BJSW article: ‘Standing at the crossroads: Child safeguarding and Deaf BSL parents (in England) – Issues and Challenges in Social Work’

Another new journal article is now available online (free-access) through The British Journal of Social Work.

Rosemary’s third published paper relating to her PhD to date, this article presents findings from interviews with Child and Family social workers (CFSWs). Employing the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach, it shares their perspectives in the context of parenting assessments in child safeguarding procedures involving Deaf BSL parents (for whom English is not their first language). It explores factors relating to cultural competence in current practice and the challenges faced by practitioners in child protection work. Factors identified include the degree of knowledge CFSWs may require when working with a cultural-linguistic minority group like Deaf parents in the context of the assessment process.

Oram, R, Young, A & Cartney, P 2024, ‘Standing at the crossroads: Child safeguarding and Deaf BSL parents (in England) – Issues and Challenges in Social Work.’, The British Journal of Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae202

Update: 

Coming to the end of this PhD, Rosie completed the data analysis of the interviews conducted with the two distinct groups of professionals, and the key findings from these studies have been shared through publication as part of the PhD. 

To date, further three academic articles which are available through open access (see below). The latter article with Social Work History Network covers the modern history of social work with Deaf people.

Oram, R., Cartney, P. and Young, A. (2024) ‘Assessing deaf parents in safeguarding and child protection processes: Deaf experts’ experience of routine social work practice’, Qualitative Social Work, 0(0). doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241307263

Oram, R., Young, A. and Cartney, P. (2024) ‘Standing at the crossroads: Child safeguarding and Deaf BSL parents (in England) – Issues and challenges in social work’, The British Journal of Social Work, 0(0). doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae202

Oram, R. and Young, A. (2025) ‘The modern history of social work with Deaf people’, Social Work History Network eds. (2025). Bulletin of the Social Work History Network, 10(1), pp. 29-37. doi: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00102224

There will be another update in due course once the PhD is completed and what the next steps will be.

For more information or any questions about the research, Rosemary can be contacted at rosemary.oram@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

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