Welfare Reports: Levels of Agreement and Parental Views

In seeking to test the impact of court welfare officers' intervention on levels of parental agreement, the Wolverhampton Civil Work Unit undertook research between 1986 and 1991 which threw considerable doubts on the prevalent belief in a 'family therapy' style of practice. John Fenby, former senior court welfare officer in the Unit and now ACPO West Midlands, suggests that alternative approaches which heed parental views about joint meetings and gender balance may be more appropriate, given civil work's modest knowledge base.