NCJ Number
164409
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Dated: (February 1996) Pages: 127-140
Date Published
1996
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This paper considers the nature of effective partnerships both between clients and agencies and between agencies in the child protection field in the United Kingdom.
Abstract
Multidisciplinary collaboration in child protection work in the United Kingdom is facing considerable strains that have resulted from major organizational changes across public welfare systems, budgetary cuts, and severe resource deficits. In parallel with this, there has been a powerful impetus through new legislation to recast the management of child protection services in order to involve clients far more in decisionmaking, reduce the removal of children from families, and redirect resources toward a more preventive approach. If partnership is to become a reality, it must be ingrained and modeled within organizational structures, cultures, and working relationships that reward collaboration rather than competition. This involves a commitment to the learning organization, in which renewal rather than maintenance or survival is the driving force. In this culture, anxiety is viewed as normative, allowing for the expression of healthy uncertainty and difference. In terms of interagency collaboration, this culture can be conceptualized as a series of building blocks. In the order of the building blocks, this paper describes the following concepts: recognition and definition, mandate for collaboration, collaborative structures and leadership, philosophy of intervention, policies and procedures, training, provision, supervision, quality assurance, and staff care. 2 figures and 36 references