Culture and Child Protection

Providing services that are culturally relevant is an ongoing challenge for practitioners, managers, and policy-makers within the social services. Culture and Child Protection is a concise exploration of the close links between social service practices and cultural values which offers a culturally sensitive model of child protection practice.The authors demonstrate the ways in which a combination of personal, professional and societal attitudes often influence practice decisions. In a context where children from ethnic minorities dominate the welfare statistics of the Western economies, the authors argue against a reliance on rigid approaches to working with particular ethnic groups. They propose effective alternative strategies that will assist social workers in responding appropriately to diverse cultural needs and circumstances. Implications of cultural difference are also considered with respect to class, socio-economic group, gender and age, reinforcing the need to recognise broad