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Beyond assessment: social work intervention in family court enquiries

journal contribution
posted on 2023-07-26, 12:32 authored by Greg Mantle, Isabel Williams, Jane Leslie, Sarah Parsons, Ray Shaffer
Most parents or carers who separate or divorce are able to make arrangements themselves about where their children will reside and how the children’s contact with the non-resident parent will be managed. A further group of parents or carers are able to come to agreement with the assistance of community- or court-based dispute resolution/ mediation services. There are times, however, when disputes cannot be resolved without recourse to the courts and, when this happens, the court will normally request that a welfare report be prepared by a CAFCASS (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) practitioner. While the boundary between assessment and intervention in social work is often less than clear, the commissioning of a court welfare report in family proceedings strongly suggests an assessment focus and appears to carry little expectation that the practitioner should intervene in order to meet the needs of the children or adults involved. This article presents recent research findings that illustrate ways in which CAFCASS practitioners do go beyond the assessment role expected of them in the course of the enquiries they undertake. Implications for policy and practice in this area of social work are then discussed.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Volume

38

Issue number

3

Page range

431-433

Publication title

British Journal of Social Work

ISSN

1468-263X

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Language

  • other

Legacy posted date

2010-08-04

Legacy Faculty/School/Department

ARCHIVED Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education (until September 2018)

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