In the UK, social workers employed in child protection services have in recent years been vilified by members of the public who were egged on by the media and politicians whenever there has been a child death. As indicated by the title of this book, social workers are blamed for the death of children, with a widely held view that every child death is preventable if social workers were to do their job properly. This narrative diminishes and threatens the professional identity of social workers. In many ways, the ‘blame culture’ in England commenced with the 1973 inquiry into the death of Maria Colwell (Butler & Drakeford, 2012). In this book, Leigh traverses this and other child death inquiries, such as Baby P, since that time (Jones, 2014). This background informs the study that follows. Leigh, as a social worker/child protection worker, set out to explore this issue by way of an observational study of her Department and of the colleagues with whom she worked. The study is framed by auto-ethnographic theoretical concepts that are used to understand how individual professional interactions are influenced by an organisational culture. An organisational culture which, in turn, is shaped by hostile media reporting and the allocation of blame to the Department by politicians for any child death. To add to this perspective, Leigh compared the UK agency situation with the situation in a child protection agency in Flanders (Belgium) using the same observational data collection process. She found that social workers in the UK child protection services grasp at defensive modes of practice, which Leigh illustrates by way of case examples. Defensive practice is about being risk averse and always covering your back by way of extensive recording. This approach to practice was the subject of negative comments byMunro (2011) who noted that child protection involves risk and that child protection services must take carefully balanced risks in order to providemuch needed services to vulnerable families. A ‘no risk’ approach would mean denying these families the needed services and result in the removal of a disproportionate number of children from parental care. But as Leigh shows in Flanders, child protection social workers are not vilified, and their professional identity is supported by the Flanders population. Consequently, defensive practice and back covering is less evident, and appropriate services can be provided to vulnerable families. This book has a similar tale to tell as that told by both Gibson (2019) and Warner (2015) from the UK and by Gainsborough (2010) from theUSA. These authors, like Leigh, paint a less than complementary picture about child welfare/child protection services. Reading the Leigh book caused me to ask the following question. Does the UK scenario reflect child protection services in Australia? I believe the answer from many long-term observers of these services, in all states and territories, would be a big YES.

中文翻译：

---

责备、文化和儿童保护 - J. Leigh（2017 年）。责备、文化和儿童保护。帕尔格雷夫·麦克米伦。精装本，ISBN 978-1-137-47008-9。255 页。英镑 89.99 英镑。截至 2020 年 7 月 27 日，161.98 澳元。

在英国，受雇于儿童保护服务的社会工作者近年来受到公众的诽谤，每当发生儿童死亡事件时，媒体和政客都会怂恿他们。正如这本书的标题所表明的，社会工作者被归咎于儿童的死亡，人们普遍认为，如果社会工作者能够正确地完成他们的工作，每一个儿童的死亡都是可以预防的。这种叙述削弱并威胁到社会工作者的职业身份。在许多方面，英格兰的“责备文化”始于 1973 年对玛丽亚·科尔威尔之死的调查（巴特勒和德雷克福德，2012 年）。在这本书中，Leigh 从那时起遍历了这个和其他儿童死亡问题，例如 Baby P（Jones，2014）。这一背景为接下来的研究提供了信息。Leigh，作为社会工作者/儿童保护工作者，开始通过对她的部门和与她一起工作的同事的观察性研究来探索这个问题。该研究以自动人种学理论概念为框架，用于了解个人专业互动如何受到组织文化的影响。一种组织文化反过来又由敌对的媒体报道和政治家将任何儿童死亡归咎于该部门而塑造。为了补充这一观点，Leigh 使用相同的观察数据收集过程将英国机构的情况与法兰德斯（比利时）儿童保护机构的情况进行了比较。她发现英国儿童保护服务的社会工作者掌握了防御性的实践模式，Leigh 通过案例说明了这一点。防守练习是关于规避风险，并始终通过大量记录的方式保护你的背部。这种实践方法受到 Munro (2011) 的负面评论，他指出儿童保护涉及风险，儿童保护服务必须谨慎平衡风险，以便为弱势家庭提供急需的服务。“无风险”方法意味着拒绝为这些家庭提供所需的服务，并导致不成比例的儿童失去父母的照顾。但正如 Leigh 在法兰德斯所表明的那样，儿童保护社会工作者并没有受到诽谤，他们的职业身份得到了法兰德斯人民的支持。因此，防御性做法和后盾不那么明显，可以为弱势家庭提供适当的服务。这本书讲述的故事与英国的 Gibson (2019) 和 Warner (2015) 以及美国的 Gainsborough (2010) 的故事相似。这些作者和 Leigh 一样，对儿童福利/儿童保护服务描绘了一幅不太互补的图景。阅读 Leigh 的书让我提出了以下问题。英国的情景是否反映了澳大利亚的儿童保护服务？我相信来自所有州和领地的这些服务的许多长期观察者的答案是肯定的。英国的情景是否反映了澳大利亚的儿童保护服务？我相信来自所有州和领地的这些服务的许多长期观察者的答案是肯定的。英国的情景是否反映了澳大利亚的儿童保护服务？我相信来自所有州和领地的这些服务的许多长期观察者的答案是肯定的。