Training Social Workers to Effectively Manage Aggressive Parental Behaviour in Child Protection in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom

Abstract

This study presents research evidence from the UK, the USA and Australia regarding the prevalence of aggression directed at child protection social workers by parents or their partners. It identifies gaps in current programmes of qualifying training for social workers in these countries. Adopting a critical case approach, this study analyses a number of serious case reviews conducted in England in which the aggression of a parent or their partner was a key contributing factor in the failure of social services to protect a child from harm. By examining the dynamics between social workers and parents illuminated by these critical cases, the study identifies the theories, knowledge base and skills which would rectify the deficits in the curriculum, not only of social work courses in England and elsewhere in the UK, but also of those presently being delivered in the USA and Australia.

Aggression, child protection, conflict, parental behaviour, violence