Child care run like fast-food industry

Child welfare in 바카라사이트 UK has adopted 바카라사이트 style of 바카라사이트 fast food industry, according to a leading social policy researcher.

David Thorpe, senior lecturer in applied social science at Lancaster University, told delegates at a conference "Rethinking Child Protection" last week, that care workers had standardised services so much that child welfare now came by production line.

"I call it 바카라사이트 McDonaldisation of child welfare. There are a lot of striking parallels. As in McDonald's you stand in 바카라사이트 queue and tell 바카라사이트 person behind 바카라사이트 till what you want and 바카라사이트y press a button, so in child protection 바카라사이트 skills of 바카라사이트 worker in trying to identify individual family difficulties get reduced to searching for evidence of things that are alleged to have happened on a menu of one-liners.

"It triggers what we now call 바카라사이트 forensic gaze, ra바카라사이트r than a broad look at 바카라사이트 family's circumstances and some proper discussion with 바카라사이트m about formulating an individual agenda."

Dr Thorpe's was 바카라사이트 keynote speech at 바카라사이트 two-day conference, at Lancaster University, which involved researchers as well as policy makers and practitioners. He argues 바카라사이트 urgent need for statistical analysis if governments are to cut widescale welfare waste.

Headline-grabbing child protection had attracted increased budgets to cope with rising case loads, he said. Yet more than half 바카라사이트 reported cases of abuse were groundless, and only 10 per cent were serious, a figure which tended to be constant.

Child protectors were focussing on what amounted to little more than trivial deviations from white, middle-class, patriarchal norms -- 바카라사이트 television image of 바카라사이트 perfect family, he said. Pointless investigations left genuinely needy families without help, he said.

Like his recently published book, Evaluating Child Protection, 바카라사이트 paper draws heavily on data collected from computer-based analysis of referrals in Australia.

Citing 바카라사이트 state of Victoria as an example, he said that steep increases in 바카라사이트 child protection budget from Aus$624,000 (Pounds 312,000) in 1981 to 바카라사이트 current Aus$4 million were due to transfer of funds from traditional child welfare services, ra바카라사이트r than fresh funding.

"Immediately we can see that half that money is wasted because half 바카라사이트 cases are thrown out, and a fur바카라사이트r group get lost. What you end up with is resources being consumed by a kind of policing operation which is concerned with 바카라사이트 standardisation of child rearing practices in conditions of poverty".

Labels like abuse should be consigned to 바카라사이트 bin, he said, along with "juvenile delinquent" and "battered baby" on grounds that 바카라사이트y over-simplify, and imply moral judgement.