Family Support As Reflective Practice

Family support is an increasingly important strategic approach to welfare services for children and families. This invaluable resource for all professionals engaged in the development and delivery of these services is underpinned by reflective practice values and structured around four themes: * conceptual frameworks and vocabulary (defining) * policy and organisational structures and processing (planning) * tools for creative practice (doing) * approaches to evaluation (measuring). Contributors from around the world provide international perspectives on core issues in family support. These include the importance of community, the role of statutory and voluntary agencies, youth advocacy, culturally appropriate family support, child protection, disability services and effective means of evaluation. Providing a combination of clear theoretical frameworks and practical guidance, with clear 'how to' messages and a strong emphasis on evaluation, this book will be of interest to social workers, care staff, teachers, community development and police officers, students, policy-makers, evaluators and all those working in all areas of family support.

Understanding Family Support provides a definition of family support and a clear perspective on the role that it has in promoting the welfare of children and their families. Family support is a concept that has been used in a range of ways to describe various aspects of child welfare policy and practice. The authors argue that this weakens family support as an overarching child welfare paradigm. They present a unifying definition of family support along with ten principles and a series of reflective practice questions applicable to: legislation and policy; organisation, management and planning; direct work with children and families; and research and evaluation. This is an important resource for any professional engaged in policy development, service design, delivering or evaluation of family support, including social workers, residential care staff, community development workers, teachers, community police, human services managers, evaluators and policy makers.

The contributors to this topical volume explore the role of family support in promoting the welfare of children and their families. The book integrates concepts and experiences from an international perspective, different levels of analysis (society, community and family) and different loci of intervention.

In its second edition, this accessible health and human services manual offers a critical overview of the issues and challenges that families face and provides practical strategies for promoting resilience and positive family functioning. Through clinical and sociological perspectives and employing a strengths-based approach, this revised edition provides a broad overview of factors affecting Canadian families such as diverse family structures, healthy and unhealthy forms of communication, family culture and beliefs, couple dynamics, addiction, and developmental and psychiatric disabilities. Covering a wide range of topics, the author draws special attention to LGBTQ and military families, the effects of violence and trauma, and professional ethics and self-care. An indispensable resource for students and practitioners of social services, child and youth work, and early childhood education, the revised edition of Working with Families, Second Edition reflects current research and practices in the field and features updated statistics and accessible language.

The Little Book of Reflective Practice is bursting with big ideas which will encourage you to be curious, reflective and courageous in your professional learning journey. It introduces the key reflective theories alongside case studies from educators to show how these can be applied to improve practice. The journey from being to thriving is set out in several chapters each providing different themes which will encourage you to capture your reflections, record your learning and development and apply theories of reflection to your professional practice. Full of practical guidance, activities and questions to prompt reflective thinking, the chapters cover: getting started how to write reflectively creating spaces to be reflective using reflective practice to set targets for your learning and professional development Spaces for capturing your reflective thoughts and reflective activities are provided througout, alongside sections where you may wish to stop and engage in deeper thinking. This book will be invaluable reading for early years practitioners, tutors and early years students on level 3 courses and Foundation Degrees.

A unique manual to the discipline, Reflective Practice in Child and Youth Care addresses the need for distinct models of reflective practice across all Child and Youth Care (CYC) sectors. This seminal work contextualizes the history of reflective practice and provides readers with the necessary tools to develop their own approach to reflective practice. Special topics and key concepts include reflective practice theory, the mindfulness-reflection connection, and transformative learning techniques. Aligned with the CYC Code of Ethics and the CYC Competencies of Professionalism, this book promotes self-awareness and critical self-reflection through case studies, end-of chapter discussion questions, reflective writing templates, and self-assessment exercises. Fostering reflective methods and self-care strategies that can be used in practicums and professional settings, this unique workbook is an essential resource for students at any stage of a college or university program in child and youth care. FEATURES: - Connects to concepts that are covered across child and youth care program courses, strengthening student comprehension - Provides exercises that range in content and depth to ensure student engagement throughout the completion of the textbook

Social workers are constantly making decisions under pressure. How do policy, law, research and theory influence what they do? This important book provides the answers with a crystal-clear map of the field of social work with children and families. Focused on four major themes - family support work, child protection, adoption and fostering, and residential child care, and reveals in detail all the challenges that social workers face every day. Edited by the highly respected Martin Davies, this authoritative and illuminating book argues that the skill of the social worker can have life-enhancing consequences for some of the most vulnerable people in society. It is an essential investment for students, educators and practitioners alike.

This book provides the history, theory, and practice of work discussion as developed at the Tavistock Clinic. It describes the evolution and contemporary practice of work discussion in relation to a wide range of professional work with children, adolescents, and families.