The themes of prevention, early intervention and strengths-based approaches run through all of the articles in this first edition for 2018. The global nature of the contributions is striking and inspiring. Articles from Australia, England, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland and U.S.A. allow a most welcome international window to the field of child care.
The first article presents a methodology of early help practice with families, while promoting a more uniform approach through a city-wide practice framework for services in Birmingham, England. Relying on Turnell and Edwards (1999) “Signs of Safety Approach”, the Practice Framework replaces eighty pre-existing assessment tools. The “Signs of Safety and Well-being” Practice Framework is an example of how risk, need, social and informal resources and safety ideas can be worked with differently – thus contributing to more collaborative practice and empowerment of family and friends. The new approach offers better consistency with one of the clear goals being improving confidence and rigour in decisions made and actions taken. The challenges of moving to a city-wide strengths based approach and practice orientation are also widely recognised.
Also, considering policy shift towards prevention and early intervention, the second article focuses on parenting support which sits within the umbrella term of family support. Connolly and Devaney provide an overview of the policy and practice of parenting support with particular attention to what works in the Irish landscape. The continuum of parenting support spans the life-course and includes primary care services and family support services provided directly by the state but also a range of additional parenting and family support provided by the community and voluntary sector and private providers. Services are provided in many forms ranging from universal support for self-referring parents through to targeted and specialist services to support families in particular situations dealing with specific problems. The article recognises that while the popularity of parenting support programmes has increased, professionals also act as key sources of support for children and families in contributing positive outcomes. Individual work is particularly effective when problems are more complex or parents are not ready or able to attend groups.
A focus on individual family support work with families is highlighted in the next article where family assistantship, as an innovative approach in social work with families in Poland, is explored. Ciczkowska-Giedziun and Zmyslowska’s article focuses on the social care system provided to families and children, the implementation of family assistantship and the current threats and opportunities to the family assistantship model. While currently still in its formative phase family assistantship supports families in carrying out their basic functions with the goal of prevention of removal into the care system or to quickly reunite, with their biological family, those who have been placed in care. In the face of numerous questions and doubts the effectiveness of the role has been demonstrated.
The fourth article is an example of an opportunistic delivery of a parenting/family support programme in primary care. Nursing students provided vision and health screening and education in schools and community health venues in an underserved, largely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. The shortage of clinical learning opportunities for nursing students, coupled with school resource deficits and lack of school nurses, created a valuable health and learning outcome. Nearly 30% of the 741 elementary school children screened had problems. The need for health and education to work collaboratively with the children and their parents to ensure health issues are seen as a required arm of education practice was highlighted.
The next article addresses a call for awareness-raising among community identified stakeholders in Virginia, USA of the contributors to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). SIDS remains a leading cause of infant death in the USA. Gollenberg and Fendley gauged perceptions among stakeholders regarding community needs to reduce SIDS. Snowball sampling identified important interviewees as key informants in two geographic areas with higher than average rates of infant mortality. The majority of seventy-four interviews perceived that high-risk community members are not aware of factors leading to SIDS and more “education” is required in order to reduce prevalence. This potential solution highlights a welcome parenting/family support preventative initiative in these two demographically and geographically distinct communities.
Real-Fit is a thirteen week weight reduction programme for adolescents and was developed in the Netherlands in 2003 by three collaborating regional health organisations. Real-Fit consists of nutritional, physical activity, psychological classes and parenting participation and is an example of a structured programme to challenging obesity. The study examined whether self-esteem had increased and food craving had decreased one year after participation in the Real-Fit programme, using a control group in comparison. Taking all the results and limitations into account it cautiously concluded that Real-Fit has beneficial long-term effects on some domains of self-esteem but no substantial effect on food craving.
In the penultimate article, Ferguson (2017) explores the literature to consider whether an increased emphasis on identity development in the provision of children’s services could help increase positive outcomes for care leavers. Drawing upon the work of Oyserman and Destin (2010) the author highlights that the literature in the field argues for the centrality of supportive relationships, stability and continuity to the shaping of positive identity development for young people. Practitioners, managers and families have a pivotal role in providing the conditions that support positive identity development and enhance care leavers sense of belonging and self-efficacy.
The edition’s final article looks at custodial grand-parenting from the often overlooked, strengths-based perspective of enjoyment as the motivating factor behind the caregiving investment. Despite the hardships associated with 24/7 custodial care, grandparents continue to invest in their grandchildren. Analysis of 88 wellbeing and health surveys determined this investiture is influenced by three types of engagement: those derived from engagement in the child-centred nurturance of an at-risk grandchild, dyadic engagement in shared activities, and the personal grandparent-centred pleasure benefits to be had by the carer role. The study reveals that informal custodial grandparents experience lower levels of closeness to their grandchildren, less satisfaction with their role and a lower state of health than formal custodian grandparents.
In summary, prevention, early intervention and strengths-based initiatives are instrumental in supporting today’s children to become healthy, socially and economically engaged adults and parents in the future.