The Library
Caring for rights : social work and advocacy with looked after children and young people
Tools
Barnes, K. Vivienne (Kathryn Vivienne) (2009) Caring for rights : social work and advocacy with looked after children and young people. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
PDF
WRAP_THESIS_Barnes_2009.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1363Kb) |
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2337538~S15
Abstract
This thesis concerns young people in the Midlands area of the United Kingdom and the
services they receive from children’s rights workers and social workers. Previous
research has highlighted difficulties in the implementation of local advocacy for young
people in the ‘care system’ but has not explored in detail the impact of relationships
between these young people and their professional workers and of differing approaches to
the work.
This is a qualitative study, based primarily on semi-structured interviews with twenty
young people, their rights workers and their social workers. The young people ranged in
age from twelve to twenty and most had been in residential or foster care. The study
aimed to explore the participants’ views and experiences of social work and advocacy
with young people, the professionals’ approaches to the work and their attitudes to, and
relationships with, young people. Relational theory, particularly from ethics of care
feminist scholarship, has been used to examine the concepts of care and rights in the
principles and practice of the professional workers.
The study found that young people wanted professional workers who cared about them as
individuals and who focused on the process of the work, but they were also concerned
about the consequences of rights work. The study suggests that rights workers had a
strong care ethic in their individual work with young people, whilst social workers were
concerned about managing young people’s care rather than engaging with them
individually. The rights workers faced a number of dilemmas in upholding rights
principles in practice.
The study concludes that polarised principles of rights and care in practice could be
unhelpful to work with young people. Consideration of elements of a care ethic alongside
rights in both social work and children’s rights work could lead to a more unified
discourse that would benefit practice with young people. This would entail a more
sophisticated understanding of advocacy and bring care back into social workers’
individual work with young people.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Children's rights, Child welfare workers -- Midlands (England), Social work with children -- Midlands (England), Social work with youth -- Midlands (England) | ||||
Official Date: | September 2009 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | School of Health and Social Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Read, Janet, 1947- | ||||
Extent: | ix, 355 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year