Court Welfare Work: Practice and Theory

Abstract

Let me get my credentials out of the way first. They are nothing to boast about but may go some way to explaining my audacity in tackling such an austere and relatively unmined subject as court welfare work. First, a plug for my employers, the Middlesex Probation and After-Care Committee, who nearly three years ago, when I had produced a second baby, agreed to cut my hours to eight a week. Second, grateful thanks to my senior who came up with the answer to what you do with someone who only works eight hours a week. Put them on custody and access reports. This was a brilliant solution. The office had an ever willing taker for those tiresome, time-consuming and distracting reports that fit so badly into most probation officers' workloads. When I first envisaged a future of welfare reports, I too feared the worst, but part-time em ployees cannot be choosers and the alternative was full-time nappies. I did have one or two bad cases to begin with but it did not take me long to realise that the worst part was reading the affidavit. I soon dis covered that those debauched petitioners and vicious respondents were even more anxious about me than I was about them. Before long, I was not putting a brave face on it when I assured my colleagues that I liked doing welfare reports. It was perfectly true. However, doubts and questions soon began to assail me. What was I doing? Was it sensible? Was it worthwhile? Was it the best way of doing it? Who was I trying to help? I looked for others in the same line of work to compare notes. I searched inexpertly for relevant literature. I finally concluded that only the discipline of pen and paper would begin to order a chaos of hunches, homegrown theories and vivid experiences. As a starting point I ordered my questions. The key ones seemed to me: first, what is the place of court welfare work within that modern and expanding industry which has developed to enable couples to separate? Second, what are the tasks and objectives of court welfare officers? Third, what theoretical principles should govern their work?