax cut to almost 3bn a year, also the very richest increased their income and wealth over the last year according to the Sunday Times Rich List. With cuts being made and bills rising how is people going to afford to eat and live? There is a struggle for the currently unemployed to get back in employment due to the lack of jobs. People are being pressured into either living a very poor life financially or working for wage which they may again struggle to live on and then being given a very low pension when they retire. This affects social work practice because more people will be in crisis and in a vulnerable state which may lead to intervention by professionals such as social workers being needed for well-being and support.

The cuts to social care have seen only the ones who can afford to pay for care being able to receive care. The reason for this is budgets being cut for social care leaving those without financial security in need of support. According to ADASS in their budget survey (2011) councils were reducing their budgets by 991 million. They were also reducing their spending by 169 million for support for people. The implications and consequences of these cuts are that some council will have to make cutbacks to services in order to balance out their budgets. For those who cannot afford services this can serious implications as well as on impact on social work practice because of the intervention that may be needed. It also affects social work in the sense of how it is implicated as well as using the best methods for service users. According to this survey it increases more gaps within Social Care funding. The care and Support Bill 2012 abolished the local authorities’ right to remove a person in need from their homes. The reason for this could do with the cuts being made with in social care and as a way to save money have abolished this to save funding which would otherwise be spent on giving care to service users.

The Just umbrella gives an insight into austerity the coalition and policy. The just umbrella pinpoints many actions the government at the moment and the way in which society is handled in regards to spending welfare etc. It also talks about the London riots and how they may have been an underlying factor as to why the riots took place. The riots stemmed from a man of ethnic minority who was shot and killed by the police, as a result the family wanted answers as to what happened and as to why their family member was shot. There was many speculation as to if the victim was armed or not or whether it was to do with racism. A peaceful march began by the family demanding answers which soon escalated to the riots. The riots were blamed on gang culture and people taking advantage of an unfortunate situation. However nothing of unfair treatments of people and tension between the youths and the police were addressed. The riots may have been a cry for help and that may have been the chance for many more deprived members of society to have their say. Also the riots may have been due to frustrations built up as well as other underlying social factors which were not addressed. Such as most of the people who were involved were part of less privileged communities who were worse off in terms of employment and housing. The finding s of the riot research found that over half 59% of rioters were from the 20% most deprived areas in the UK. The riots seem to have had much more of meaning than just that of the shooting of Mark Duggan. According to the Reading the riots report (2011) its findings were very interesting in regards to its contents. The study was to find out what have driven individuals in the riots and who were responsible of which came these findings of the analysis. 87% of the people who were interviewed out of 270 said that policing and tensions between the police and public were to blame because of the treatments they had from officers. This shows that policing and public frustrations were indeed key contributing factors as to why the riots happened. This combined with anger and frustrations in regards with the relationship between the police also added more fuel to the riots.

The Blackwell companion to social work, social work and politics focuses on social work and ideology and the role in which social workers have. It argues that social workers have a power struggle with family and service users and these are due to political ideology and that social service and workers are political activists. Both the Just Umbrella the Backwell companion discuss changes and the state moving away from the neo-liberal economics in regards to Labour and Margaret Thatcher’s approach to politics. Both stated that the new right approach to social policy was focused on making the welfare state in particular better in regards for what works. However Blackwell argues that this gives room for politicians to pass difficult subjects to professionals to suggest solutions. The just umbrella also comments on what is known as the Big Society and that of the effects it has on society as well as the coalition policy. According to the Cabinet Office the big society is about giving more power to the people to help improve their lives, Transferring power from Whitehills to Local Communities. While the just umbrella recognises failings in the big Society and its local ideas, Blackwell points out ideology behind this and how it affects social work practice. It aims to put the point across that social work is heavily driven by politics and ideology.” The social worker who claims to be above or beyond politics is one who has denied him or herself access to a set of conceptual tools which are directly necessary to a properly informed conduct in today’s complex world of practice”. What is exactly meant by this statement is that social workers cannot fulfil their full potential of practice without accepting they are a part of politics. Accepting this gives social workers the knowledge and power to practice effective service. This is a matter of opinion however because it takes away from the social workers individual core beliefs. If a social worker does not agree with some aspects of political ideology this does not mean they do not have the tools to properly practice social work.