Social workers' attitudes towards Family Group Conferences in Sweden and the United Kingdom

Abstract

The New Zealand Family Group Conference (FGC) approach to decision making in child welfare and protection has attracted strong interest among policymakers and professionals all over the world. While New Zealand's legislation makes use of FGCs more or less mandatory in child protection, other countries permit social workers to refer families to an FGC at their own discretion. Knowledge about social workers' attitudes toward the model is thus paramount if we want to understand implementation and evaluations of FGCs outside New Zealand. This study looks at attitudes towards and actual referrals to FGCs amongst 219 social workers from 18 local authorities in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Results reveal an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards FGCs in both countries. Given these attitudes it was striking that only 42% of the social workers had initiated at least one FGC over an 18 month period. The number of implemented FGCs was almost exactly the same in Sweden and the United Kingdom, after adjusting for time and number of social workers. Possible explanations for this paradox are discussed, using data from the survey and child welfare literature.