Stay Safe Conference The Impact of Social Policy on Families Today

THE RESEARCH STAGE ONE - A year-long ethnographic case study in a large Children’s Centre focused on the workers perceptions of inter-agency working. STAGE TWO – The focus on the importance of relationships between individual workers and parents and the way workers construct ‘good-enough parent’.

EMERGENT THEMES Co-locating teams does not necessarily lead to collaboration. Policy and Practice guidelines are negotiated through the interpretation of managers and individual workers Relationships are key to engaging families

What is good enough?....who decides? “The main thing is that the child is not at risk” “If a parent is living in poverty they can only do their best” “Sometimes their best is not ‘good enough’” “’Good enough’ is loving them…no matter what”

QUESTIONS... What voices are being heard / silenced? How do workers negotiate between what policy dictates and their preferred practice? How do the individual constructions of parenting impact on the family support ‘relationship’? How can the services reach the families ‘most excluded’?

The Big Questions.... Is the ECM agenda disempowering families and communities? Are the changes in social policy more about surveillance leading to increased state intervention in family lives? Is the construction of the ‘Good Parent’ within social policy based on middle class values?