Family and Social Policy: Towards Family Minded Policy and whole

British Academy UK. Latin America Link
Programme
Birmingham, UK. June 2013
Family and Social Policy: Towards Family
Minded Policy and whole family practice
(second seminar)
UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE NUEVO LEÓN
FACULTAD DE TRABAJO SOCIAL Y DESARROLLO HUMANO
Family and child protection system
An approach to family definition of mexican and swedish
social workers
Sandra Elizabet Mancinas Espinoza
Eunice Martínez
Objective
To present a first approach on family
definition of Mexican and Swedish
social workers who work in the child
welfare system in their respective
countries
An overview of mexican and
swedish child protection system
Children's entry into child welfare in
Sweden
Application from
the family
Report from
others:
school, a
neighbor etc.
Social workers screen
individuals/families to
determine whether
there is need for
services
Report from
social services:
someone working
with parents
addiction, etc.
Application or
Referral
Gatekeeping or needs assessment
Social workers decide to open an
investigation.
Social workers
decide to not open
an investigation.
Decision
making
Support
By Viktoria Skoog
Service
No support
Refers the family to
family support that
does not need a
decision from social
services
Child investigation and interventions
in Sweden
Social worker makes a plan for the investigation together with the
family. The investigation has to be complete in four months. The
social worker gathers information, assesses, makes a decision and
shares the investigation and the decision with the family.
Decision
No intervention
Support to the family
in their home.
Social worker make a
plan for the purpose of
the intervention
Out-of-home care.
Social workers make a plan
for the purpose of the
interventions
The family and child
over 15 consent
Voluntary care
Social worker make a plan for the
interventions
The child and the family get the
intervention
By Viktoria Skoog
Every six months the social
worker follows up the
interventions
The family and child
over 15 do not consent
Application for
compulsory care
Application
approved
Application is
not approved
No intervention
Children's entry into child welfare in
Mexico (focus in children abuse)
Reporting through
the mass media
Children without
families
Report from
others:
school, a
neighbor
Report from
social services:
someone working
with parents
addiction, health
system, etc.
The social services lawyer
prepares a special document for
the social worker who initiate an
investigation (asignación)
Social workers interview/families,
neighbor, teachers, to determine
whether there is need for services
Support
By Sandra Mancinas
Application from
the family
Application or
Referral
Needs assessment and decision
making
No support
Service
Child investigation and interventions
in Mexico
Social worker makes an investigation about the children family
(Including the extended family). The social worker gathers
information, and shares the investigation with special council.
Decision is made for special team (social work, lawyer and psychologist
External
intervention
Social worker make a
plan for the purpose of
the intervention
Institutional care short
time
Back to home
(Social worker follow
up the intervention
once a week
Institutional care long time
Adoption
(An other Social worker
follow up the intervention)
The family can visit the children and participate in
special sessions about positive parentality
Social worker make a plan for the
interventions
The child and the family get the
intervention, The focus is the children
By Sandra Mancinas
Periodically the social worker
follows up the interventions and
present inform to special team
The especial team decides
institutionalization end
An other Social
worker make a plan
for the purpose of the
intervention
Method
Case studies
• Deep interviews
• Focus groups (vignette designed by Lennart
Nygren and Siv Oltedal)
Method
Participants
Focus group
Mexican social
workers in public
institutions
(one)
Swedish social
workers in public
institutions
(one)
Deep interview
Mexican social
workers in private
institutions
(two)
Swedish social
workers in private
institutions
(two)
Method
The analysis of information will be made
through the content analysis technique
The software MAXQDA it will used
Analysis categories preliminary
• Own family
• Ideal family
• Typical family on the protection child services
Preliminary
approaches
Category
Own family
Ideal/typical family
Typical family on the
protection child services
Mexican
Major family diversity

Single parent headed by women (3)

Nuclear family (1)

Extended family (1)
They consider that there are differences between
ideal and typical family
Typical
“está predominando la jefa de familia con hijos,
yo siento que es la que predomina ahorita”
“Ya es la típica [la jefa de familia]”
Ideal
“definitivamente es la nuclear”
“Inclusive debería de ser la típica”
Text
Swedish
Nuclear family remarried

All of them included extended family in their
definition
…mother, father and they have children and then
they are separated and they have their own families.
This is more typical now that it was 20 years ago…
It's probably true that children live together with two
parents but they may not both be biological. And, the
most probably don’t live with just one parent.
“I think in the two years that I have been working, I
have only encountered parents that are divorced or
separated. I cannot think of one where they were still
together”
[Una familia con necesidades económicas] “el
apoyo en alimento, en cuestiones de becas, esa
creo que la que predomina mucho”
“Una sola [mujer sola] con sus hijos. [Jefa de
familia es una mujer sola que vive con sus hijos, “It might be that we meet mother and partner or
en México existe un programa para este tipo de father and partner. So, not just single parents. There
familia que están en pobreza]”
are often two parents. Or even 4 parents though
there are really just 2 who have actually custody of
the child. Then these families are often in conflict.
They are high conflict parents that we meet”
Thank you!