Child Welfare
The welfare of children is at the heart of the Social Work profession. Every child deserves to have the opportunity to flourish in life and achieve their individual potential. The Government’s Initiative, “Every Child Matters”, launched in 2003, was a welcome recognition of the value of investing in prevention and early intervention in order to achieve better outcomes for children. Influenced by the shocking death of eight year old Victoria Climbie, it was a radical approach that aimed to encourage joined up working practices, that were found to be a factor in Victoria’s death.
The main aims of the Initiative are for every child, whatever their background or circumstances, to have the support they need to:
- Be healthy
- Stay safe
- Enjoy and achieve
- Make a positive contribution
- Achieve economic well-being
Parental Responsibility
In an ideal world, parents will be the main contributors to a child’s welfare. They will offer their children an environment and care that fosters the development of secure attachments, safety, stability and encouragement to learn and develop optimally. We believe that all parents aspire to raise their children well and fulfil their responsibility as a parent however, we also understand that for some parents, this can be difficult. Learning difficulties and adverse childhood experiences leave parents with a flawed parenting blue print and a lack of emotional tools to manage the challenges of caring for their children and the need for services that can help them to provide their children with an improved narrative of family life, become essential in the effort to keep families together.
Resources
Like all well-meaning Government Initiatives, funding for resources either becomes less of a priority or is side-lined to other initiatives and services. We share professional concerns about the lack of effective and consistent development on this vital service for families and are frustrated by reviews of Children’s Services that all highlight the need for early prevention resources, that would essentially ease the burden on service provisions that are already overwhelmed, reduce the number of children being received into substitute care and improve the outcome for the children and their families. Without sufficient resources, the priority inevitably becomes crisis intervention, which could arguably have been avoided.
The Necessary Evil of Intervention
Too many children face significant disadvantage, that affects their development and threatens their future growth and wellbeing. Not all family’s welcome professional intervention into their family lives however, the perception of intervention is often the greatest barrier to overcome. Our experience from our 24/7 In the Home Programme and teaching programmes show that targeted and empathic intervention, delivered to a high standard, can make a significant difference to the lived experiences of children and improve their future potentials.
The face of change
At ACCA, we are rapidly developing our services in order to assist Local Authorities, currently facing an unprecedented demand. We are working closely with those services across the country, and we are utilising the established knowledge base of our panel of Independent Social Workers and Parenting Practitioners to expand the product range that we currently offer. Additionally, we aim to introduce a more extensive early intervention service that aspires to engage children and their families and encourage them to recognise the value of these services to achieve changes in their lives that are both meaningful and offer great personal rewards.
If you would like to find out more about how we can support your Local Authority, please get in touch via our website.
