Contribute to a cross-national study of decision-making and legal intervention in child care cases

The link at the bottom of this message is to a questionnaire for case-accountable children’s social workers in local authorities in England, who do care proceedings and pre-proceedings work. If that applies to you, I would be very grateful for your help in completing this survey. It should not take too long, less than quarter of an hour. Please would you do it by TUESDAY 22 APRIL 2014.

As a ‘thank you’ for doing this, at the end of the questionnaire you will have a chance to enter a draw to win a ‘love to shop’ gift card worth £50. There are 10 gift cards to be won, so it is worth entering!

The questionnaire is part of a cross-national study of decision-making and legal intervention in child care cases, in four countries – England, the USA (California), Finland and Norway. The lead researcher in England is Dr Jonathan Dickens from the University of East Anglia. The aim of the study is to find out about decision-making practices in the four countries, in cases that could end up in care orders. We are hoping for as many responses as possible.

Please make allowances for some of the questions and wording. Some of them may seem a bit ‘clunky’ or not relevant in England, but that is because they are more relevant in the other countries. It has been hard work to design this questionnaire, to make sense across four different child welfare systems – so I would be grateful if you would be patient and flexible (good social work skills!)

Your participation is, of course, entirely voluntary. All information will be treated confidentially. No individual or workplace will be identified in any publications. The study has been given authorisation by the relevant universities in the four countries. We aim to publish the results in academic journals, conference papers and books.

If you have any questions or comments about the survey, please contact Dr Jonathan Dickens:j.dickens@uea.ac.uk

Please click on the link below to open the questions. I hope you enjoy participating and find it of interest. Thank you very much indeed for your time.
https://response.questback.com/hgskolenibergen/dhtuets4ob/