Children and Families: Wellbeing and Protection (Book Review Sample)

Children and Families: Wellbeing and Protection
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Children and Families: Wellbeing and Protection
The book, Child Protection and Child Welfare is edited by Penelope Welbourne and John Dixon. Penelope is an Associate Professor in social work at the University of Plymouth while John Dixon is a distinguished Professor in Social work, Administration at KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The book focuses on the Global Appraisal of cultures, policies and protection. It is published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2013 and covers 288 pages. It compares different cultures on grounds of international context looking at different countries worldwide. It also evaluates ranging structures in various countries such as United States, United Kingdom and Ghana among other others. This book was chosen for review because the children are vulnerable, especially when one has to deal with international communities who have different cultural beliefs (Welbourne & Dixon, 2013).
The authors’ central thesis is to enhance and enlighten the international community on the need to protect the children from cultural influence. Moreover to understand how children behave when they are faced with certain issues that are bound to happen every day as they interact in the society. Further, it gives the reader the attention he or she requires to protect the child from cultural issues. It devotes enough pages for each chapter to look at eleven countries structure and policy. Still it gives the examples of the long-term impacts of some of the systems such as the caste system of India and the current global events such as international trade in Ghana which affects the children behavior and responses to situations. There is also the example of the reducing budgets of Italy which are shrinking as days goes by thus affecting the children living in those countries. Hence, this kind of approaches are meant to encourage both policy makers and researchers to formulate new models that are more efficient and different bearing in mind the current models used by the various countries as discussed by the authors(Welbourne & Dixon, 2013).
Therefore, it is essential for all the individuals in the childcare profession to read this particular book since it gives them useful guidelines on protecting them from any harm. It gives the reader a broad knowledge of different countries and how they treat the children based on the current policies at place adopted by the government, child care practitioners and the community at large. Another reason for the review of the contents of this book is the need for the learning institutions in the field of social sciences and human services to appreciate the diversity approaches of the different international communities. Welbourne and Dixons have conducted various studies around the world on the topic of child welfare services thereby making tremendous contributions to the child care practice. Their studies have significant implications for the literature review in the field of family care and welfare putting more emphasis on the well-being of the child. Other major contributors to the book include James Midgley and Specht, who are professors at the California University in United States. Therefore, their work receives extra attention as they are experts in the field of social sciences. Hence, they are well aware of the Childs environment and how this might affect positively or negatively the performance of the child both school and at home (Welbourne & Dixon, 2013).
Therefore, critically and reflexively leaving the international community’s to think about the circumstances that they have to subject their children to as they are prone to exploitation by both the culture and policies employed by the government. In the process, the children rights are normally in most cases abused and no one cares. Policies that are supposed to watch their well-being so that they are not disadvantaged by either the parent or the surrounding. However, the policies are poorly structured thus does not meet the objectives. This implies that some of the cultures are not very friendly to the care of the child. Thus, there is more room for development and for states to learn better mechanisms to reduce the issues affecting the upbringing of the child. Other issues which come out clearly are the historical and contemporary pattern which places Childs happiness and lifestyle at stake. This perspective often provokes the question of what constitutes a happy family. The health of the child and growth is a major concern for the authors and the contributors such as Jeremy Roche, who is an expert and dean of study of health and social sciences. Differences and similarities exist in ranging countries therefore it wise for the practitioners to note the differences that make policies and cultures. Economic and political factors are another key point that affects how a child will grow up in the long run and thus impacting his or her future (Welbourne & Dixon, 2013).
The major strengths of this book are how the authors take an open broad perspective on the diversity of the different countries. They evaluate the different policies in the eleven countries namely United Kingdom, United States, Ghana, Sweden, Italy, Romania, Japan, Middle East, India and Australia without criticizing ways of their culture. There is no point in time the authors work tries to compares the different countries policy structures in terms of on...