Child protection practice: An ungovernable enterprise?

This paper reports on a research study carried out in 1993/94, on the child protection practices of a social work team employed by a regional health b oard. The aim of the study was to challenge the assumption underlying offic ial policies and procedures that child protection work is susceptible to bu reaucratic management. By exploring the criteria applied by practitioners in both defining and inv estigating "child abuse" allegations, the study illustrates the way in whic h judgements are made through an ideologically and pragmatically based fram ework rather than the technical/rational process implied in official guidan ce. The research also highlights the way in which Irish child protection wo rk has followed an international trend of focusing narrowly on incidents wh ich conform to a "norm" of child abuse and ignoring the wider adversities s uffered by families and children.