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Serious Case Reviews and Extra-Familial Harm: Missed and Emerging Opportunities to Develop Contextual Practices

Firmin, Carlene; Manister, Molly; Peace, Delphine

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Authors

Molly Manister

Delphine Peace



Abstract

The interpersonal harms that young people experience beyond their families have been documented internationally as have the challenges of protecting those effected using existing child welfare systems. Concern about this in the UK has led to development of ‘contextual’ child protection systems—capable of targeting the peer group, school and community contexts where extra-familial harm (EFH) occurs. This study examined whether reviews of serious incidents (serious case reviews (SCRs)) provide an evidence-base for understanding the contextual dynamics of EFH and/or developing contextual responses. SCRs (n = 49) from 2010–2020, where adolescents were harmed in extra-familial contexts, were analysed over two stages. Stage 1 involved thematic coding under four research questions. Using a framework analysis, Stage 1 themes were grouped around according to: contexts associated with EFH; the nature of social work responses and case review recommendations. Findings suggest that SCRs provide a limited account of the contextual dynamics of EFH. Whilst reviews illustrate that social work responses rarely address the contextual dynamics of EFH, many reviewers have neglected to focus on this shortfall when recommending service improvements. For case reviews to inform contextual child protection systems, information provided to review authors and the design of review requires adaptation.

Citation

Firmin, C., Manister, M., & Peace, D. (2023). Serious Case Reviews and Extra-Familial Harm: Missed and Emerging Opportunities to Develop Contextual Practices. The British Journal of Social Work, 53(2), 1077-1098. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcac172

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 23, 2022
Online Publication Date Sep 26, 2022
Publication Date 2023-03
Deposit Date Sep 28, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal The British Journal of Social Work
Print ISSN 0045-3102
Electronic ISSN 1468-263X
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 53
Issue 2
Pages 1077-1098
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcac172
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1190554

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.




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