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How widespread is abuse in foster care?

Produced by IRISS for Community Care magazine, this research review examines the evidence on allegations of maltreatment of children in foster care and local authority responses to allegations, as published in the report Maltreatment and allegations of maltreatment in foster care. A review of the evidence, published by the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York.

It brings together the evidence that exists on allegations of abuse and confirmed maltreatment in foster care, and considers the implications of the available evidence.

Ensuring the discoverability of digital images for social work education: an online "tagging" survey to test controlled vocabulary

The digital age has transformed access to all kinds of educational content, not only in text-based format but also digital images and other media. As learning technologists and librarians begin to organise these new media into digital collections for educational purposes, older problems associated with cataloguing and classifying non-text media have re-emerged.

Practitioner networks: professional learning in the twenty-first century

This article reports on a study of a networked learning approach among remote social work practitioners in a large, rural local authority. The intervention was a blended approach that combined facilitation, face-to-face meetings, online communications and access to e-library resources.

The intervention was focused on discussions of case management issues for three fictional cases. A method of text analysis used in community of enquiry research was implemented to examine participant discourse.

Retelling the past using new technologies: a case Study into the digitization of social work heritage material and the creation of a virtual exhibition

Article explains the rationale for the digitization of social work heritage material and the virtualization of an archived nondigital museum exhibit constructed by a Scottish Museum of Social Work.

The project involved the “virtualization” of an existing social work museum exhibition on the migration of “Home Children” from Scotland to Canada in the late 19th and early 20th century and the digital preservation of historical assets (both text and images) held by the contemporary social care organization involved in the migration of the children.

Enhancing student learning with case-based learning objects in a problem-based learning context: the Vvews of social work students in Scotland and Canada

This paper summarizes the results of an evaluation of students' perspectives comparing learning from a multimedia case-based learning object with learning from text-based case studies. A secondary goal of the study was to test the reusability of the learning object in different instructional contexts. The learning object was deployed in the context of a problem-based learning approach to teaching social work students in three different courses in two different countries: Scotland (N=39) and Canada (N=57).

Supporting positive relationships for children and young people who have experience of care (IRISS Insight, No28)

Review that explores the growing emphasis being placed on the relationships of children and young people in care. It examines: the nature and type of these relationships; what indicators are used to define quality; why relationships are beneficial; what barriers there are to their formation; what initiatives have been designed to support relationships; and what evidence there is about their impact.

This Insight was written by Karen Winter (Queen's University Belfast).

Storytelling in youth work: a resource for workers, managers, tutors and students

Resource that brings together some of the learning from In Defence of Youth Work’s (IDYW) approach to youth work story-telling as this has evolved over the past three-years.

From both the participant's and the facilitator's points of view, it considers how examples of practice have been narrated and analysed in workshops specifically designed for workers (including young volunteers), managers, students and their tutors.

Social justice begins with babies

The first annual report of Scotland’s coalition supporting Putting the Baby IN the Bath Water
Putting the Baby IN the Bath Water is coalition of 98 organisations and individuals focused exclusively on two issues:

  1. the primary prevention of harm (i.e. keeping bad things from happening in the first place);
  2. the first 1,001 days of life (from pre-birth to preschool).

The coalition was a significant influence on the content of the Children and Young People Act 2014. This report outlines its impact on the Act and what it has achieved since.