Distinguished Lecture - Professor Brid Featherstone

In this presentation Brid will speak about the key themes from her recent book (with Sue White and Kate Morris ) Re-imagining Child Protection: towards humane social work with families. Brid will challenge a child protection culture that she sees as becoming increasingly authoritarian. Calling for a family-minded practice of child protection, she will argue that children should be understood as relational beings and that greater sensitivity should be paid to parents and the needs they have as a result of the burdens of childcare. She will argue that current child protection services need to ameliorate, rather than reinforce, the many deprivations that parents engaged in their systems face. Such an approach will require a sensitive reassessment of the relationship between governments and families.