Dilemmas and Decision Making in Residential Childcare

The perfect guide for new workers entering residential childcare. Adopting a case study approach, this book contains a collection of stories of good practice told from the point of view of the residential care worker that help to demonstrate how they deal with dilemmas and make effective decisions in the moment.

Workers in residential childcare have to quickly understand the complexity of how young people’s early neglect, abuse and relational trauma impact their lives. There are also conflicts and relationship challenges in abundance. This collection of stories illustrates good practice told from the point of view of the residential care worker and demonstrates their thinking in action around ethical dilemmas, different courses of action taken and why they made these decisions. This book also talks about how effective communication with other adults in the team can de-escalate risk and how to carry out dynamic risk assessments.

The users can apply their knowledge obtained from this book through the use of reflective questions which offers relevant neutral material where workers can take a step back from the emotive situations they are currently working in and reflect on the hypothetical. It is also intended that the scenarios in this book can be used as a springboard for further learning or as scenarios in an interview.

Abbi Jackson has worked in children’s services for around 25 years. She has been a foster carer and has worked in secure care and children’s residential care. She spent time as a social worker in a statutory childcare team, an independent Form F assessor and a supervising social worker. She has led large scale practice audits in children’s services and more recently in adult protection. Currently she is a senior planning officer for adult social work and integrated services in a local authority area and is an independent panel member for a private fostering company.

Abbi is also an active practice educator and lectures in critical social work practice. She has an interest in early intervention with young people who experience emerging mental health concerns. Never a dull moment, she is currently undertaking a piece of action research with young people receiving alternative therapies. She is a beekeeper in her spare time.