e-space
Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

    Family Group Conferences: An Opportunity to Re-Frame Responses to the Abuse of Older Adults?

    Parkinson, Kate, Pollock, Sarah ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1106-6705 and Edwards, Deanna (2018) Family Group Conferences: An Opportunity to Re-Frame Responses to the Abuse of Older Adults? The British Journal of Social Work, 48 (4). pp. 1109-1126. ISSN 0045-3102

    [img]
    Preview
    Accepted Version
    Available under License In Copyright.

    Download (404kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Recent legislative and policy changes in adult social care have refocused attention on a strengths-based approach to social work practice. The Care Act 2014 advocates a more inclusive and holistic understanding of individual well-being, which is evident by its expectation of more personalised responses to safeguarding. Family Group Conferences (FGCs) fit well with this policy shift but require further exploration before being integrated into work with adults. A fictitious case study was analysed through an organic group discussion, during which the authors applied their professional expertise to explore the appropriateness of FGCs to provide a response to adultsafeguarding cases. FGCs provide a viable alternative to traditional decision-making approaches in the adult-safeguarding field. The case analysis exposes three main areas that require further consideration to ensure effective implementation. The areas identified are divided into mental capacity, risk and funding. It is important that policy makers and local authorities acknowledge the complexity of transferring an approach originally designed for working with children and families to the context of social work with older adults. More effort should be made to address the practice tensions outlined within the article.

    Impact and Reach

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    645Downloads
    6 month trend
    318Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Altmetric

    Repository staff only

    Edit record Edit record