Learning the Lessons from Punishing Abuse: Poverty, Deprivation and Empowering Rich Social Work Practice

These video resources, created in response to Dr Alex Chard's hard-hitting report Punishing Abuse, focus on drawing out lessons for frontline professionals working in children’s services.

Punishing Abuse considers the impact of poverty, abuse, loss, adversity and probable trauma on the lives of children known to the youth justice system in the West Midlands, and the impact these experiences have had on their lives and behaviours. Based on research undertaken on behalf of the West Midlands Combined Authority in collaboration with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the findings have profound implications for policy and practice in work with troubled children, not just locally but also nationally.

Description

In this video and audio replay, Dr Alex Chard discusses poverty and its role as a driver for poor outcomes – a theme which ran throughout his highly impactful report, Punishing Abuse. The video is a follow-up to Learning the lessons from Punishing Abuse: Why professional curiosity and knowing a child well matters, and builds on the ideas discussed in the first session, paying particular attention to the impact poverty had on the lives of the young people in the report.

Further issues of poverty in the lives of children, young people and families are also explored, particularly in relation to housing and homeless, mental health and education. Social workers are encouraged to think about poverty-informed practice and consider what is in their power to change.

Alex is once again joined by Wendy Tomlinson, the Youth Custody Service’s Head of Safeguarding, who has a longstanding background at a senior management level in children’s services.

These resources will help you:

• Gain an understanding of the role poverty played in the lives of the children studied in Punishing Abuse
• Develop a deeper understanding of how poverty impoverishes lives – feel what’s at stake
• Consider the importance of knowing how a child experiences poverty
• Reflect on the concept of ‘poverty-informed practice’
• Critically reflect on the health of your own practice in supporting children and families living in poverty – how ‘poverty-informed’ is your practice?
• Develop critical reflexivity
• Reach an understanding about what it is in your power to change

Further reading