Families, Relationships and Societies • vol x • no x • xx–xx • © Policy Press 2016 • #FRS Print ISSN 2046 7435 • Online ISSN 2046 7443 • http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/204674316X14552878034622 article Let’s stop feeding the risk monster: Towards a social model of ‘child protection’ Brid Featherstone,1
[email protected] University of Huddersfield, UK Anna Gupta,
[email protected] Royal Holloway University of London, UK Kate Morris,
[email protected] University of Sheffield, UK Joanne Warner,
[email protected] University of Kent, UK This article explores how the child protection system currently operates in England. It analyses how policy and practice has developed, and articulates the need for an alternative approach. It draws from the social model as applied in the fields of disability and mental health, to begin to sketch out more hopeful and progressive possibilities for children, families and communities. The social model specifically draws attention to the economic, environmental and cultural barriers faced by people with differing levels of (dis)ability, but has not been used to think about ‘child protection’, an area of work in England that is dominated by a focus on risk and risk aversion. This area has paid limited attention to the barriers to ensuring children and young people are cared for safely within families and communities, and the social determinants of much of the harms they experience have not been recognised because of the focus on individualised risk factors. key words child protection • risk • parenting • social model Introduction In this article we argue that it is time to question a child protection project that colludes with a view that the greatest threats to children’s safety and wellbeing are posed by their parents or carers’ intentional negligence or abuse.