Conducting the home visit in child protection - Joanna Nicolas

FIVE STAR AMAZON REVIEWS for the first edition:

"Every community practitioner caring for children and families should carry this book with them."

"As a team manager for a social work team, I think this is a great book that I will use with unqualified, student and newly qualified social workers who are undertaking ALL home visits. Overall, a great resource that I predict will become my new bible."

Conducting a home visit is a fundamental part of a social worker's role, but in practical terms many key issues are overlooked during social work training. This is a practical guide to conducting home visits, a task which many newly qualified social workers can feel unprepared for and which can be fraught with difficulties.

Useful features of this book include:

Real case examples based on practitioner's experiences
Realistic solutions to the everyday difficulties you might face
Examples of what to say
Reference to the latest guidance, including Working Together to Safeguard Children (2013) to ensure you are practicing in line with statutory requirements and expectations.
Guidance and support in understanding lessons learned recent child protection SCRs

Written by an experienced social worker and expert in child protection, this book is clear, straightforward and jargon-free. It will be a useful aid to any professionals required to do home visiting. The book addresses:

What you need to do to prepare for the visit
How to get in the door
What to do when you are in the home
What you need to look out for
Practical ways to implement lessons learned from recent serious case reviews

"I'd like to start by writing that this pocket book of fabulous knowledge is NOT just for social work in the child protection arena. This book has so many wonderful hints and tips surrounding home visits in general that I recommend this book as a pocket friend for anyone who, like me, is daunted by the dreaded home visit!

This book is written from personal experiences and practice examples, to aid consolidation and understanding. Helpful, thought provoking questions run throughout the book, highlighting key areas to think about before and during a home visit. Alongside these questions there are 'light bulb' reminders to ensure that key points are easy to notice. I feel this book excels in deconstructing the situations that we all panic over, from aggressive dogs, a child answering the door or even language barriers.

Additionally unlike most books, this book can be dipped in and out of, and does not need to be read from cover to cover. Conducting a home visit in child protection not only contains written information, but also contains diagrams, practice examples, transcripts, check lists and a very useful glossary!
A must read for ANY social work student, Newly Qualified or Practitioner!"
Natalie Heath, Social Work Student