Child Protection

Eileen Munro is Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics, London, UK. With a background in both philosophy and social work, her work has focused on the reasoning skills needed to provide an effective child protection service. The work was taken up by many child protection services in several countries but, in working with management and practitioners to improve risk assessment and decision making, she realised that the individual decision maker is strongly influenced by organizational and social factors that also need to be understood in order to reduce error. A powerful framework for doing this is provided by the systems approach to investigating error that was developed in aviation and has been adapted to medicine in the US and UK. Professor Munro then worked with the Social Care Institute for Excellence in the UK to adapt this approach to use in child protection services and it is now being adopted widely in England. At the request of the Secretary of State for Education, she undertook a review of child protection in England and published the final report in April 2011, followed by a progress report in May 2012. Her extensive consultancy work with child protection services in higher-income countries as well as her academic work makes her well qualified to pull together an overview of the issues in child protection.

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO YOUR SAGE COURSE COMPANION PART II: CORE AREAS OF THE CURRICULUM Running Themes in Child Protection Work The History of Child Abuse Current Policy The Legal Framework Dealing with Uncertainty Using Research What Is Child Abuse and Neglect? Who Abuses and Why? Emotional Abuse Neglect Physical Abuse Sexual Abuse What Can be Done to Make Children Safer? PART III: STUDY, WRITING AND REVISION SKILLS - In Collaboration with David McIlroy General Introduction How To Get the Most Out of Your Lectures How to Make the Most of Seminars Revision Hints and Tips Exam Tips Tips on Interpreting Essay and Exam Questions PART IV: ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

`Although primarily aimed at social workers, the content of this work is very relevant for other professionals who work with and for children, including trainee lawyers as an introduction to social work practice and the principles of child care law and practice upon which it is based. The book also provides insight for lawyers into the standards to be expected of social workers, which is helpful in children law work. Eileen Munro writes form the perspective of a depth of academic knowledge and many years of experience. I like the clarity of her style, and the ease with which she shares information in a palatable way' - Association of Lawyers for Children