Partnering with parents: Family centred practice in children's services Barry Trute and Diane Heibert-Murphy

Reviewed by: Pam Freeman, University of Exeter, England

This edited book considers in detail and complexity the theories, policies, and application of professional practice in establishing working partnerships with parents on a family centered basis, which addresses child disability within the family system and children's services. It is written in the context of the Canadian developments in this field with a rationale of influencing service provision and planning, encouraging interagency collaboration, and the further empowerment and inclusion of families in the process, using a strengths’ model and flexible strategies for managing childhood disability.The academic authors have been involved in testing this model in Manitoba for some years. The tradition and terminology used are probably more familiar to U.S. and New Zealand practitioners and the form of family intervention known as the Family Group Conference model has become globally influential.

The book draws together extensive research sources from both social work and medical evidence gleaned mainly from North American literature, usefully referenced at the end of each chapter. Carefully written, but dense in style, it explores various dimensions of practice, illuminated in five parts covering the key themes of “context, collaboration and capacity building” (p. 15). The core of these themes are to be found in Parts One and Two, which discuss the conceptual model, the differentiation from other types of family intervention with characteristics that capitalize on family strengths, and resilience within the specific social context, argued to be fundamental principles in creating a working alliance through empowerment and self-efficacy. Such partnering can be challenging for professionals, therefore informed practice, organized, and supervised service provision are advocated, including various assessment tools using ecological theories and social network analysis to understand the families’ social context. Strongly held professional values, cultural awareness, and sensitivity to family stress and dysfunction are also advocated. Part Three provides application and case material, planning, action strategies, and service coordination, all having a familiar generic ring, while Part Five argues for changes in the cultural ethos through good management and supervision. Part Four is a particularly interesting section with some fresh idea that explores gaps in our understanding of the impact on fatherhood and how in these circumstances the FCP model addresses inclusive fathering of disabled children (Chapter 11). Chapter 12 discusses the challenges faced in applying the process to culturally diverse families where it may be difficult to establish trusting partnering with immigrants or refugees who may have been exposed to violence and conflict. Recommendations emerge about personal reflexive practice, education, and the fluidity of culture and cultural relativism.

Many of the arguments and values expressed have a generic application for professionals to ensure best practice. At times, however, the book appeared a trifle idealistic in tone suggesting a romanticized view of parents as invariably the experts of their child's needs and best interests. Hence, this suggested another discreet chapter could have been justified, which addressed in depth the barriers to working alliances or family partnerships where there was resistance, intransigence, or a safeguarding issue linked to vulnerable disabled children (Russell, 1996). In addition, the impact of the professional power dimension, the desire for deferential expertise, or dependency on the part of service user could have also been discussed providing a balance to the arguments.

While providing an interesting cross-cultural comparison of Canadian service developments with generic merit, parts of this book may not always clearly resonate with a wider readership (e.g., Chapter 9 on the Family Conference Support Plan), where different traditions and drivers have influenced the establishment of family partnerships. For example, over several decades in the United Kingdom, considerable research evidence has been accrued about effective family interventions that improve outcomes to which little reference was made. In this instance, the guidance was underpinned by the Framework for Assessment (Department of Health, 2000) where there was also an emphasis on working with families in partnership based on tools that used a holistic, ecological model in assessing children's needs. Paradoxically, more recently in the United Kingdom there has been a need in social work to restate child-centered practice and interagency collaboration (Munro, 2011) where children's voices may have been ignored at the expense of working with parents in partnership. In the Canadian context of child health and disability, it would appear the reverse situation has arisen so that there has been a shift toward working with family systems where parental views have been traditionally excluded in favor of professional expertise. Allowing for the swing of the pendulum, journeys may appear similar but frequently arise from different social contexts and practices. It is therefore necessary to remain wary of putting professional faith in one approach to the exclusion of others as the panacea of all ills without continuous evaluation.

Notwithstanding these limitations, the book provides detailed, well-researched, informative insights for dedicated practitioners who wish to develop their understanding and skill base in sensitive family-centered practice. For other readers, it will nevertheless prove valuable as a reference book, although the provision of an index would have enhanced this.