8 Relational agency and epistemic justice in initial child protection conferences
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Juliet Koprowska
Abstract
Multi-agency meetings in child protection in England are attended by professionals from different disciplines and by family members, typically parents and other close relatives. Initial child protection conferences (ICPCs), the focus of this chapter, take place early in the child protection process, when serious concerns about the welfare of children have been identified. The meetings consider the gravity of the concerns and make decisions about what needs to be done. ICPCs are enshrined in policy guidance (DfE, 2018) and have an explicit institutional function, providing a record of accountable multi-agency practice. Potentially they provide a forum for the co-creation of knowledge about the children’s circumstances, taking into account the perspectives of different professionals and family members to inform the decision making. This chapter is principally concerned with the role of the chair, and the relationship between chairs’ interactional behaviour and service user participation.
Involving families in child protection processes is more than a policy principle. There is a consensus that removing children from their parents is a last resort, and the child protection system aims to work with families to improve the situation of children so that they can stay at home and thrive. It appears, then, that an implicit function, or possible outcome, of the ICPC is to build a working relationship between professionals and service users. Do chairs accomplish this, and if so, how? This chapter uses the concepts of ‘relational agency’ (Edwards, 2011) and ‘epistemic justice’ (Fricker, 2007) to make sense of how chairs include family testimony and co-create an understanding of family circumstances.
Abstract
Multi-agency meetings in child protection in England are attended by professionals from different disciplines and by family members, typically parents and other close relatives. Initial child protection conferences (ICPCs), the focus of this chapter, take place early in the child protection process, when serious concerns about the welfare of children have been identified. The meetings consider the gravity of the concerns and make decisions about what needs to be done. ICPCs are enshrined in policy guidance (DfE, 2018) and have an explicit institutional function, providing a record of accountable multi-agency practice. Potentially they provide a forum for the co-creation of knowledge about the children’s circumstances, taking into account the perspectives of different professionals and family members to inform the decision making. This chapter is principally concerned with the role of the chair, and the relationship between chairs’ interactional behaviour and service user participation.
Involving families in child protection processes is more than a policy principle. There is a consensus that removing children from their parents is a last resort, and the child protection system aims to work with families to improve the situation of children so that they can stay at home and thrive. It appears, then, that an implicit function, or possible outcome, of the ICPC is to build a working relationship between professionals and service users. Do chairs accomplish this, and if so, how? This chapter uses the concepts of ‘relational agency’ (Edwards, 2011) and ‘epistemic justice’ (Fricker, 2007) to make sense of how chairs include family testimony and co-create an understanding of family circumstances.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- From a collaborative and integrated welfare policy to frontline practices 9
- Examining talk and interaction in meetings of professionals and service users 33
- How chairs use the pronoun ‘we’ to guide participation in rehabilitation team meetings 63
- Working within frames and across boundaries in core group meetings in child protection 83
- Alignment and service user participation in low-threshold meetings with people using drugs 115
- Sympathy and micropolitics in return-to-work meetings 141
- Negotiating epistemic rights to knowledge concerning service users’ recent histories in mental health meetings 171
- Relational agency and epistemic justice in initial child protection conferences 197
- Conclusion 225
- Postscript 241
- Index 247
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- From a collaborative and integrated welfare policy to frontline practices 9
- Examining talk and interaction in meetings of professionals and service users 33
- How chairs use the pronoun ‘we’ to guide participation in rehabilitation team meetings 63
- Working within frames and across boundaries in core group meetings in child protection 83
- Alignment and service user participation in low-threshold meetings with people using drugs 115
- Sympathy and micropolitics in return-to-work meetings 141
- Negotiating epistemic rights to knowledge concerning service users’ recent histories in mental health meetings 171
- Relational agency and epistemic justice in initial child protection conferences 197
- Conclusion 225
- Postscript 241
- Index 247
