Based on a Freedom of Information request with data from 75 per cent of all English children’s services departments covering over half a million children, this paper shows that 22.5 per cent of children born in the 2009–10 financial year were referred to children’s social care before their fifth birthday. Three-quarters of them were at some point assessed, almost two-thirds found to be in need and a quarter formally investigated. These findings show the full extent of children’s involvement in children’s social care before the age of five. One in every nine children born in 2009–10 was suspected by social workers of being abused and this high level of involvement is only justifiable if it is demonstrably reducing harm and promoting well-being of children—an outcome which is contested. Early Help’s introduction was associated with high proportions of children being referred and assessed and rapidly increasing numbers of investigations, thus questioning its ability to prevent entry to the child protection system. The paper calls for a change from the current emphasis on individualised and investigative approaches to child protection in order to provide an effective and humane response to children, the majority of whom live in families affected by high levels of deprivation and poverty.

This study of management information provides data on all reports, investigations and findings of maltreatment of children in Western Australia from their birth in 1990 or 1991 until their eighteenth birthday. It provides prevalence rates of children being reported, investigated and found to have been maltreated. A study of more recent cohorts shows trends in recent years. A key finding is that over 13 per cent of all children born in 1990 and 1991 were reported before reaching the age of eighteen, although 71 per cent of them were not found to have been maltreated. International data suggest this rate of one in eight children being reported may be equalled or exceeded in countries with an Anglo-American forensic child protection system. There was also a disturbing increase in reports of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in recent cohorts with an estimate that almost half of those born in 2004 had been reported before their fifth birthday. These findings add further evidence to the need for social work to address and severely limit investigative approaches. In this way, social workers will provide support rather than continuing practices involving high rates of surveillance and a focus on parental blame.

Management and leadership are increasingly important within the organisation and delivery of social care services and now form part of the post qualification framework for social workers. Yet, whilst there is a relatively broad understanding of management concepts and their application in social care, their foundations often go unchallenged both by students and managers. Furthermore, leadership is open to a wide range of interpretations and is often ill-defined with the expectation that we share a common understanding of the term. This text promotes an appreciation of the development of management and leadership thinking and the different themes which inform current ideas. It considers these topics from a range of theoretical standpoints in order to stimulate readers to consider their own experience and expectations of management and leadership. It then demonstrates how these standpoints might promote innovative approaches to management and leadership within social care organisations and ways in which such organisations might then develop. The aim of this challenging text is to encourage critical and informed reflection on current practice. Social Work Management and Leadership is essential reading for students of management and leadership in social care as well as being an invaluable resource for managers who simply wish to consider new approaches to their practice.