Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- one The dilemmas of empowerment
- two Partnership and empowerment in children’s services
- three Lessons from New Zealand
- four Empowering professionals?
- five International perspectives
- six Empowerment in process?
- seven Assessing outcomes in child welfare
- eight Empowering outcomes?
- nine Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
six - Empowerment in process?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- one The dilemmas of empowerment
- two Partnership and empowerment in children’s services
- three Lessons from New Zealand
- four Empowering professionals?
- five International perspectives
- six Empowerment in process?
- seven Assessing outcomes in child welfare
- eight Empowering outcomes?
- nine Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
It is important to be clear about what is not partnership. It is not equal power and it never can be, but it is about empowerment, about families having sufficient information to be able to understand and contribute to planning and have some influence over the outcome. (Jackson, 1994, p 15)
As we have seen, the proponents of the FGC model claim that it provides a much better basis than traditional meetings for embodying the spirit of partnership between professionals and families implicit in the 1989 Children Act. In comparison with traditional approaches, the FGC process, it is argued, is more enabling of family participation and serves to increase the involvement of families in the decision-making process, providing a means for their greater empowerment (Wilcox et al, 1991; Jackson, 1993; Ryburn and Atherton, 1996; Morris and Tunnard, 1996). As Jackson emphasises, however, it is important to be explicit about what is meant by ‘empowerment’ here. In the child welfare context it is clearly impossible for there to be a wholesale transfer of power and control to the families involved. Rather, the basis for empowerment is seen to derive from an approach which attempts to work with the strengths of family groups, instead of focusing on their weakness and seeks to enable them to take greater responsibility for the decisions made about their children.
As we have indicated, however, empowerment is a very slippery concept to define and measure. In the specific case of the FGC it is clear that there are at least two central (although related) dimensions to family empowerment: that which derives from participation in the process itself (empowerment via participation), from the experience of being able to make decisions and have those decisions respected by professionals; and that which comes from the impact or outcome of those decisions, from being able to act upon the world to alter it for the better (empowerment via change). The two dimensions are of course closely related: the empowering effect of a successful outcome will in part derive from the family's collective view of the extent to which it determined the content of the plan and, no matter how participatory the process, its potential for empowerment will be limited if the plans made by the families are ultimately unsuccessful.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Empowering Practice?A Critical Appraisal of the Family Group Conference Approach, pp. 115 - 138Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 1999