224 Book Reviews

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Child Abuse Review Vol. 13: 224–229 (2004)Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

BookReviews

Child Abuse Review Vol. 13: 224–229 (2004)Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

Protecting Children from Abuse and Neglect in Primary Careedited by M.J. Bannon and Y.H. Carter, Oxford University Press,Oxford, 2003. 256pp. ISBN 0-192-63276-0 (Pbk), £29.50.

This is an extremely useful and informative book that I reallyenjoyed reading. It is written in a very readable and accessible way;the individual chapters are short, succinct and well written, eachby different authors with different perspectives but combining intoa cohesive whole. It is written from a primary care perspective andalthough principally aimed at general practitioners (GPs), it couldbe a useful text for other primary health practitioners and students.It would also be a valuable book for practitioners, managers andteachers from other disciplines in gaining an understanding of someof the difficulties and dilemmas faced by GPs when operating in theinteragency context required by child protection work.

GPs are often subject to criticism about their lack of contributionto the child protection process. This book offers some explanationsabout why this may be. However, it does not exonerate GPs fromtheir responsibilities. What it does do is provide an extensive sourceof information about the whole child protection process, includingrecognition and effects of the various categories of abuse, legal andethical aspects, procedures, roles and responsibilities. Additionallyincluded are chapters focusing on domestic violence, the health needsof looked after children, the multicultural aspects of child protec-tion, international perspectives and prevention. Although each of thechapters is quite short, they are packed with detailed, well-researchedand well-presented information and a number of them provide veryuseful guidelines for dealing with some of the aspects of the childprotection process, for example, suggestions for what to include ina case conference report (Chapter 15). Similarly, Christopher Clokein his chapter on adults abused as children (Chapter 10) offers a listof steps to be taken by primary care practitioners when working withadult survivors, and within Chapter 3 (written by the editors) a setof ‘universal principles’ (10 commandments perhaps) for dealingwith suspicions of child abuse is presented.

The first three chapters of the book provide an excellent overviewof child abuse, the child protection process and the place of childprotection in primary care. If readers were to read only these threechapters, they would gain a good grounding in the subject. How-ever, I think that anyone who got this far into the book would notwant to stop there but would with to continue and learn more. Thefour chapters that focus on the individual categories of abuse pro-vide details about definitions, clinical presentation, impact on thechild and some guidance about how to respond. Each chapter is wellillustrated by case examples.

There are two chapters (5 and 18) that contain materialabout training and education for GPs and primary health teamsin child protection; both of these would be extremely useful read-ing for anyone involved in providing interagency training in childprotection. GPs are so often berated for their non-attendance atinteragency training. These chapters go some way to providing an

Edited by Berrand Gallagher

‘An extensivesource ofinformationabout the wholechild protectionprocess’

Book Reviews 225

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Child Abuse Review Vol. 13: 224–229 (2004)

explanation and also offer some solutions to the task of engagingthem in training.

Fran Clift’s chapter on the legal aspects of child abuse coversan enormous amount of material, including the Children Act,information-sharing, the Human Rights Act and court reports, inan authoritative but very accessible way and all in a fascinating16 pages! In general, this is an excellent book that provides muchin the way of good advice and good ideas not only for GPs andother members of primary care teams but also for other healthand social care professionals who need an insight into the contribu-tion of primary care to child protection. It would make an excellentstandard text for all GPs, especially those in training.

Anne AllenConsultant Nurse—Child Protection

East Somerset NHS TrustDOI: 10.1002/car.830

Remaking Social Work with Children and Families. ACritical Discussion on the ‘Modernisation’ of Social Careby P. M. Garrett, Routledge, London, 2003. 193pp. ISBN 0-415-29839-3, £19.99.

In this book, Garrett grafts together his thoughts on the mod-ernization of the role of social work. With admirable social andpolitical contextualization, he makes a good attempt at providingboth chronological and thematic sequence through the Major andBlair administrations. Thus, he attempts to understand currentpreoccupations.

By revisiting the watershed moments in political thinking on thesubject, Garrett gives a timely reminder that concepts of quality andprofessionalism are social and political constructs. Meanwhile, hisdeconstruction—and in some instances hostile criticism—of theassessment tools currently in use; and what he views as a resultant‘tick-box’ culture, provides a welcome if at times ranting voice, coun-tering the prevailing fashion for the easily measurable.

A range of social work issues are examined, notably child pro-tection, the effects of ethnicity and children in public care. Eachis exquisitely referenced, if poorly proofread. Many will find aresonance in his reminder to professionals that it can be their dutyto dissent from the currently dominant political view. It is usefulto have a senior academic in the field articulate the need for suchautonomy and detachment.

The most original exposition relates to child adoption. At a timewhen all those involved in public services for children are grapplingwith the re-emergence of adoption from near-extinction, Garrettexamines why and how it has achieved such prominence.

There is much to admire in his account of policy transfer (not-ably from the USA). However, he does less well in providing a

‘Hostile criticism—of the assessmenttools currentlyin use’