Health and Social Care Essay Example for Free

Health and Social C ar EssayWe acknowledge with cordial thanks the many people who gave generously of their time to help us with this work. We particularly appreciate the expertise and advice o? ered by Arnon Bentovim, Richard Velleman, Lorna Templeton, Carolyn Davies and Sheena Prentice. The work has been funded by the subdivision for Education and we thank sta? in the department, particularly Jenny Gray who supported us throughout the work with her interest and valuable comments.The work was assisted by an advisory group whose membership was Isabella Craig and Jenny Gray (Department for Education) Christine Humphrey (Department of Health) and Sian Rees (NICE) Arnon Bentovim (consultant nestling and adolescent psychiatrist at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Tavistock Clinic) Marian Brandon (reader in societal work, University of East Anglia) Carolyn Davies(research advisor, Institute of Education, University of London) Jo Fox (social work consultant, Child -Centred Practice) David Jones (consultant pip-squeak and family psychiatrist, Department of Psychiatry University of Oxford)Sue McGaw (specialist in larn disabilities, Cornwall Partnership Trust) Sheena Prentice (specialist midwife in totality misuse, Nottingham City PCT) Wendy Rose (The Open University) Lorna Templeton (manager of the Alcohol, Drugs and the Family Research Programme, University of Bath) and Richard Velleman (University of Bath and dir electroshockor of development and research, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust). Introduction This second edition of Childrens inevitably Parenting Capacity provides an update on the impact of parental problems, such as substance misuse, domestic violence, learning disability and mental illness, on childrens welfare.Research, and in particular the biennial overview reports of serious case reviews (Brandon et al 2008 2009 2010), attain continued to emphasise the importance of understanding and acting on c oncerns about childrens pencil eraser and welfare when living in households where these types of parental problems are present. Almost three quarters of the children in both this and the 2003-05 study had been living with past or real domestic violence and or parental mental ill health and or substance misuse often in combination. (Brandon et al 2010, p. 112) These concerns were very equivalent to those that prompted the ? rst edition of this book, which was commissioned following the emergence of these themes from the Department of Healths programme of child protection research studies (Department of Health 1995a).These studies had demonstrated that a steep level of parental mental illness, problem alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence were present in families of children who become involved in the child protection scheme. Research context The 2010 Government statistics for England demonstrate that, as in the 1990s, only a very small proportion of children referred to childrens social dish out become the subject of a child protection plan (Department for Education 2010b). However, the types of parental problems outlined above are not con? ned to families where a child is the subject of a child protection plan (Brandon et al. 2008, 2009, 2010 Rose and Barnes 2008).In many families childrens health and development are being a? ected by the di? culties their parents are experiencing. The ? ndings from research, however, suggest that services are not always forthcoming. Practically a quarter of referrals to childrens social care resulted in no do being taken (Cleaver and Walker with Meadows 2004). Lord Lamings progress report (2009) also expressed concerns that referrals to childrens services from other professionals did not always run for to an initial assessment and that much more needs to be done to ensure that the services are as e? ective as possible at on the job(p) together to achieve positive outcomes for children (Lord Laming 2009, p. 9 , paragraph 1. 1).Practitioners fear of failing to identify a child in need of protection is also a factor driving up the numbers of referrals to childrens social care services which result in no provision of help. This is creating a skewed system that is paying so much attention to identifying cases of abuse 2 Childrens Needs Parenting Capacity and neglect that it is draining time and resource away from families ( sake 2010, p. 6). Munros Interim Report (2011) draws attention once again to the highly traumatic experience for children and families who are drawn into the Child Protection system where revilement is not found, which leaves them with a fear of asking for help in the future. A ? nding which was identi? ed by earlier research on child protection (Cleaver and freewoman 1995).Evidence from the 1995 child protection research (Department of Health 1995a) indicated that when parents have problems of their own, these may adversely a? ect their capacity to respond to the needs of their children. For example, Cleaver and freeman (1995) found in their study of suspected child abuse that in more than half of the cases, families were experiencing a number of problems including mental illness or learning disability, problem drinking and drug use, or domestic violence. A similar picture of the di? culties facing families who have been referred to childrens social care services emerges from more recent research (Cleaver and Walker with Meadows 2004).It is estimated that there are 120,000 families experiencing multiple problems, including poor mental health, alcohol and drug misuse, and domestic violence. Over a third of these families have children subject to child protection procedures (Munro 2011, p. 30, paragraph 2. 30). Childrens services have the task of identifying children who may need additional services in order to remedy their well-being as relating to their (a) physical and mental health and emotional well-being (b) protection from harm and neglect (c) education, fosterage and recreation (d) the contribution made by them to society and (e) social and economic well-being.(Section 10(2) of the Children Act 2004) The Common Assessment Framework (Childrens Workforce Development Council 2010) and the Assessment Framework (Department of Health et al. 2000) enable frontline professionals working with children to gain an holistic picture of the childs world and identify more easily the di? culties children and families may be experiencing. Although research suggests that social workers (Cleaver et al. 2007) and health professionals are equipped to recognise and respond to indications that a child is being, or is likely to be, abused or neglected, there is less evidence in relation to teachers and the legal philosophy (Daniel et al. 2009).The identi? cation of childrens needs may have improved, but understanding how parental mental illness, learning disabilities, substance misuse and domestic violence a? ect children and families sti ll requires more attention. For example, a small in-depth study found less than half (46%) of the managers in childrens social care, health and the police rated as level-headed their understanding of the impact on children of parental substance misuse, although this rose to 61% in relation to the impact of domestic violence (Cleaver et al. 2007). The need for more training on assessing the likelihood of harm to children of parental drug and alcohol misuse.