Child Protection

Eileen Munro

Dec 2006 · SAGE

About this ebook

`Although primarily aimed at social workers, the content of this work is very relevant for other professionals who work with and for children, including trainee lawyers as an introduction to social work practice and the principles of child care law and practice upon which it is based. The book also provides insight for lawyers into the standards to be expected of social workers, which is helpful in children law work. Eileen Munro writes from the perspective of a depth of academic knowledge and many years of experience. I like the clarity of her style, and the ease with which she shares information in a palatable way′ - Association of Lawyers for Children

Child Protection

is part of an exciting new series from SAGE Publications. Developed as accessible reference tools, SAGE Course Companions offer comprehensive introductions to core subjects, encouraging students to extend their understanding of key concepts, issues and debates. This companion offers readers an accessible overview of the core themes in child abuse and child protection, helping readers understand both the theory and practice involved in child protection, as well as enhancing their thinking skills in line with course requirements.

Designed to compliment existing textbooks for the course, the book provides:

- easy access to the key themes in child protection

- an expert′s view on running themes in the course

- guidance on developing critical thinking

- helpful summaries of the approach taken by the main course textbooks

- guidance on essential study skills

- route-maps to aid the development of wider learning above and beyond the textbook.

The SAGE Course Companion to Child Protection is an essential tool that will help readers take their course understanding to new levels and ensure success in their undergraduate course. The book will also be an invaluable resource for those on post-qualifying training programmes involved in working with children.

About the author

Eileen Munro is Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics, London, UK. With a background in both philosophy and social work, her work has focused on the reasoning skills needed to provide an effective child protection service. The work was taken up by many child protection services in several countries but, in working with management and practitioners to improve risk assessment and decision making, she realised that the individual decision maker is strongly influenced by organizational and social factors that also need to be understood in order to reduce error. A powerful framework for doing this is provided by the systems approach to investigating error that was developed in aviation and has been adapted to medicine in the US and UK. Professor Munro then worked with the Social Care Institute for Excellence in the UK to adapt this approach to use in child protection services and it is now being adopted widely in England. At the request of the Secretary of State for Education, she undertook a review of child protection in England and published the final report in April 2011, followed by a progress report in May 2012. Her extensive consultancy work with child protection services in higher-income countries as well as her academic work makes her well qualified to pull together an overview of the issues in child protection.