Child protection practice in a call centre: An emerging area of social work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol20iss3id340Keywords:
child protection, social work practice, call centres, child youth and family, technology,Abstract
Social work services based in call centres represent a controversial and often negatively viewed development in the context of service delivery. Little is known, however, about the professional knowledge, values and skills required in this work environment, or of the strengths and learning opportunities this area of practice has to offer social work in general.
This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative research project which involved 14 Intake Social Workers (‘ISWs’) at the Children Youth and Family (‘CYF’) National Contact Centre (‘NCC’), (formerly known as the National Call Centre). The aim was to ascertain how ISWs constructed their child protection social work practices in an environment where they communicated with their clients exclusively by using information and communication technology (‘ICT’) procedures. Participants were also asked to comment on their perceptions of the NCC as a place to work.
The findings demonstrate the development of a unique skills set that combines elements of social work and traditional call centre work, where social workers must form constructive relationships with callers who have complex problems and sets of expectations, and with the technology that mediates their practice in this highly regulated, pressured work place.
References
Adams, R., Dominelli, L., & Payne, M. (2005). Social work futures: Crossing boundaries and transforming practice. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Batt, R. & Moynihan, R. (2002). The viability of alternative call centre production models. Human Resource Management Journal, 12(4), 14-34.
Belt, V. (2004). A female ghetto? Women’s careers in telephone call centres. In S.Deery & N.Kinnie (Eds). Call centres and human resource management: A cross national perspective (pp. 174-197). Houndsmill, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Burton, J. & van den Broek, D. (2008). Accountable and countable: Information management systems and the bureaucratization of social work. British Journal of Social Work (2008) 1-17, British Journal of Social Work Advance Access published April 26, 2008.
Coleman, N., & Harris, J. (2008). Calling social work. British Journal of Social Work, 38(3), 580-599.
Collin-Jaques, C. (2004). Professionals at work: A study of autonomy and skill utilisation in nurse call centres in England and Canada. In S. Deery & N. Kinnie (Eds). Call centres and human resource management: A cross national perspective, (pp. 153-174). Houndsmill, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Collins-Jaques, C., & Smith, C. (2005). Nursing on the line: Experiences from England and Quebec (Canada). Human Relations, 58(1), 5-32.
Department of Child Youth & Family Services. (2000). Call centre handbook. Wellington: Author.
Dustin, D. (2008). The McDonaldisation of social work. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing.
Gardner, F. (2006). Working with human service organisations creating connections for practice. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Garrett, P. (2005). Social work’s electronic turn: Notes on the deployment of information and communication technologies in social work with children and families. Critical Social Policy, 25(4), 529-553.
Gault, S. (2001). Child Youth & Family National Call Centre. Social work. (Unpublished thesis), Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand.
Gault, S. (2009). Organisational bio of the National Contact Centre. Prepared for posting on the official website for the 20th IFSW Asia-Pacific & APASWE Social Workers Conference, Auckland New Zealand 10-13 November 2009.
Goss, S., & Anthony, K. (Eds). (2003). Technology in counselling and psychotherapy: A practitioner’s guide. Houndmill, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gould, N. (2004). Introduction. In N. Gould & M. Baldwin (Eds). Social work, critical reflection and the learning organization (pp. 1-9). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Harney, B., & Jordan, C. (2008). Unlocking the black box: Line managers and HRM performance in call centre context. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 57(4), 275-296.
Holman, D. (2005). Call centres. In D. Holman, T. Wall, C. Clegg, P. Sparrow & A. Howard (Eds). The essentials of the new workplace: A guide to the human impact of modern working practices, (pp. 111-131). Milton, Australia: Wiley.
Holtgrew, U., & Kerst, C. (2002). Researching call centres: Gathering results and theories. 20th Annual International Labour Process Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, April 2-4.
Humphries, P., & Camilleri, P. (2002). Social work and technology: Challenges for social workers in practice: A case study. Australian Social Work, 55(4), 251-259.
Kinnie, N., Hutchinson, S., & Purcell, J. (2000). Fun and surveillance: The paradox of high commitment management in call centres. Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(5), 967-985.
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to social life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lester, D. (Ed.) (2002). Crisis intervention and counseling by telephone. Springfield. Illinois: Charles. S Thomas.
Madoc-Jones, I., Warren, E., Ashdown-Lambert, J., Williams, W., & Parry, O. (2007). Planned telephone support for disadvantaged parents in North Wales: Perceptions of service users. Child and Family Social Work, 12, 316-325.
Manion, K., & Renwick, J. (2008). Equivocating over the care and protection continuum: An exploration of families not meeting the threshold for statutory intervention. Social Policy of New Zealand, (33), 70-94.
Maunsell, J. (2006). The underlying instability in statutory child protection: Understanding the system dynamics driving risk assurance levels. Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, 28, 97-132.
Pettersson, M., Randall, D., & Helgeson, B. (2004). Ambiguities, awareness and economy: A study of emergency service work. Computer supported cooperative work 13: 125-154.
Raz, A., & Blank, E. (2007). Ambiguous professionalism: Managing efficiency and service quality in an Israeli call centre. New Technology, Work and Employment, 2(1), 83-96.
Rosenfeld, R., & Wilson, D. (1999). Managing organizations, texts, readings and cases (2nd ed). London: McGrawHill.
Scott, D. (2006). Sowing the seeds of innovation in child protection, Blossoming of our children kia puawai ngā tamariki. 10th Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, Wellington, New Zealand, 14-16 February.
Shire, K., Holtgrewe, U., & Kerst, C. (2002). Reorganising customer service work: An introduction. In U. Holtgrewe, C. Kerst, & K. Shire (Eds). Re-organising service work call centres in Germany and Britain (pp. 1-16). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Stanley, T. (2005). Making decisions: Social work processes and the construction of risk(s) in child protection work. (Unpublished doctoral thesis in social work), University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Taylor, P., & Bain, P. (1999). An assembly line in the head: The call center labor process. Industrial Relations Journal, 30(2), 101-117.
Taylor, P., Mulvey, G., Hyman, J., & Bain, P. (2002). Work organisation, control and the experience of work in call centres. Work, Employment & Society, 16(1), 133-150.
Tregeagle, S. & Darcy, M. (2008). Child welfare and information and communications technology: Today’s challenge. British Journal of Social Work, 38, 1481-1498.
van den Broek, D. (2008). Doing things right, or doing the right thing? Call centre migrations and dimensions of knowledge. Work, Employment & Society, 22(4), 601-613.
Warhurst, C. & Thompson, P. (2006). Mapping knowledge in work: Proxies & practices. Work, Employment & Society, 29(4), 787-88.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.
You and any co-authors
If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.
First publication
By submitting the work you are:
- granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
- confirming that the work is original; and
- confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.
Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.
Copyright
You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.
The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.
A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.
Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.
This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.
Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.
The copyright of others
If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:
- falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
- that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.
