http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/265 2013-05-19T05:06:42Z 2013-05-19T05:06:42Z Harwin, J Ryan, M Tunnard, J Alrouh, B Matias, C Momenian-Schneider, S Pokhrel, S http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5909 2011-10-21T08:35:24Z 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The family drug & alcohol court (FDAC) evaluation project Authors: Harwin, J; Ryan, M; Tunnard, J; Alrouh, B; Matias, C; Momenian-Schneider, S; Pokhrel, S Abstract: This report presents the findings from the evaluation of the first pilot Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) in Britain. FDAC is a new approach to care proceedings, in cases where parental substance misuse is a key element in the local authority decision to bring proceedings. It is being piloted at the Inner London Family Proceedings Court in Wells Street. Initially the pilot was to run for three years, to the end of December 2010, but is now to continue until March 2012. The work is co-funded by the Department for Education (formerly the Department for Children, Schools and Families), the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office, the Department of Health and the three pilot authorities (Camden, Islington and Westminster). The evaluation was conducted by a research team at Brunel University, with funding from the Nuffield Foundation and the Home Office. FDAC is a specialist court for a problem that is anything but special. Its potential to help break the inter-generational cycle of harm associated with parental substance misuse goes straight to the heart of public policy and professional practice. Parental substance misuse is a formidable social problem and a key factor in around a third of long-term cases in children’s services in some areas. It is a major risk factor for child maltreatment, family separation and offending in adults, and for poor educational performance and substance misuse by children and young people. The parents’ many difficulties create serious problems for their children and place major demands on health, welfare and criminal justice services. For these reasons, parental substance misuse is a cross-cutting government agenda. FDAC is distinctive because it is a court-based family intervention which aims to improve children’s outcomes by addressing the entrenched difficulties of their parents. It has been adapted to English law and practice from a model of family treatment drug courts that is used widely in the USA and is showing promising results with a higher number of cases where parents and children were able to remain together safely, and with swifter alternative placement decisions for children if parents were unable to address their substance misuse successfully. The catalysts for the FDAC pilot were the encouraging evidence from the USA and concerns about the response to parental substance misuse through ordinary care proceedings in England: poor coordination of adult and children’s services; late interventions to protect children; delays in reaching decisions in court; and soaring costs of proceedings, linked to the cost of expert evidence.

2011-01-01T00:00:00Z Hall, Christopher J http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5293 2012-12-07T12:01:37Z 1993-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Social work as narrative: An investigation of the social and literary nature of social work accounting Authors: Hall, Christopher J Abstract: This thesis investigates what can be gained by approaching social work reports and conversations as narratives. A conventional approach to social work accounting practices is to treat such documents as (more or less) accurate descriptions of social workers' clients, their problems and proposed remedies. Such a realist approach was found to be flawed, since it assumes straightforward access from accounts to external reality, not considering the constructedness of such documents. Drawing on theoretical themes from the sociology of scientific knowledge, literary theory, conversation analysis, ethnomethodology and sociolinguistics, this thesis explores the construction and reception of social work accounts as rhetorical, narrative and interactional processes. The documents analysed represent some of the occasions on which social workers describe and recommend social work intervention with children and their families - research interviews, court reports, internal memos, case file entries and journal reports. On these occasions, social work is performed and displayed in descriptions of people and their attributes, justifications for social work intervention and excuses for lack of success. The main theme of the thesis is that social work accounts can profitably be analysed as stories. To explain their work and their clients' world to a variety of audiences, social workers are heard to tell competent, professionally persuasive stories. A variety of storytelling features are explored, looking in particular at plot, character, the construction of the reader and the authority of the writer. Stories are heard to vary with reading occasions and critical audiences, and it is the study of reading relations which is a main focus of the analysis - to whom are these accounts addressed and how are they available to be read? Rhetorical features are investigated in order to understand how social work accounts are made available to be read as morally and factually persuasive. A critical reading is also offered, which questions the adequacy of the accounts, and makes available the possibility of reading unheard stories. Reflexive interludes comment on the claims of the thesis writer in terms of the efforts of the social work writer. The implications of this study are that treating social work accounts as textual accomplishments undermines social workers' claims for reporting objectively about their clients and their problems. Social work can be seen as constituted in and through the performance and reception of stories: doing competent social work is achieved through telling competent social work stories. Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.

1993-01-01T00:00:00Z Holden, Christopher John http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5290 2012-11-26T11:49:49Z 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Globalization and the U.K. market in long term care for older people Authors: Holden, Christopher John Abstract: The thesis aims to build on what is known about large and internationalized welfare firms, and to make a contribution to the debate about social policy and globalization, through an empirical and exploratory study of large and internationalized firms within the UK market in long term care for older people. The thesis utilizes two levels of analysis: a micro level analysis based on case studies of the three largest private providers of long term care in the UK; and a meso level analysis of the relationships between these firms and three other actors: the state and its agencies, staff and unions, and older people themselves. The findings of the thesis contradict deterministic claims concerning the loss of power by the state. The state is found to be the most powerful actor in the sector in ten-ns of its ability to regulate the sector and influence its overall structure. In contrast, the relative weakness of unions and older people's organizations leads them to attempt to exert influence on private providers through the medium of the state. State policies, however, are likely to facilitate greater concentration and internationalization within the sector, an outcome which is in the long term interests of those firms which are already large and internationalized. The parallel processes of concentration and internationalization in the sector have significant implications for the delivery of care. Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.

2000-01-01T00:00:00Z Lyons, Karen http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4323 2012-11-05T16:42:28Z 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Social work in higher education: Demise or development? Authors: Lyons, Karen Abstract: A prolonged period of Conservative government in Britain (1979-1997) has resulted in profound changes in the nature of social welfare, including education. One of the characteristics of this period has been a decrease in the status and autonomy accorded to professions; and a change in the relationship between 'the providers' and 'the consumers' of services. More specifically, the years from 1989 to the mid nineties have been marked by rapid legislative and organisational change in the personal social services. They have also seen significant change in the institutional policies and culture of higher education. Changes in both these sectors have impacted on the arrangements for the education of social workers, responsibility for which is shared between the professional accrediting body, employing agencies and higher education institutions. The starting point for this research was a recognition that, in line with other moves promoting deprofessionalisation and instrumentalism, qualifying training might be relocated outside the higher education system. An initial question, 'can social work survive in higher education?', prompted an exploration of the external influences and internal characteristics which have resulted in this sense of vulnerability. The research utilised interdisciplinary perspectives, grounded in a policy framework, and an inductive approach to collection of empirical data, to examine the view that social work education is open to conflicting policies and values from higher education and the professional field. The possibility that the subject would share similarities with other forms of professional education was also examined. The thesis therefore presents a case study of the epistemology and relationships of a particular form of professional education. Consideration of the literature pertaining to the three contextual factors, social work, higher education and professional education, and of the empirical data derived from social work educators support the concluding argument. This posits that biography, culture and structure interact to produce a discipline with inherent tensions, partly due to its position on a boundary between two systems and partly reflecting the nature of the subject. While its location within higher education is deemed appropriate by social work educators, decisions about its location and form are largely exercised by other interest groups: its survival and development therefore require constant negotiation. Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.

1997-01-01T00:00:00Z