Power & threat in the strengthening families approach to safeguarding
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Parental experiences of power and threat within the context of a Strengthening Families approach to safeguarding.
IRAS ID
336606
Contact name
Shona Murdoch
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Staffordshire University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
The research aims to explore parents’ experiences of being supported by the family safeguarding model (FSM) and to explore their experience of how power and threat operate when being supported by this model. The FSM is focused on supporting the needs of a whole family using a strengths-based approach. The model employs specialist adult workers to provide holistic family focused care and keep families together where possible. This approach differs to more traditional models of safeguarding, whereby parents have felt like passive recipients, rather than being actively involved in the process (Corby et al, 1996) and are less focused on strengths, with parents feeling as if only their weaknesses are highlighted, contributing to feelings of shame (Schreiber et al, 2013). Research suggests that parent’s experiences of traditional children’s social care involvement is often difficult, feeling stigmatised and fearful of seeking support due to concerns that this may be used as evidence against their parenting capabilities (Broadhurst & Mason, 2017).
Parents will be selected by the Family Safeguarding Team against criteria (see A17) and contacted by the team to invite to participate. With consent, Researcher will contact participants for a further screen and invite to an interview at Darby House, Woodlands Children Centre or online, if eligible, lasting around one hour, this will take place at the research site, a specific venue is yet to be confirmed. The interview will include questions around their general experiences of being supported using this model, and questions pertaining to any feelings or perceptions of threat they may have experienced, as well as the role of power within this experience, and how the model works with these concepts. In total, participation is estimated to take no longer than 2 hours and 20 minutes (inc. contact before interview, interview and debrief).REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/NW/0137
Date of REC Opinion
21 Oct 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion