Iriss.fm

When children are really vulnerable to harm social workers have to work even harder to create partnership with families where risk is present. For infants, babies, and very young children, as well as older children who are nonverbal or require constant care as they grow up, ways need to be found to work with risk that does not necessarily involve family separations. Family Group Conferencing is one way of holding risk with the older children and adults in a family and agreeing how that risk will be addressed. Parents and expectant parents need an opportunity to demonstrate what they can do, with the sustained relationship-based support of professionals. In this episode, Dr Mary Mitchell, Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh, and social workers Heather Rush and Nicky Hunter from the City of Edinburgh Council, speak about the practice of Family Group Conferencing and how it can make a difference to families. This forms part of a child protection and welfare project titled Recognition Matters,