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Abstract
In this article, we lament the effects of practice-distant research and associated policy initiatives on contemporary children's services in England. In the last decade, as a result of high profile inquiries into non-accidental child deaths, statutory children's social care services in the UK have been subject to a wide-reaching ‘modernization’ programme. We studied decision-making in the high blame environment of local authority children's services. Our research sought to examine the relationship between performance management and the impact of anticipated blame within the decision-making practices of those providing, supervising and managing these services. We show that systems and technologies can be developed which both assist the users in their daily work and achieve desired organizational goals, but without an ethnographically informed, practice-near approach, unsafe work regimes and practices can ensue.
Notes
1 ‘Referrals’ will comprise a mix of contacts and referrals, with contacts not necessarily leading to initial assessment. Aggregated statistics such as those produced for annual performance reviews of local authorities cannot capture the full range of activity operating at the front door. See http://dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000742/index.shtml, accessed 1 May 2008.
2 The relatively recent requirement for the police to notify LAs of all police logged domestic violence incidents, irrespective of severity, was widely reported as contributing to this increase.
3 This of course only serves to encourage cases to be ‘talked up’ by the referrer, i.e. to construct the case as an ‘ideal’ case to receive a service from the social work teams whilst showing that they have done all that can be expected on their side.
4 See http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/507390/pdf/682640.pdf, accessed 21 May 2009.
