The book’s key thesis is that the practices that have been developed to protect children in the UK need to be understood and located within a wider appreciation, that for many families, especially those living in poverty, such practices are experienced as paradoxically over-intrusive and neglectful.
While the state and its resources shrink, its net widens with more children subject to investigations and removal, and fewer families offered the help they need. We argue that another way is possible, and offer a message of hope developing a social model of protecting children that emphasises:
• Fostering the protective capacities to be found within families and communities
• Co-producing services
• Developing poverty-aware policies and practice
• Embedding ethics and human rights in everyday talks and routines.