By their nature, these complex and challenging interactions
are not easy to observe directly. Researchers have therefore
tended to rely on retrospective accounts from participants. Child
Protection: Messages from Research synthesised a number
of influential studies in this area that were carried out in the late
1980s and early 1990s (Department of Health, 1995a). These
studies suggested that there was a consistent pattern of child
protection investigations being intrusive and often traumatic for
families (e.g. Thoburn et al., 1995; Cleaver and Freeman, 1995).
As a result it was argued that social workers should use a ‘lighter
touch’ and treat more families as ‘in need’ and fewer as requiring
investigations as ‘child protection’ cases. This became a central
aspect of government policy towards children and is often referred
to as ‘refocusing’. ‘Refocusing’ was followed up with concrete
policy changes, perhaps the most significant of which was the
introduction of the Assessment Framework (Department of Health,
2000). The consistent thrust of the reforms was to attempt to
reduce the tendency to focus on child protection and to treat more
families as requiring support under s.17 of the 1989 Children Act.
As such, social workers were encouraged to see children’s need
for protection as only one need amongst many.