Purpose: Child neglect is prevalent in children's social work and assessing neglect is complex because it is multifaceted and opaque. This systematic review identifies and evaluates evidence of tools or measures to better assess child neglect. Methods: Informed by Cochrane methodology and adapted to the needs of social work practice, a systematic search and review of measures of child neglect was undertaken. Ten databases were searched, augmented by grey literature, and contact with relevant experts. Results: Only two measures, the Child Neglect Index (CNI) and modifications of the Maltreatment Classification System (MCS), met the inclusion criteria. Neither tool was completely comprehensive for child neglect. Discussion: Our findings indicate (a) a dearth of suitable tools to measure neglect and (b) the need for robust testing of neglect measures in the social work setting. The current evidence based on measuring child neglect is too limited to effectively inform policy and practice.

This paper presents a systematic literature review that explored social work practice with single fathers. The literature search identified 7 studies, both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The small number of studies identified that met the inclusion criteria suggests that single fathers are under-researched in social work, which aligns with their relative invisibility in practice and welfare debates. The findings suggest that social workers did not genuinely or comprehensively understand the needs of single fathers and did not effectively engage with them. This paper’s discussion relates these findings to Doucet’s interpretations of borderwork and border crossing and relates these concepts to questions of whether social work is inclusive of single fathers or assesses their needs fairly. The discussion is located within wider discourses that propose that societal assumptions about the feminised role of caring and lone parenthood exclude fathers and place responsibility for children primarily on mothers. This paper found that current research into social work with single fathers has not effectively considered the array of social influences on their capacities to parent and thus areas for future research are suggested to promote an agenda of inclusion for single fathers and greater awareness for social work and social work practitioners.

This article, written with parents as co-authors, has two aims: (1) to provide a critical view of the English child protection system based on parents’ views and to locate these views within contemporary child protection studies and (2) to present the transformative value of co-production in the context of child protection studies both as a form of critical scholarship and as a means to influence policy and practice. The current children’s social work system in England does not achieve good outcomes for families, and many children and parents frequently experience it as stigmatizing, inhumane, and harmful. The article presents the experience and recommendations for change produced by parents with a broad range of experience with child protection services in England. The Parents, Families and Allies Network worked with five allied organizations in which parents identified the extensive range of problems that the current system presents and ways forward to achieve more supportive, humane, and inclusive practice with families. Seven main themes emerged: a better definition of need and response to need; partnership, participation, and humane practice; improving legal representation and support in legal proceedings; better support in care proceedings; permanence that maintains links; a better response to domestic violence; and the lack of support for disabled children. The article discusses five features of the project that supported meaningful co-production: taking a political stance, choosing clear and feasible aims, incorporating a range of knowledge, the participation of parents with lived experience throughout all phases of the project, and not settling with just knowledge production.

This chapter is focused upon social work with single and non-resident fathers. There is a dearth of social work research that explores the experiences of single or non-resident fathers’ with social work, so this chapter starts to explore how we can work more sensitively and collaboratively with both groups. Both single and non-resident fatherhood raise challenges for socially constructed gendered norms, hegemonic masculinity and how children and families social work is practiced. Concepts of borderwork and the emotional regime are applied to develop understanding of these fathers’ experiences with social work and how practice can change. The chapter is located within wider discourses about the feminised role of caring and increasingly bureaucratic and authoritarian social work systems. Key practice features of assessment and engagement are discussed and suggestions for developing and improving practice are tentatively made.

Social work and allied professions can struggle to accurately assess child neglect. Our research project is developing a new child neglect measurement tool for use by multi-agencies to address this issue. Phase two of this project employed a Delphi study to gather the views of a range of experts to help develop it. There were two important stages to inform the Delphi study: a systematic review of child neglect measures, and three online focus groups with a purposive sample of 16 participants with expertise in child neglect (academics, practitioners, and experts by experience). We then conducted a three-round modified online Delphi study with a purposive sample of 60 international panellists with expertise in child neglect. We followed the CREDES guidelines for the rigorous application of the Delphi technique. The panel generated salient items for the tool and scaled these for importance. The panel reached consensus for 18 items and 15 elements for the tool. The items included neglect type, chronicity, and severity. The elements included hyperlinks to research and the use of 10-point scales. The draft tool is short and may be useable by a range of practitioners in multi-agency settings. It is inclusive of social harms, such as poverty and social isolation. It will now be piloted.

This paper on practice education within a regional Teaching Partnership emanated from requests to consider how to progress its role and remit. It offers analysis of practice education within this context which may act as a starting point for exploring a broader understanding of practice education and its role in practice learning, supervision, recruitment and retention in England. This paper has materialised at a time of significant change, when the National Accreditation and Assessment System is anticipated and the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) and Practice Educator Professional Standards for Social Work (PEPS) are under review. It proposes an expanded role for practice education that could situate it as pivotal to promoting standards of supervision and cultures of learning within such changing contexts. A ‘communities of practice’ lens and a framework based on Caspi’s notions of structure, content and process are utilised to explore options for progress. This paper recognises that practice education, as both enterprise and system, is complex and messy and thus cautions against conceptualising it in simplistic terms. It concludes with suggestions to advance practice education and areas for further research. These are founded on establishing specialist practice educators and communities of practice within an overarching practice education consortium.