Publisher's Synopsis
The pressure within child protection work is to get the work done ? sometimes without a clear understanding of how best that should be organised. Michael Murphy has taken one popular organisational form ? the Child Protection Unit ? and asked how well these units facilitate the child protection task. - The CPU is a specialist organizational form that is costly to run and that effects over half the child protection systems in Britain. It has been in existence for a quarter of a century but has never been analyzed or appraised. - This work seeks answers to these questions: - ? What is the CPU? - ? Where does it originate from? - ? What does it do for the systems it serves? - ? How well can it fulfil the functions that are expected of it? - The work utilises empirical data that has been gathered from NSPCC and Local Authority CPUs in Britain and a detailed case study of the establishment and functioning of one particular CPU in England. - As well as offering a critical appraisal of one particular organizational form, the work offers a wider insight into the organisation and facilitation of child protection work as a whole.
