Policy Press
Three Knowledge and networks
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Abstract
This chapter and the next seek to understand why securing compliance with the ‘cooperation mandate’ in child protection may continue to be problematic. One of the major problems identified in successive child abuse inquiry reports (DHSS, 1982; DoH, 1991) was the failure of professionals to share vital knowledge and skills. A new approach to practice emerged as a result, based on the twin assumptions that knowledge in child protection could be standardised into written procedures and that children would be protected as long as professionals based their decisions on these knowledge ‘stratagems’. This approach, however, posits a simplistic relationship between knowledge and its application. Drawing on theories of knowledge management, this chapter argues that the relationship between knowledge acquisition and human behaviour is complex. As such, it questions whether the introduction of knowledge stratagems such as practice protocols is sufficient to ensure effective interprofessional collaboration.
The chapter begins by considering the general tension between professional ‘ways of knowing’ and the attempt to codify this knowledge into detailed procedures that seek to influence, even control, professional action. It then examines the difficulties within interagency and interprofessional networks that may arise from the different, and at times competing, knowledge ‘domains’ of the various participants. The constraints over knowledge sharing are explored and the chapter considers the ways in which the propensity to share can be disturbed by external factors such as organisational change and wider ‘knowledge shifts’. A central concern is to illuminate the main factors that may serve to undermine the efficacy of knowledge stratagems as a means of controlling professional practice and ensuring network equilibrium.
Abstract
This chapter and the next seek to understand why securing compliance with the ‘cooperation mandate’ in child protection may continue to be problematic. One of the major problems identified in successive child abuse inquiry reports (DHSS, 1982; DoH, 1991) was the failure of professionals to share vital knowledge and skills. A new approach to practice emerged as a result, based on the twin assumptions that knowledge in child protection could be standardised into written procedures and that children would be protected as long as professionals based their decisions on these knowledge ‘stratagems’. This approach, however, posits a simplistic relationship between knowledge and its application. Drawing on theories of knowledge management, this chapter argues that the relationship between knowledge acquisition and human behaviour is complex. As such, it questions whether the introduction of knowledge stratagems such as practice protocols is sufficient to ensure effective interprofessional collaboration.
The chapter begins by considering the general tension between professional ‘ways of knowing’ and the attempt to codify this knowledge into detailed procedures that seek to influence, even control, professional action. It then examines the difficulties within interagency and interprofessional networks that may arise from the different, and at times competing, knowledge ‘domains’ of the various participants. The constraints over knowledge sharing are explored and the chapter considers the ways in which the propensity to share can be disturbed by external factors such as organisational change and wider ‘knowledge shifts’. A central concern is to illuminate the main factors that may serve to undermine the efficacy of knowledge stratagems as a means of controlling professional practice and ensuring network equilibrium.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements iv
- Introduction 1
- Models and metaphors: the theoretical framework 7
- Policy communities and provider networks in child protection 23
- Knowledge and networks 39
- Accountability, agencies and professions 51
- Power and politics in the NHS 65
- Reluctant partners: the experience of health and social care collaboration 77
- A system within a system: the role of the Area Child Protection Committee 93
- Agents of change? The role of the designated and named health professionals 109
- Sleeping partners: GPs and child protection 125
- Health visitors and child protection 139
- ‘Healthy’ networks? NHS professionals in the child protection front line 153
- Conclusion 169
- References 185
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements iv
- Introduction 1
- Models and metaphors: the theoretical framework 7
- Policy communities and provider networks in child protection 23
- Knowledge and networks 39
- Accountability, agencies and professions 51
- Power and politics in the NHS 65
- Reluctant partners: the experience of health and social care collaboration 77
- A system within a system: the role of the Area Child Protection Committee 93
- Agents of change? The role of the designated and named health professionals 109
- Sleeping partners: GPs and child protection 125
- Health visitors and child protection 139
- ‘Healthy’ networks? NHS professionals in the child protection front line 153
- Conclusion 169
- References 185
- Index 209
