Kristal Morris
Biographic Data
| ID | 166939 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kristal Morris |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kristal |
| FAMILY NAME | Morris |
| SIGNATURE | MORRIS K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sheffield |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1245-1023 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 449 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
On Second Thought
Editors:I found Sam Chesters's “metamodern” framework for satire in “Don't Go All Earnest on Us” useful and encouraging, especially in an era in which, despite George Saunders's own increasing popularity, satire is viewed with skepticism by much of the reading public and the publishing industry.1I was a student of Saunders's two decades ago, and even then he was warning me against my tendency toward what Steven Weisenburger refers to as “degenera…
Post-pandemic: Moving on from ‘child protection’
COVID-19 has shone a light on the many inequalities scarring our landscape. As we look to the future, a consensus is emerging around the need to reject the highly individualistic focus of previous decades and to build back fairer by tackling the ‘causes of the causes’ of so many of our social ills. What might this mean for ‘child protection’, where a focus on individual families and individually generated risks has dominated? We suggest that this…
Understanding out of Home Care Rates in Northern Ireland: A Thematic Analysis of Mixed Methods Case Studies
Research exploring inequalities in UK child welfare interventions has produced counter-intuitive findings with respect to Northern Ireland (NI). Despite experiencing the highest levels of deprivation, NI also displays the lowest rates of children in care of all the UK nations. With reference to wider evidence in the field of child welfare inequalities, this article details the findings of two exploratory mixed methods case studies, located within…
Camping Out with Miss Chief: Kent Monkman's Ironic Journey
This article explores the many ways Cree artist Kent Monkman uses irony, parody, and camp humor to subvert mythologized visions of the American West that excluded Native Americans or treated them as a dying people, frozen in time. Monkman thrusts himself into large-scale western landscapes in the form of a transgender, camp alter ego named “Miss Chief” who disrupts multiple romanticized views of the American landscape. In true trickster fashion, …
Untangling child welfare inequalities and the ‘Inverse Intervention Law’ in England
Framed to fit? Challenging the domestic abuse ‘story’ in child protection
The current framing of domestic violence generates profound problems for those concerned with supporting change for all involved. In particular, the stress on the ‘equal vulnerability’ of all women to domestic abuse, irrespective of economic or social circumstances, is out of line with a developing evidence base and deprives policymakers and practitioners of the conceptual tools that are needed to situate actual identities, choices and challenges…
Toward Full Integration of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Case Study Research: Insights From Investigating Child Welfare Inequalities
Delineation of the full integration of quantitative and qualitative methods throughout all stages of multisite mixed methods case study projects remains a gap in the methodological literature. This article offers advances to the field of mixed methods by detailing the application and integration of mixed methods throughout all stages of one such project; a study of child welfare inequalities. By offering a critical discussion of site selection an…
Paradoxical evidence on ethnic inequities in child welfare: Towards a research agenda
Poverty, inequality, child abuse and neglect: Changing the conversation across the UK in child protection
Protecting Children: A Social Model
Protecting Children: A Social Model
The state is increasingly experienced as both intrusive and neglectful, particularly by those living in poverty, leading to loss of trust and widespread feelings of alienation and disconnection. Against this tense background, this innovative book argues that child protection policies and practices have become part of the problem, rather than ensuring children's well-being and safety. Building on the ideas in the best-selling Re-imagining Child Pr…
‘When you're sitting in the room with two people one of whom… has bashed the hell out of the other’: Possibilities and challenges in the use of FGCs and restorative approaches following domestic viole…
Domestic violence continues to be a primary reason for referrals to state child welfare services in advanced industrialised countries. There is growing concern in many state child welfare services to develop responses to it that are both more effective and more humane. The use of restorative approaches, in particular Family Group Conferences (FGCs), has been suggested as one such response. This article draws from data gathered from an evaluation …
How do you solve a problem like Maria? Family complexity and institutional complications in UK social work
This paper draws on UK data from an international, comparative project involving eight countries. The study examined how social workers’ conceptions and definitions of family impact on the way they engage with complex families, and how social policies that frame social work context impact on the way social workers engage with families. Focus groups were held in which social workers from four service areas (child welfare, addictions, mental health…
Social work, poverty, and child welfare interventions
The relationship between children's material circumstances and child abuse and neglect raises a series of questions for policy, practice, and practitioners. Children and families in poverty are significantly more likely to be the subject of state intervention. This article, based on a unique mixed‐methods study of social work interventions and the influence of poverty, highlights a narrative from practitioners that argues that, as many poor famil…
Bringing back the social: The way forward for children’s social work
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue for the need to move away from a sole focus on assessing and dealing with individualised risk factors in order to more fully engage with and understand the social determinants of many of the harms that are manifest in families. Design/methodology/approach It draws from a number of research studies being conducted by the authors and a literature on psycho-social approaches to social suffering. Findings…
Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: A universal challenge
The role that area deprivation, family poverty, and austerity policies play in the demand for and supply of children's services has been a contested issue in England in recent years. These relationships have begun to be explored through the concept of inequalities in child welfare, in parallel to the established fields of inequalities in education and health. This article focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and out‐of‐home car…
Working with the whole family: What case files tell us about social work practices
Practice theories to support child protection social work in the United Kingdom, as in the United States and Australia, are being squeezed out by a focus on performance targets and procedural timescales. This study examines an innovative programme designed to reverse this trend initiated by an English local government authority. The programme aimed to embed systemic family practice in situations where children are deemed to be at risk of harm. Th…
Let’s stop feeding the risk monster: Towards a social model of ‘child protection’
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, en…
Out of time: Theorizing family in social work practice
This paper draws on a British Academy ( BA ) funded study exploring social workers' conceptions of family using a vignette and focus groups. The policy context is discussed and the data from the BA study are then compared and contrasted with families' accounts of their own situations using the data from a separate qualitative study about child protection social work. The paper discusses the themes emerging and argues for a renewed focus on theori…
Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’
Re-imagining child protection: Towards humane social work with families
This book draws from moral philosophy, social policy, the humanities, sociology, systems theory,psycho-social studies and the authors’ research on systems and the lived experiences of those involved with current child protection processes to challenge current directions in child protection policy and practice. It examines the language and frameworks used and addresses how they have hollowed out important moral and political issues of suffering an…
Re-imagining child protection: Towards humane social work with families
A Marriage Made in Hell: Early Intervention Meets Child Protection
In this article, we will argue for the moral legitimacy of support and its difference from intervention and the need to engage with and develop a family support project for the twenty-first century. We call for a debate on the current settlement between the state and family life and for a recognition that a perfect storm has ensued from the unholy alliance of early intervention and child protection. We will argue for a project that celebrates fam…
Troubled families: Vulnerable families' experiences of multiple service use
This paper draws on a small‐scale study examining the experiences of highly vulnerable families with complex and enduring needs. The previous UK government and the current government have sought to develop policy and service initiatives that target families who present high levels of need and require high cost services. However, to date remarkably little is known about family perspectives and experiences. In this paper, family accounts of their e…
Thinking Family? The Complexities for Family Engagement in Care and Protection
Journal Article Thinking Family? The Complexities for Family Engagement in Care and Protection Get access Kate Morris Kate Morris * Kate Morris is Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Nottingham. *Correspondence to Kate Morris, Associate Professor, Centre for Social Work, University of Nottingham, School of Sociology, Nottingham, NG27 2RD, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Acade…
A Marriage Made in Hell: Early Intervention Meets Child Protection
In this article, we will argue for the moral legitimacy of support and its difference from intervention and the need to engage with and develop a family support project for the twenty-first century. We call for a debate on the current settlement between the state and family life and for a recognition that a perfect storm has ensued from the unholy alliance of early intervention and child protection. We will argue for a project that celebrates fam…
Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: A universal challenge
The role that area deprivation, family poverty, and austerity policies play in the demand for and supply of children's services has been a contested issue in England in recent years. These relationships have begun to be explored through the concept of inequalities in child welfare, in parallel to the established fields of inequalities in education and health. This article focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and out‐of‐home car…
Social work, poverty, and child welfare interventions
The relationship between children's material circumstances and child abuse and neglect raises a series of questions for policy, practice, and practitioners. Children and families in poverty are significantly more likely to be the subject of state intervention. This article, based on a unique mixed‐methods study of social work interventions and the influence of poverty, highlights a narrative from practitioners that argues that, as many poor famil…
Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’
Troubled families: Vulnerable families' experiences of multiple service use
This paper draws on a small‐scale study examining the experiences of highly vulnerable families with complex and enduring needs. The previous UK government and the current government have sought to develop policy and service initiatives that target families who present high levels of need and require high cost services. However, to date remarkably little is known about family perspectives and experiences. In this paper, family accounts of their e…
Let’s stop feeding the risk monster: Towards a social model of ‘child protection’
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, en…
Untangling child welfare inequalities and the ‘Inverse Intervention Law’ in England
Paradoxical evidence on ethnic inequities in child welfare: Towards a research agenda
Poverty, inequality, child abuse and neglect: Changing the conversation across the UK in child protection
Out of time: Theorizing family in social work practice
This paper draws on a British Academy ( BA ) funded study exploring social workers' conceptions of family using a vignette and focus groups. The policy context is discussed and the data from the BA study are then compared and contrasted with families' accounts of their own situations using the data from a separate qualitative study about child protection social work. The paper discusses the themes emerging and argues for a renewed focus on theori…
Investing in Children, Regulating Parents, Thinking Family: A Decade of Tensions and Contradictions
This article describes the contested and underdeveloped backdrop to ‘“whole family” approaches’, whereby families with care and protection needs are caught in a conflicting set of policy and practice expectations concerning responsibility to care whilst being positioned as families that fail. Questions are raised about how supported families are to navigate their way through these permissive and punitive policies and practices. We suggest that th…
Thinking Family? The Complexities for Family Engagement in Care and Protection
Journal Article Thinking Family? The Complexities for Family Engagement in Care and Protection Get access Kate Morris Kate Morris * Kate Morris is Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Nottingham. *Correspondence to Kate Morris, Associate Professor, Centre for Social Work, University of Nottingham, School of Sociology, Nottingham, NG27 2RD, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Acade…
Working with the whole family: What case files tell us about social work practices
Practice theories to support child protection social work in the United Kingdom, as in the United States and Australia, are being squeezed out by a focus on performance targets and procedural timescales. This study examines an innovative programme designed to reverse this trend initiated by an English local government authority. The programme aimed to embed systemic family practice in situations where children are deemed to be at risk of harm. Th…
Prevention and Social Exclusion: New Understandings for Policy and Practice
Existing conceptual and policy understandings of prevention draw on the work of Hardiker et al. undertaken during the 1980s and 1990s. This article considers the changing landscape for child welfare provision and argues the value of developing new understandings that reflect contemporary practice and policy contexts. Building on the analysis of data gathered during the National Evaluation of the Children’s Fund (NECF), this article suggests that …
Framed to fit? Challenging the domestic abuse ‘story’ in child protection
The current framing of domestic violence generates profound problems for those concerned with supporting change for all involved. In particular, the stress on the ‘equal vulnerability’ of all women to domestic abuse, irrespective of economic or social circumstances, is out of line with a developing evidence base and deprives policymakers and practitioners of the conceptual tools that are needed to situate actual identities, choices and challenges…
Toward Full Integration of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Case Study Research: Insights From Investigating Child Welfare Inequalities
Delineation of the full integration of quantitative and qualitative methods throughout all stages of multisite mixed methods case study projects remains a gap in the methodological literature. This article offers advances to the field of mixed methods by detailing the application and integration of mixed methods throughout all stages of one such project; a study of child welfare inequalities. By offering a critical discussion of site selection an…
How do you solve a problem like Maria? Family complexity and institutional complications in UK social work
This paper draws on UK data from an international, comparative project involving eight countries. The study examined how social workers’ conceptions and definitions of family impact on the way they engage with complex families, and how social policies that frame social work context impact on the way social workers engage with families. Focus groups were held in which social workers from four service areas (child welfare, addictions, mental health…
Post-pandemic: Moving on from ‘child protection’
COVID-19 has shone a light on the many inequalities scarring our landscape. As we look to the future, a consensus is emerging around the need to reject the highly individualistic focus of previous decades and to build back fairer by tackling the ‘causes of the causes’ of so many of our social ills. What might this mean for ‘child protection’, where a focus on individual families and individually generated risks has dominated? We suggest that this…
Difficult Dialogue: Conversations with Aboriginal Parents and Caregivers
Indigenous conversation and voice are increasingly heard in the research literature but there needs to be more dialogue in order for it to be a two-way conversation. This paper contributes to research that attempts to redress this situation by reporting on conversations with Aboriginal parents and caregivers of students enrolled in a public secondary school in a large New South Wales country town. The conversations were conducted over a three-yea…
Strategies for the Prevention of Social Exclusion: An Analysis of the Children's Fund
The Children's Fund involved the development of partnerships in every local authority in England to prevent the social exclusion of children and young people. This article draws from the national evaluation of this initiative to consider the strategies used to implement the Fund, and reflect on their capacity to address the multiple dimensions of exclusion experienced by marginalised groups of children and young people. It discusses the contested…
Understanding out of Home Care Rates in Northern Ireland: A Thematic Analysis of Mixed Methods Case Studies
Research exploring inequalities in UK child welfare interventions has produced counter-intuitive findings with respect to Northern Ireland (NI). Despite experiencing the highest levels of deprivation, NI also displays the lowest rates of children in care of all the UK nations. With reference to wider evidence in the field of child welfare inequalities, this article details the findings of two exploratory mixed methods case studies, located within…
Bringing back the social: The way forward for children’s social work
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue for the need to move away from a sole focus on assessing and dealing with individualised risk factors in order to more fully engage with and understand the social determinants of many of the harms that are manifest in families. Design/methodology/approach It draws from a number of research studies being conducted by the authors and a literature on psycho-social approaches to social suffering. Findings…
Working with Children's Existing Networks – Building Better Opportunities
There is a considerable body of research that demonstrates the positive impact of involving children's families and networks in designing and developing the services children need. This paper – using empirical evidence from evaluations conducted in the UK, USA and New Zealand – suggests professionals are struggling to promote participative practice. The paper explores this apparent resistance and raises some questions about the understandings hel…
Networks, Connectedness and Resilience: Learning From the Children's Fund in Context
During the past decade, expectations placed on child welfare services in the UK have moved away from individualised provision geared to meeting the needs of specific children at risk, to consideration of the broader context for children. The introduction of a series of national programmes aimed at addressing social exclusion and tasked with stimulating new approaches to enabling better outcomes for children formed the background for the recent le…
From ‘Children in Need’ to ‘Children at Risk’—The Changing Policy Context for Prevention and Participation
This article explores the changing context for preventative services, and the involvement of children and families in developing these services. Using emerging findings from national evaluations of preventative initiatives, the move to address the needs of children at risk of social exclusion is considered. The challenges faced in implementing previous needs-led approaches to children are set against the current intentions to achieve change for c…
The UK Independence Party
Family Group Conferencing: New Directions in Community‐centered Child and Family Practice
A complex solution to a complicated problem? Early messages from the national evaluation of the Children's Fund Prevention Programme
This paper is concerned with exploring the research and policy base that underpinned the development of the Children's Fund Prevention Programme. It discusses how the initiative developed, how it is being evaluated and how it is now contributing to the new policy agenda around prevention services. Early findings are discussed highlighting some of the challenges local projects have to manage around partnership working, participation of children an…
From ‘Children in Need’ to ‘Children at Risk’—The Changing Policy Context for Prevention and Participation
This article explores the changing context for preventative services, and the involvement of children and families in developing these services. Using emerging findings from national evaluations of preventative initiatives, the move to address the needs of children at risk of social exclusion is considered. The challenges faced in implementing previous needs-led approaches to children are set against the current intentions to achieve change for c…
Networks, Connectedness and Resilience: Learning From the Children's Fund in Context
During the past decade, expectations placed on child welfare services in the UK have moved away from individualised provision geared to meeting the needs of specific children at risk, to consideration of the broader context for children. The introduction of a series of national programmes aimed at addressing social exclusion and tasked with stimulating new approaches to enabling better outcomes for children formed the background for the recent le…
Working with Children's Existing Networks – Building Better Opportunities
There is a considerable body of research that demonstrates the positive impact of involving children's families and networks in designing and developing the services children need. This paper – using empirical evidence from evaluations conducted in the UK, USA and New Zealand – suggests professionals are struggling to promote participative practice. The paper explores this apparent resistance and raises some questions about the understandings hel…
Prevention and Social Exclusion: New Understandings for Policy and Practice
Existing conceptual and policy understandings of prevention draw on the work of Hardiker et al. undertaken during the 1980s and 1990s. This article considers the changing landscape for child welfare provision and argues the value of developing new understandings that reflect contemporary practice and policy contexts. Building on the analysis of data gathered during the National Evaluation of the Children’s Fund (NECF), this article suggests that …
Strategies for the Prevention of Social Exclusion: An Analysis of the Children's Fund
The Children's Fund involved the development of partnerships in every local authority in England to prevent the social exclusion of children and young people. This article draws from the national evaluation of this initiative to consider the strategies used to implement the Fund, and reflect on their capacity to address the multiple dimensions of exclusion experienced by marginalised groups of children and young people. It discusses the contested…
Difficult Dialogue: Conversations with Aboriginal Parents and Caregivers
Indigenous conversation and voice are increasingly heard in the research literature but there needs to be more dialogue in order for it to be a two-way conversation. This paper contributes to research that attempts to redress this situation by reporting on conversations with Aboriginal parents and caregivers of students enrolled in a public secondary school in a large New South Wales country town. The conversations were conducted over a three-yea…
Investing in Children, Regulating Parents, Thinking Family: A Decade of Tensions and Contradictions
This article describes the contested and underdeveloped backdrop to ‘“whole family” approaches’, whereby families with care and protection needs are caught in a conflicting set of policy and practice expectations concerning responsibility to care whilst being positioned as families that fail. Questions are raised about how supported families are to navigate their way through these permissive and punitive policies and practices. We suggest that th…
"Running the "Medicine Line: Images of the Border in Contemporary Native American Art
Running the "Medicine Line":Images of the Border in Contemporary Native American Art Kate Morris (bio) On a typical morning the Three Nations International Crossing bridge over the Saint Lawrence River is a busy thoroughfare; the border crossing here averages four thousand cars per day. On the morning that I crossed over it in August 2009, however, the bridge was deserted. It was eerily quiet as my passenger and I left the United States and drove…
Troubled families: Vulnerable families' experiences of multiple service use
This paper draws on a small‐scale study examining the experiences of highly vulnerable families with complex and enduring needs. The previous UK government and the current government have sought to develop policy and service initiatives that target families who present high levels of need and require high cost services. However, to date remarkably little is known about family perspectives and experiences. In this paper, family accounts of their e…
Thinking Family? The Complexities for Family Engagement in Care and Protection
Journal Article Thinking Family? The Complexities for Family Engagement in Care and Protection Get access Kate Morris Kate Morris * Kate Morris is Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Nottingham. *Correspondence to Kate Morris, Associate Professor, Centre for Social Work, University of Nottingham, School of Sociology, Nottingham, NG27 2RD, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Acade…
A Marriage Made in Hell: Early Intervention Meets Child Protection
In this article, we will argue for the moral legitimacy of support and its difference from intervention and the need to engage with and develop a family support project for the twenty-first century. We call for a debate on the current settlement between the state and family life and for a recognition that a perfect storm has ensued from the unholy alliance of early intervention and child protection. We will argue for a project that celebrates fam…
Re-imagining child protection: Towards humane social work with families
This book draws from moral philosophy, social policy, the humanities, sociology, systems theory,psycho-social studies and the authors’ research on systems and the lived experiences of those involved with current child protection processes to challenge current directions in child protection policy and practice. It examines the language and frameworks used and addresses how they have hollowed out important moral and political issues of suffering an…
Re-imagining child protection: Towards humane social work with families
Out of time: Theorizing family in social work practice
This paper draws on a British Academy ( BA ) funded study exploring social workers' conceptions of family using a vignette and focus groups. The policy context is discussed and the data from the BA study are then compared and contrasted with families' accounts of their own situations using the data from a separate qualitative study about child protection social work. The paper discusses the themes emerging and argues for a renewed focus on theori…
Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’
Let’s stop feeding the risk monster: Towards a social model of ‘child protection’
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, en…
Bringing back the social: The way forward for children’s social work
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue for the need to move away from a sole focus on assessing and dealing with individualised risk factors in order to more fully engage with and understand the social determinants of many of the harms that are manifest in families. Design/methodology/approach It draws from a number of research studies being conducted by the authors and a literature on psycho-social approaches to social suffering. Findings…
Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: A universal challenge
The role that area deprivation, family poverty, and austerity policies play in the demand for and supply of children's services has been a contested issue in England in recent years. These relationships have begun to be explored through the concept of inequalities in child welfare, in parallel to the established fields of inequalities in education and health. This article focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and out‐of‐home car…
Working with the whole family: What case files tell us about social work practices
Practice theories to support child protection social work in the United Kingdom, as in the United States and Australia, are being squeezed out by a focus on performance targets and procedural timescales. This study examines an innovative programme designed to reverse this trend initiated by an English local government authority. The programme aimed to embed systemic family practice in situations where children are deemed to be at risk of harm. Th…
Protecting Children: A Social Model
Protecting Children: A Social Model
The state is increasingly experienced as both intrusive and neglectful, particularly by those living in poverty, leading to loss of trust and widespread feelings of alienation and disconnection. Against this tense background, this innovative book argues that child protection policies and practices have become part of the problem, rather than ensuring children's well-being and safety. Building on the ideas in the best-selling Re-imagining Child Pr…
‘When you're sitting in the room with two people one of whom… has bashed the hell out of the other’: Possibilities and challenges in the use of FGCs and restorative approaches following domestic viole…
Domestic violence continues to be a primary reason for referrals to state child welfare services in advanced industrialised countries. There is growing concern in many state child welfare services to develop responses to it that are both more effective and more humane. The use of restorative approaches, in particular Family Group Conferences (FGCs), has been suggested as one such response. This article draws from data gathered from an evaluation …
Political science (29 works) · Sociology (28 works) · Psychology (27 works) · Law (19 works) · Child Abuse and Trauma (18 works) · Public relations (15 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (14 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Medicine (11 works)