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Background to this project

The development of this learning object has grown out of a project which ATD Fourth World ran in 2005. This project centred around families living in poverty who have experienced social work services (ATD, 2005). The full report of this project is available on the ATD Fourth World web site at:

http://www.atd-uk.org/ukprogrammes/ATD_RightTrainers.pdf

The family members from ATD Fourth World:

A key element of these learning resources are the accounts of the families who are experiencing or have experienced poverty. These same families were involved in both the original 'Getting the Right Trainers' project and this one, which has ensured consistency across both projects and allowed the authors to forge a relationship of trust between the families and the development team. In addition to being filmed, these family members were involved in reviewing all the resources and advising on the appropriateness and authenticity of content.

The three authors of this learning object all participated in both projects. They also worked with the same ATD Fourth World families across both of these projects.

The three authors are:

James Blewett is a registered social worker who is Research Director and national chair for Making Research Count, the research dissemination network which in London is based at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, Kings College London. After many years working in different posts of children's services James has taught extensively on social work qualifying and post qualifying programmes. As part of this work he helped developed a module with service users on the impact of poverty and parenting. James has written and researched around number of areas in children's social care including family support, child welfare policy and workforce issues.

Anna Gupta is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is the Director of Post-Qualifying Studies in the Department of Health and Social Care. She was been the director of the successful London Post Qualifying Child Care Award at Royal Holloway for seven years and has developed the new Graduate Diploma in Work with Children and Families under the new GSCC Post Qualifying Framework. She is a qualified social worker with extensive experience of child care social work and management, including work as a children's guardian and expert witness in public law family court proceedings. She has published work on various aspects of child welfare, including on working with families living in poverty, childhood neglect and work with black and minority ethnic families. She is currently involved in an evaluation of family group conferences for black and minority ethnic families, and has recently completed a literature review on child protection systems and international adoption for the Children's High Level Group, a charity working with countries in Eastern Europe to develop their child welfare services.

Jane Tunstill is Visiting Professor and Children's Services Consultant at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, Kings College, London and Emeritus Professor of Social Work, Royal Holloway, London University, where she established the Department of Health and Social Care and was responsible for professional and post qualifying social work education. Much of her research has been in family support and early intervention, and she has undertaken a large number of studies in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. Between 2000 and 2007 she was a Primary Investigator, (Director of the Implementation Module) of the DfES commissioned National Evaluation of Sure Start, responsible for the collection of national data on the roll out, service delivery and workforce issues. Her most recent NESS study is on the Safeguarding Activity of Sure Start Local Programmes and Children's Centres. Her published research studies include three consecutive Department of Health funded national studies, two on the implementation of the 1989 Children Act and one, a national study of the co-ordinating and networking activity of Family Centres, part of the Department of Health Parenting Initiative. She has undertaken a wide variety of commissions for the voluntary child care sector, including a mapping exercise of Family Support Services for FPI (Family and Parenting Institute); and a Cross Sector Scoping Study of the Family Support Workforce for CWDC (Children's Workforce Development Council).

In addition to undertaking research she is very committed to the need for imaginative and proactive dissemination of the knowledge base for children's services. She is member of the editorial board of Children and Society, and along with colleagues, was a founder member of the national social care dissemination project, Making Research Count, which now operates across England with a membership of approximately 250 health and social care agencies. She is a member of the Management Board of CAFCASS, in which role she has corporate sponsorship for research.

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When using services, parents have reported that they encounter discriminatory attitudes from some professionals on the basis that they are poor. These include the experience of families being unfairly judged; or of professionals not appearing to understand the implications for the parental role of the restricted choices and opportunities that living in poverty brings.

Examples of discriminatory attitudes:

"We are giving you food vouchers because we have to ensure you prioritise the needs of the children"

"Other parents cope on benefits. Why can't you?"

"We are not an income agency. We will not give you any money. Go and see the Benefits Agency."

We are very concerned about the poor repair of your flat."

Let me be straight with you. You never have any money - are you on drugs?"

You need to give the children a better balance. I have not seen any fruit in your house."

You have enough money for cigarettes. You must put the children first."

However many parents also report positive experiences of working with professionals. This learning object seeks to help practitioners understand the positive steps they can take to building good relationships with parents in poverty.

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