Child Protection: Balancing Paternalism and Partnership

Abstract

There have been a great many protracted and heated debates about the practice of state intervention and control of family life in recent years. Indeed, the Children Act (1989) was drafted after the Cleveland Inquiry highlighted the lack of consulation with parents and the lasting effects of ill-considered intrusion into family life, and embraced the philosophy of partnership. Social workers operating in the child care and child protection areas need to balance the contradictory notions of paternalism and partnership, in the knowledge that they will be pilloried by the popular press when they get it wrong. This paper attempts to contrast the two concepts in their philosophical and social work contexts, and moves on to recommend frameworks for helping to balance them when they are operationalized. It is essential to consider this particular debate in the wider political and economic contexts, particularly where uncertainty and the lack of resources are ever-present features.

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