Eileen Munro
Biographic Data
| ID | 5913279 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eileen Munro |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eileen |
| FAMILY NAME | Munro |
| SIGNATURE | MUNRO E |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4828-2791 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 141 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Why We Should Stop Talking About Objectivity and Subjectivity in Social Work
In debates about knowledge in social work, the terms objectivity and subjectivity are frequently used with varying degrees of positive and negative connotations. We argue that the terms have become so ambiguous that they should be avoided. In its place, we suggest focusing on the individual attributes associated with objectivity and subjectivity and consider how the desirable attributes can be strengthened and the undesirable ones avoided. This d…
Decision‐making under uncertainty in child protection
The argument is made for having a positive error culture in child protection to improve decision‐making and risk management. This requires organizations to accept that mistakes are likely and to treat them as opportunities for learning and improving. In contrast, in many organizations, a punitive reaction to errors leads to workers hiding them and developing a defensive approach to their practice with children and families. The safety management …
A systems approach to policy evaluation
There is growing interest in evaluating policy implementation in ways that grapple with the complexity of the process. This article offers an example of using systems methodology to explore how the child protection policy in child contact centres has functioned in practice. Rather than just asking the traditional evaluation question ‘is it working?’ this study sought to understand how the policy was working and how it was interpreted as it intera…
Moving on from Munro
Neuroscience and the risks of maltreatment
Conflating risks
Improving outcomes for children is a major concern in developed countries. This article examines the Every Child Matters (ECM) policy in England that seeks to integrate strategies for tackling a range of risks in relation to children, both risks of harm to themselves and harm they may pose to society. The emphasis is on early identification and intervention to reduce the numbers who go on to experience serious problems. The government cites resea…
Reforming Child Protection
Confidentiality in a Preventive Child Welfare System
Emerging child welfare policies promoting preventive and early intervention services present a challenge to professional ethics, raising questions about how to balance respect for service users with concern for social justice. This article explains how the UK policy involves shifting the balance of power away from families towards state and professional decision making. The policy is predicated on sharing information between professionals to info…
Improving practice
Where Has Child Protection Gone
The government introduced its ambitious plans to transform children's services as its response to the tragic death of Victoria Climbie, the victim of child abuse. However their scope is far more than improving child protection services. The aim is to develop preventive services, responding to low level concerns, so that all children are helped to achieve their potential. This article asks what the impact of this shift in emphasis will be for chil…
A simpler way to understand the results of risk assessment instruments
State Regulation of Parenting
Common errors of reasoning in child protection work
Protecting children in an anxious society
Risk management has become the dominant activity in child welfare services in Britain. It has the praiseworthy aim of identifying vulnerable children and protecting them from harm. However, it is becoming clear that efforts to achieve the desirable goal are producing unexpected and wholly undesirable side effects so that it is arguable that the child protection system is, on balance, doing more harm than good. This article analyses what has been …
Improving Social Workers' Knowledge Base in Child Protection Work
The present study was conducted to identify recurrent social work errors in the forty-five public inquiries held in Britain between 1973 and 1994. This article reports the findings relating to the recurrent criticisms of social workers' knowledge base. The quality of investigations and assessments are repeatedly faulted. Also, many problems arise from social workers' failure to be explicit about what they are doing. The merits and shortcomings of…
Understanding Birth Parents Lessons from Attribution Theory
A large part of the success (or failure) of any given placement rests on the quality of relationship between birth parents, foster carers and professionals. Breakdowns in communication — perhaps due to conflicting attitudes towards a child's behaviour, or intolerance or misunderstanding of a birth parent's circumstances — can make an already sensitive situation even more problematic for all concerned. Eileen Munro draws from psychology and, in pa…
Avoidable and Unavoidable Mistakes in Child Protection Work
This article argues that social workers and the general public need a clear understanding of the distinction between avoidable and unavoidable mistakes in child protection work. The public is understandably distressed when a child dies and is right to demand an inquiry to check the quality of help provided. But a child's death is not proof that any professional was incompetent. Our limited knowledge and the complexity of assessing risk mean that …
The power of first impressions
When we first meet someone, we swiftly form an impression of them and this first appraisal influences future reasoning about the person. Research in psychology has shown that we do not easily change our mind and tend to pay most attention to information that endorses our belief while overlooking evidence that challenges it. In child protection work, this common feature of reasoning can seriously bias and distort assessment of clients. The John Au…
Decision‐making under uncertainty in child protection
The argument is made for having a positive error culture in child protection to improve decision‐making and risk management. This requires organizations to accept that mistakes are likely and to treat them as opportunities for learning and improving. In contrast, in many organizations, a punitive reaction to errors leads to workers hiding them and developing a defensive approach to their practice with children and families. The safety management …
Improving practice
Avoidable and Unavoidable Mistakes in Child Protection Work
This article argues that social workers and the general public need a clear understanding of the distinction between avoidable and unavoidable mistakes in child protection work. The public is understandably distressed when a child dies and is right to demand an inquiry to check the quality of help provided. But a child's death is not proof that any professional was incompetent. Our limited knowledge and the complexity of assessing risk mean that …
Improving Social Workers' Knowledge Base in Child Protection Work
The present study was conducted to identify recurrent social work errors in the forty-five public inquiries held in Britain between 1973 and 1994. This article reports the findings relating to the recurrent criticisms of social workers' knowledge base. The quality of investigations and assessments are repeatedly faulted. Also, many problems arise from social workers' failure to be explicit about what they are doing. The merits and shortcomings of…
Where Has Child Protection Gone
The government introduced its ambitious plans to transform children's services as its response to the tragic death of Victoria Climbie, the victim of child abuse. However their scope is far more than improving child protection services. The aim is to develop preventive services, responding to low level concerns, so that all children are helped to achieve their potential. This article asks what the impact of this shift in emphasis will be for chil…
A systems approach to policy evaluation
There is growing interest in evaluating policy implementation in ways that grapple with the complexity of the process. This article offers an example of using systems methodology to explore how the child protection policy in child contact centres has functioned in practice. Rather than just asking the traditional evaluation question ‘is it working?’ this study sought to understand how the policy was working and how it was interpreted as it intera…
Confidentiality in a Preventive Child Welfare System
Emerging child welfare policies promoting preventive and early intervention services present a challenge to professional ethics, raising questions about how to balance respect for service users with concern for social justice. This article explains how the UK policy involves shifting the balance of power away from families towards state and professional decision making. The policy is predicated on sharing information between professionals to info…
A simpler way to understand the results of risk assessment instruments
Why We Should Stop Talking About Objectivity and Subjectivity in Social Work
In debates about knowledge in social work, the terms objectivity and subjectivity are frequently used with varying degrees of positive and negative connotations. We argue that the terms have become so ambiguous that they should be avoided. In its place, we suggest focusing on the individual attributes associated with objectivity and subjectivity and consider how the desirable attributes can be strengthened and the undesirable ones avoided. This d…
State Regulation of Parenting
Reforming Child Protection
The power of first impressions
When we first meet someone, we swiftly form an impression of them and this first appraisal influences future reasoning about the person. Research in psychology has shown that we do not easily change our mind and tend to pay most attention to information that endorses our belief while overlooking evidence that challenges it. In child protection work, this common feature of reasoning can seriously bias and distort assessment of clients. The John Au…
Understanding Birth Parents Lessons from Attribution Theory
A large part of the success (or failure) of any given placement rests on the quality of relationship between birth parents, foster carers and professionals. Breakdowns in communication — perhaps due to conflicting attitudes towards a child's behaviour, or intolerance or misunderstanding of a birth parent's circumstances — can make an already sensitive situation even more problematic for all concerned. Eileen Munro draws from psychology and, in pa…
Avoidable and Unavoidable Mistakes in Child Protection Work
This article argues that social workers and the general public need a clear understanding of the distinction between avoidable and unavoidable mistakes in child protection work. The public is understandably distressed when a child dies and is right to demand an inquiry to check the quality of help provided. But a child's death is not proof that any professional was incompetent. Our limited knowledge and the complexity of assessing risk mean that …
Improving Social Workers' Knowledge Base in Child Protection Work
The present study was conducted to identify recurrent social work errors in the forty-five public inquiries held in Britain between 1973 and 1994. This article reports the findings relating to the recurrent criticisms of social workers' knowledge base. The quality of investigations and assessments are repeatedly faulted. Also, many problems arise from social workers' failure to be explicit about what they are doing. The merits and shortcomings of…
Common errors of reasoning in child protection work
Protecting children in an anxious society
Risk management has become the dominant activity in child welfare services in Britain. It has the praiseworthy aim of identifying vulnerable children and protecting them from harm. However, it is becoming clear that efforts to achieve the desirable goal are producing unexpected and wholly undesirable side effects so that it is arguable that the child protection system is, on balance, doing more harm than good. This article analyses what has been …
A simpler way to understand the results of risk assessment instruments
State Regulation of Parenting
Improving practice
Where Has Child Protection Gone
The government introduced its ambitious plans to transform children's services as its response to the tragic death of Victoria Climbie, the victim of child abuse. However their scope is far more than improving child protection services. The aim is to develop preventive services, responding to low level concerns, so that all children are helped to achieve their potential. This article asks what the impact of this shift in emphasis will be for chil…
Confidentiality in a Preventive Child Welfare System
Emerging child welfare policies promoting preventive and early intervention services present a challenge to professional ethics, raising questions about how to balance respect for service users with concern for social justice. This article explains how the UK policy involves shifting the balance of power away from families towards state and professional decision making. The policy is predicated on sharing information between professionals to info…
Reforming Child Protection
Conflating risks
Improving outcomes for children is a major concern in developed countries. This article examines the Every Child Matters (ECM) policy in England that seeks to integrate strategies for tackling a range of risks in relation to children, both risks of harm to themselves and harm they may pose to society. The emphasis is on early identification and intervention to reduce the numbers who go on to experience serious problems. The government cites resea…
Moving on from Munro
Neuroscience and the risks of maltreatment
A systems approach to policy evaluation
There is growing interest in evaluating policy implementation in ways that grapple with the complexity of the process. This article offers an example of using systems methodology to explore how the child protection policy in child contact centres has functioned in practice. Rather than just asking the traditional evaluation question ‘is it working?’ this study sought to understand how the policy was working and how it was interpreted as it intera…
Decision‐making under uncertainty in child protection
The argument is made for having a positive error culture in child protection to improve decision‐making and risk management. This requires organizations to accept that mistakes are likely and to treat them as opportunities for learning and improving. In contrast, in many organizations, a punitive reaction to errors leads to workers hiding them and developing a defensive approach to their practice with children and families. The safety management …
Why We Should Stop Talking About Objectivity and Subjectivity in Social Work
In debates about knowledge in social work, the terms objectivity and subjectivity are frequently used with varying degrees of positive and negative connotations. We argue that the terms have become so ambiguous that they should be avoided. In its place, we suggest focusing on the individual attributes associated with objectivity and subjectivity and consider how the desirable attributes can be strengthened and the undesirable ones avoided. This d…
Child Abuse and Trauma (14 works) · Political science (13 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Law (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Medicine (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (6 works)