Overview and Critical Analysis of Child Centred Social Work

Social Work Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Overview and critical analysis of child centred social work..................................................1
Skills, knowledge and research of social workers..................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Social workers main responsibility is to provide protection to children from the situations
of abuse, neglect and other forms of maltreatment. Child centre practice is the way to work with
children and their families (Parton, 2014). It is the duty and responsibility of social care worker
to prevent children to go into isolation. Child centred practice is a dominant social work
approach however child protection inquiries and child death reviews consistently identify that
children are silent and invisible. In this context, the following report will provide an overview
and critical analysis of child centred social work. The knowledge which must be possess by
social workers in order to hear and respect the children will be discussed in the essay.
MAIN BODY
Overview and critical analysis of child centred social work
The fundamental principal of child centred at social work involves engaging children and
their families in order to understand their needs and interests to prevent child abuse. Social care
workers in child centred practice comprehends and provides services that reflects the needs and
expectations of individuals and considering their wishes and feelings. A child centred practice in
social work is misplaced since social workers are not helping their service users to self actualise
but are using relationship instrumentally, for instance assessments of risk (Toros, Tiko and Saia,
2013). Child centred approaches do not go far enough in taking account of inequalities in power
between social work professionals and children. In simple terms, child centred approach is
engaging with children who have suffered abuse and violence in past can be prevented from the
state of isolation and depression. It means ascertaining children's wishes, desires and feelings by
making interaction with them precisely in terms of age, ethnicity, language and ability. In a child
centred practices a social worker is responsible for investigating any allegation of child abuse,
endangerment, neglect or any other situations in which children or a child may not be in
protected current living condition.
The state and territory legislation of Australia, articulated set of reforms which provides
direction to social care workers so that they can make decisions regarding to providing safety
and protection to young children. The program developed by United Kingdom in order to
provide safety to children 'Looking After Children (LAC) has not been universally embraced in
Australia, though it's concepts which is 'child centred approach' has been successfully
implemented by the state and territory of Australia (Winkworth and McArthur, 2006).
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These social workers in child centre practice ensures that decision and plans are
formulated according to children interest. Assessment of risk has to be made in order to enhance
the safety of children (O'Reilly and Dolan, 2016). There are numerous benefits associated with
child centre care approaches utilised by social workers. One of the most significant benefit from
this approach obtain was enhancement in children protection from child abuse and engagement
of family members for support. The core of child centred care approach is to provide assistance
to child by which he or she can become independent, responsible and confident. Social workers
tends to implement this approach in order to cover all the areas of growth and development
including social, emotional and physical. The care providers engage with children by interacting
with them in order to enhance the motivation of child which helps in prevention of isolation of
child. Secondly, child centred practice done by social workers helps in eradicating the risk
factors such as insolent behaviour, fear of people, etc. Thirdly, it improves the relationship
between parents, children (Ferguson, 2016). It is the approach where care providers engage with
both families and children in order to make decision and implements strategies so that child
protection can be enhanced and his or her voice can be heard.
Lack of skills and knowledge in social workers is the first obstruction in providing child
protection and welfare. Social workers must have adequate knowledge regarding legislation,
laws, reforms, principals and policies of child safety (Parton, 2014). Children voice and issues
often remain unheard by the social workers due to inadequate skills and competencies of social
workers. By providing children a voice and a chance to convey any issue concerning themselves
would help in reducing the depressing behaviour in child. Rigid procedures and inadequate
decision making power is considered as another hurdle which impact on child centred practices
provided by the social care workers. Situational analysis must be carried out in order to assess
the ongoing conditions and management needs to transform their policies and reforms
accordingly (Moore, Noble-Carr and McArthur, 2016). This helps both the manager and social
care workers. Australian profession of social works straightforwardly said that social work is
more seen as defining, realising and guaranteeing human rights rather than assessing and meeting
needs of human.
Child centred approach refers to the process where social workers engage with children
in order to assess their need, interest in order to derive precise decision regarding care plan. The
seven dimension of child needs and interests which includes health, identify, social relationship,
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