An applied model of cultural competence in child protection practice

Abstract

Summary

This empirical qualitative study explores the application of a model of cultural competence in child protection practice with families from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in the United Kingdom. Data were collected through audio-recorded and transcribed semi-structured interviews with a sample of 17 social workers and family support workers across two local government children's social care agencies. The interview route explored practitioners’ experiences of professional work with children and families from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. They were asked to describe good practices in relation to cultural competence around the initial contact, assessment and care planning. Transcripts of these interviews were uploaded to Nvivo12 software and coded in two stages, initially for emergent themes and subsequently in relation to the ASKED model of cultural competence.

Findings

Data analysis revealed multiple examples of good practice which were analysed employing the five dimensions of the ASKED model, namely, cultural awareness, cultural skill, cultural knowledge, cultural encounter, and cultural desire. By mapping the approaches developed and employed by practitioners onto the five ASKED dimensions, these became discernible and therefore potentially transferable learning for others.

Application

The ASKED model of cultural competence is a means of capturing good practice in a systematic and detailed way, making it sharable with other child protection professionals. ASKED is also a framework for moving beyond anti-oppressive theory to practical implementable antioppressive practices with families from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds

International context

This study explores the application of a model of cultural competence in child protection practice in the light of research which reveals discriminatory treatment of children and families from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. Evidence from the United States (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia indicates that discriminatory decision-making in child protection systems is resulting in a disproportionate number of families from Black and minority ethnic communities being subject to investigation and intervention (Bilson et al., 2015; Boyd, 2014; Tibury & Thoburn, 2009). Stereotypes based on race, ethnicity or socio-economic status have been found to influence social work assessments in relation to children at risk in the USA (Miller et al., 2012; Morton et al., 2011). In the UK, Bywaters et al. (2017) documented the under-representation of children from Asian backgrounds alongside the over-representation of those from African heritage backgrounds and children of mixed race in child protection systems, compared to those from British White families. A similar trend is discernible in the USA (Maguire-Jack et al., 2020). This points to a racial or ethnic aspect to such differences.

The tendency of individuals to rely on intuitive rather than analytical reasoning in situations of high uncertainty means that where evidence is equivocal or incomplete, the judgment of practitioners is susceptible to personal biases, including those predicated on cultural differences (Munro, 2008). Enosh and Bayer-Topilsky (2015) found that in situations of ambiguity, child protection social workers are likely to estimate higher risk for families of African or Asian ethnicity than for White families and evidence points to unacknowledged or unconscious basis. An analysis of Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (conducted whenever a child suffers severe maltreatment or death) involving Black, Asian and minority ethnic families found that a mixture of stereotyping and cultural misconceptions contributed to inadequate child protection responses (Laird & Tedam, 2019). Scholars in the USA, the UK, and Australia have attributed these overall findings partly to a lack of expertise among practitioners when working in cross-cultural contexts (Laird, 2008; Laird & Tedam, 2019; Sawrikar & Katz, 2014; Sue et al., 2016; Williams & Johnson, 2010).

Child protection in the United Kingdom

Analysis by Skivenes and Sørsdal (2018) indicates that the public child welfare systems of Anglo-American countries such as the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia are risk-oriented and focused on child protection. In contrast, continental European and Nordic systems of child welfare place more emphasis on a family support services approach. In practice, this means that, in the UK, there is a comparatively high threshold for intervention in family life, which occurs when a substantial risk of harm to a child is perceived. In countries operating a family-service oriented system, the threshold for intervention is much lower. Consequently, the State intervenes to promote the health and safety of the child through the provision of rehabilitative and therapeutic services at an earlier juncture. Therefore in the UK, decision-making by social workers overwhelmingly concerns questions related to the degree of harm suffered or likely to be suffered by a child and whether this requires support services, mandatory supervision, or removal of the child from caretakers.

While scholars and educators in Britain have a long history in developing and teaching models of anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practices, which incorporate anti-racism, this has not lessened the disproportionate number of children from racial and ethnic minorities entering the British child protection system (Doninelli, 2002; Thompson, 2020). Conversely, addressing ethnic diversity through a cultural competence framing has received relatively little attention (Laird, 2014; O’Hagan, 2001; Parrott, 2009).

Cultural competence

In the UK, the social work profession has been relatively slow to incorporate concepts of cultural competence into training and practice (Laird, 2008; O’Hagan, 2001). In contrast, the nursing profession, particularly in the USA, has embraced and developed this approach over many years (Andrews et al., 2019; Leininger & McFarland, 2002; Papadopoulos, 2006). Consequently, models of cultural competence tend to be more elaborated in nursing than in social care. Scholars have developed numerous cultural competence models for professional practice, which broadly comprise three key elements: self-reflection; knowledge; and skills (Hogan-Garcia, 2003; Jeffreys, 2006; Papadopoulos, 2006; Sue et al., 2016). These components are embedded in Campinha-Bacote's (2002) process model of cultural competence which is originally designed for transcultural nursing and is known by the acronym ASKED. The model has been adapted by Laird and Tedam (2019, p. 94) for child protection social work and is reproduced below.

Cultural awareness. This involves recognising how our values and beliefs shape our interpretation of the observed and experienced, including our perceptions of people from a different cultural background.

Cultural skill. It is the ability to collect, comprehend and accurately analyse cultural information regarding beliefs, values and practices relevant to a family's needs and problems as part of the assessment and care planning process.

Cultural knowledge. It comprises searching for and acquiring detailed information about other cultures, faiths and ethnic groups while avoiding stereotyping.

Cultural encounter. It means going beyond mere interaction with families from ethnically diverse backgrounds. It requires meaningful cross-cultural engagement which modifies the practitioner's existing beliefs and perceptions regarding a particular ethnic group.

Cultural desire. This concerns the practitioner's motivation to want to, rather than have to, engage in the above four processes. It encompasses a willingness to accept differences, recognise similarities, and learn from family members about their culture and faith.

Campinha-Bacote's (2002) ASKED model that outlined the above points incorporates the three key elements of cultural awareness, cultural skills and cultural knowledge, which are potentially enhanced through each cultural encounter with families from ethnic backgrounds distinct from that of the practitioner. Reflection during cultural encounters modifies and deepens the practitioner's own understanding of people from different ethnic backgrounds. This can only happen if there is cultural desire, meaning a genuine willingness on the part of the social worker to engage in all four of these processes.

A number of scholars are concerned that social work practice based on ‘cultural competence’ gathers stereotypical knowledge of other cultures; reifies people from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds; assumes that such knowledge can be ticked-off; and ignores power relationships (Fulong & Wight, 2011; Harrison & Turner, 2010; Pon, 2009). These are understandable concerns. In relation to stereotyping, our research utilizes a definition of culture that draws on contemporary concepts of culture and ethnicity as fluid, adaptable, hybrid, and, to an extent, choiceful (Laird & Tedam, 2019). There is admittedly moral hazard in accumulating cultural knowledge which can act to generate and buttress ethnic stereotypes, in turn skewing the perceptions and assessments of practitioners. For example, recognising that many families of Pakistani heritage can have close ties to their local ethnic community might be assumed for all families—clearly a stereotype. In contrast, the ASKED model directs practitioners to explicitly explore this aspect of family life, to develop an understanding of what the inter-relationships and roles of this wider social ecology might be in exacerbating or ameliorating the risk of harm to a child. In other words, a social worker with cultural knowledge would want to ask, ‘what do relationships with the local ethnic Pakistani community, if any, mean for this specific family?’

Papadopoulos (2006) and Sue et al. (2016) argue that cultural competence is achieved when a practitioner can integrate awareness, skills and knowledge alongside a developmental perspective. The ASKED model explicitly incorporates dimensions of self-reflection and positionality. It also requires practitioners to develop cultural knowledge from shared experiences, cross-cultural encounters and reflexivity. Lum (2000, p. 6), in her formative text on working with racial and ethnic diversity, defined ‘competence’ as attaining ‘capability, sufficiency, and adequacy’ in practice with people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. Notably, all these scholars are from racial minority backgrounds and emphasize that cultural competence is an ongoing process of learning and improvement in professional cross-cultural capabilities and not an endpoint that is achieved because a practitioner has worked extensively with particular minority ethnic groups. Harrison and Turner (2010), in their critique, articulate a vital difference between cultural competency conceived of as attaining a set of specific skills and abilities, in contrast to cultural competence which refers to the development of broad-based capabilities. This is also the definition embraced by social work professional bodies which have adopted a cultural competence approach, for example, NASW (2021) and NLASW (2016) in North America. We adopt this latter definition too.

The dimensions of cultural encounter and cultural desire are necessarily based upon mutuality and respectfulness during a shared exchange of different worldviews and ways of living. Otherwise, there could be no meaningful encounter. The ASKED model, rather than explicitly reiterating power-relationships between White and Black people, instead articulates an equitable, affirming and holistic approach to cultural diversity. The requirement for cultural encounter is incompatible with the assertion of oppressive power derived from membership in the dominant White majority culture in the UK and the imposition of normative values and behaviors.

Methodology

A conceptual model of cultural competence, however thoroughly elaborated, is not the same as a guide for face-to-face interactions with children and families. Exploring how it might be applied in a child protection context demands moving beyond conceptual descriptions or theoretical constructions to generate strategies that can be directly applied in practical situations. Therefore, the overall aim of our research was to operationalize the ASKED process model of cultural competence for early intervention and child protection social work. This was pursued through the following three research questions:

(1) How do early intervention and child protection practitioners conceptualize notions of cultural competence in relation to their work?

(2) What good practices have practitioners developed in relation to culture and faith in their work with children and families from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds?

(3) How can good practices be integrated into the ASKED model of cultural competence?

As these are explorative research questions designed to elicit narrative information from workers regarding their experience of cross-cultural engagement with children and families in an area of practice where relatively little is known, a qualitative approach was employed. This approach is based on a phenomenological paradigm, which presupposes that social reality is embedded within the subjective experiencing of each individual involved in a social interaction, as opposed to being an objectively perceivable set of events (Van Manen, 2016).

There is a range of qualitative methods which can elicit the perceptions, attitudes, and emotional reactions of practitioners to cross-cultural encounters with parents, caretakers, and children. However, we deemed individual one-to-one semi-structured interviews to be the most likely to elicit the in-depth data that we were interested in. This not only meant that we could use probes to prompt more detailed descriptions and generate better understandings of workers’ practices, but it also provided a confidential space to promote their sharing of what potentially could be sensitive experience or reflections (King et al., 2019). Moreover, by gathering data through a question route comprising broad open-ended enquiries about social work activity, unanticipated aspects of the work could emerge rather than being impeded by a tightly structured approach to data gathering (Alvesson, 2010).

We recognized that by choosing interviews, the researcher becomes the primary instrument of data gathering and interpretation. Our position in relation to research participants is therefore crucial. We both qualified as social workers in the 1990s and have developed specialisms in child protection-related research. This meant that we were generally perceived as peers and trustworthy interlocutors likely to share similar, albeit not the same, professional experience. One of us is from a British–Irish White background and the other is of Black African Caribbean heritage. During data collection, we compared transcripts of early interviews to determine if there were any perceptible differences in the disclosures made to us by research participants. We could not discern any, and this may have been attributable to our strictly observation of the same interview questions and prompts. In terms of our data analysis, we judge that our different racial and cultural backgrounds helped inform and enrich a collaborative consideration of salience in generating codes and interpreting findings overall.

We were primarily interested in the good practices developed by qualified social workers. However, given that, in England, the Government's austerity policies have contributed to raised thresholds for child protection intervention and increasing use of family support workers in complex situations where children are at risk (Jütte et al., 2014; National Children's Bureau, 2018), it became clear that non-social work qualified family support workers might possess important insights into good practice with families from minority backgrounds. We surmised that the experience of practitioners engaging with larger numbers of families from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds might be different from that of those working with fewer such families. Therefore, we decided to engage the Children's Social Care departments of one urban-based local government authority in a multicultural city and one rural-based one with a largely White–British catchment area. We contacted the principal social workers in charge of Children's Social Care at a number of potential local government authorities which met our criteria and received positive responses from two.

We liaised with the principal social workers of both these authorities and arranged for each of them to forward to their team leaders an initial email introducing our proposed research and offering to make a presentation at scheduled team meetings. The email also made it clear that involvement in the research was voluntary. The researchers delivered an on-site presentation on the proposed study to each of the seven teams that expressed an interest. Out of these, interviews with 17 practitioners were completed by March 2019, and demographic details for this sample are provided in Table 1. Although this qualitative sample was not representative, it includes practitioners from a range of backgrounds with 18% being male, 18% from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds, 18% being family support workers (FSW), alongside 6% newly qualified and 35% mid-career social workers (SW).

Table 1.

Characteristics of research participants.

Research participant	Job role	Gender	Experience in years	Self-identified ethnicity	Rural or urban agency
1	SW	F	6	White British	Urban
2	FSW	F	24	White British	Urban
3	SW	F	15	White British	Urban
4	SW	F	14	White British	Urban
5	SW	F	4	White British	Urban
6	SW	M	4	White British	Urban
7	SW	F	18	White British	Urban
8	SW	M	1	White British	Rural
9	FSW	F	28	White British	Rural
10	SW	F	10	White British	Rural
11	SW	F	5	White British	Rural
12	SW	F	6	Black British Caribbean	Rural
13	SW	F	25	White British	Rural
14	FSW	F	4	White British	Rural
15	SW	F	10	White British	Rural
16	SW	F	10	British Indian	Urban
17	SW	M	3.5	Black African	Rural

Potential research participants were provided with additional information regarding their rights, data storage, and dissemination of the findings. They were also provided with an electronic consent form which they were required to return via an email attachment with an electronic signature before the interview could proceed. As the research participants had already met the researchers and given the work pressures on social workers and family support workers, it was agreed to conduct the semi-structured interviews via telephone. This made it easier to negotiate timings and also enabled research participants to be interviewed more conveniently and flexibly in terms of location during their working day. Each telephone interview was 45–60 min long, and the audio was recorded. Research participants were asked not to mention the following: any names, their employing agency, or the organizations of colleagues. This meant that the audio recordings were anonymized from the outset and before being transcribed. Interview transcripts were uploaded to NVivo12, a software programme designed to facilitate coding and analysis of textual material. Data analysis was conducted using two sets of coding. An initial iteration employed thematic data analysis using a technique developed by Pietkiewicz and Smith (2012) to aid a systematic approach. This technique, which has been extensively applied to interview transcripts, comprises of the follow sequence of steps:

Employment of both emic and etic perspectives.

Multiple close readings of the textural material.

Identification of emergent themes from the data based on movement backwards and forwards between emic and etic perspectives.

Identification of connections between emergent sub-themes and the organization of these into larger clusters of conceptual meaning under superordinate themes.

Construction of a narrative account derived from the content and relationships between sub-themes and superordinate themes through the application of relevant concepts and theories.

Initially, 47 recurrent themes emerging from the first round of coding assisted to identify more discrete aspects of practice pertinent to practitioners (see Appendix one). A second round of coding drew on the conceptual elements of the ASKED process model of cultural competence. The second round was required to integrate the insights and experience of practitioners within a more systematic way of understanding them that could be utilised to inform child protection models of cultural competence and in turn social work training. The recurrent themes were subsequently resolved down into whichever of the five elements of the ASKED model of cultural competence they related to. As the research questions focus on exploring good practice, some of the data nodes in the first round of coding were excluded from the second round. Utilization of the coding stripes function within Nvivo12 meant that colored stripes indicating multiple codes for the same section of text could be viewed in an adjacent pane. This pulled the two-stage coding process into conjunction and informed both data presentation and analysis.

Firstly, as we were primarily interested in good practice, we sought out segments of meaning and associated coding in relation to the cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of cultural competence, as opposed to all aspects of cross-cultural encounters with families. Secondly, the process of thematic coding developed by Pietkiewicz and Smith (2012) required data to be examined from both emic and etic perspectives. This meant that initially coding the data from an emic point of view and capturing the meaning practitioners give to their own thoughts, emotions and behaviors in relation to cultural phenomena. This is highly consistent with a phenomenological approach. However, we wanted to create some structure to the data in a way that we would make its cultural components more discrete and therefore more useable for other practitioners. This meant overlaying the initial phenomenological analysis with an etic one based on the ASKED model, which imposed an external frame of reference to order the data in ways that the practitioners had not themselves articulated. Hence the thematic coding reflects an emic analysis, while the subsequent round of coding is etic and incorporates a practice model external to the research participants.

Approval for the research to be conducted was given by the principal social workers of each local government Children's Social Care agency. Ethical scrutiny of the proposed study was undertaken by the researchers’ own institution via the School of Sociology and Social Policy research ethics procedures set out in the University of Nottingham (2018) and framed by the research governance process stipulated in the University of Nottingham (2016). A formal ethical approval was acquired before the research started. A few minor details have been changed in the presentation of data to protect the identity of children and families. The question route is included in Appendix two.

Analyses of good practice employing the ASKED model

Cultural awareness

This element of the ASKED model is primarily focused on practitioners’ consciousness of their own cultural and spiritual heritage and how this informs their values and views. It is also relational in nature and requires workers to recognize how their position can influence interactions with children and families. Cultural awareness is therefore a critical starting point for practitioners if they are to develop cultural competence. We specifically asked interviewees about their racial and ethnic background to assist us in identifying both good practices and whether there were any notable differences between White British practitioners compared to Black, Asian, and minority ethnic ones. A number of White British social workers (SW1, SW5, and SW15) described assessment formats as crucial in prompting them to explore the heritage backgrounds of children and families. They reported that the information gathered about ethnicity as a result was often detailed, while a few practitioners conceded that it could also be cursory (SW1 and SW4). Some White British workers said that they experienced greater difficulty in communicating with minority ethnic families as opposed to White British families. This is captured in the contribution of one White British interviewee, reflecting on the impact of her position and how she endeavored to address this. The social worker employs self-disclosure alongside apt questions about race and ethnicity to achieve some understanding of the very different life experience of Black youths.

I think that there probably is sometimes more of a trust issue with Black and ethnic minority families, particularly for myself previously, being a white British worker, there is – I think very often they feel that we don’t understand their situations and I’ve always said, ‘Well tell me, tell what it's like for you, tell me what the issues are for you; let me help you address those issues’. I don’t think it's fair to go in and say, ‘No, I totally understand what your issues are’ because I don’t. I am a white British woman, I don’t know what life is like to be a young Black youth [in that area]. (SW10)

A few practitioners seemed oblivious to the need to explore the implications of ethnic diversity in their interactions with families or described a superficial approach to culture and faith. But predominantly, practitioners evidenced an explicit awareness of how the perspectives and experience of families from a different ethnic background might differ substantially from their own. Some described employing empathy in a concerted way to comprehend these important differences. In the interview excerpt below, a White British family support worker uses empathy to try and understand a family who has recently arrived in the UK.

I suppose to some families it's understanding their journey – understanding their journey and what's resulted in them being where they are in the situation they’re in …I can’t imagine there's anything worse than me having to pick myself up and end up thousands of miles away with nothing, nowhere and no one, that's going to be really traumatising in itself without the what really led up to that. (FSW14)

Practitioners from Black and minority ethnic heritage backgrounds revealed some key differences compared to their White British counterparts regarding cultural awareness. Two out of the three minority social workers included in the study recounted the experience of racism during work with families. A female British Indian social worker described confronting racism and sexism from White British families and those of minority ethnic backgrounds in the excerpt below.

The one thing I feel really stuck and can’t do anything is when the biases and the prejudices that they have about me being an Asian social worker. That's where I feel very stuck and they probably aren’t able to move beyond that because they think a) I am a female, that's the first bias, and why is a female coming and asking us to do things, and b) they view me as Asian, as someone's who's got potentially less power and less influence than a white social worker. (SW16)

All the social workers (SW12, SW16, and SW17) from Black and Asian backgrounds used their position regarding experience of racism or broadly shared cultural values to deepen their empathy and get alongside parents and children. This is exemplified in the excerpt below by a British Indian social worker who shares her experience of strong family values and aspects of faith, which she employed to build rapport.

…always I will try and relate something about me, my culture or my background with them as much as possible because often I have found that the common trait across most Black and minority ethnic communities is their festivals, is their values about their families, that's their whole, and it's about their religion and there's a common, it's about their faith and that's a common thread that bind all the Black and minority ethnic communities and it's about basically relating to them and talking to them is, yes, similar to your, like your Eid or similar to Allah. We’ve got, or similar to going to the, reading the Bible, we’ve got the Bhagavad Gita, we’ve got the temple, and this is what we, it's very similar to what we do. So I kind of get them to see me as a person who is also from a different background, who follows the same principles and values, and then they start relating to me, they think, “Oh yes, she's from a different background but the principles and values are the same. Then that relationship is formed there and then that, and then they can start working on it together. (SW16)

Cultural skill

Skills discussed by practitioners revolved around the abilities to elicit information from families concerning culture and faith, while also being able to interrogate this sensitively and make authoritative challenges. Over half of practitioners emphasized the importance of asking families about important aspects of their culture or faith and how this influenced their lives. This is well illustrated in the interview excerpt below involving a family support worker who sought to understand parental behavior by asking a series of explorative questions which then led on to a wider discussion of cultural and spiritual influences. This illustrates a move beyond simply asking families about their religious affiliation, to a set of focused questions aimed at exploring how their faith or culture affects their everyday lives.

Recently I was working with a Sudanese family that are Black Muslim, and they were spending a lot of effort and time trying to get the little boy to eat with his right hand. I could see that it mattered to them. I just said to them, ‘Is there a reason that you're doing that? Is he left-handed? Do you not want him to be left-handed? Are you trying to turn him away from it?’ They just said it's in their culture that they eat with their right hand. They just spoke to me about that and then from that little bit of information we were just talking about their religion and I was saying that I didn't know that. I know about praying schedules and mosques and things like that, but all the little bits, the day-to-day things that matter to them, I said I don't know that, and they just speak to you about it. I'm quite honest, if I see something that I don't quite understand I'll ask them why they're doing that. (FSW9)

While many practitioners described skilful practice in eliciting information about culture and faith, some also demonstrated their ability to make appropriate challenges when culture appeared to be used as a justification for child maltreatment. This is exemplified in the extract below in which the social worker recounts challenging the contradictions in a mother's assertion that her behavior was following cultural norms.

I think mum was British Jamaican, so – and there was a history in that family of – or for mum of physical chastisement. It was interesting that when you unpicked it, it had been happening to the – I think it was 10/11 year old really for some time, treated differently to his sister and it had become a bit of a norm for him. [We were] saying, “Enough is enough” and they were, “Well that's what happened to me when I was younger” and various bits. But [we said] “actually you’re doing it to your son, but you’re not doing it to your daughter”. So there was a little bit of work on that and so, that's often one that we will get, “It's happened to me, that's what happened to us; when we lived in Jamaica…” (SW3)

Cultural knowledge

SW10 discussed the importance of gathering information from local ethnic communities regarding child welfare matters, social needs and perceptions of social workers so that practitioners could learn from this knowledge and adapt their practice accordingly. Along similar lines, SW15 observed that while feedback is often gathered from families regarding their experiences of child protection, this could be better collated in relation to Black, Asian, and minority ethnic families to improve service delivery to them. Other practitioners explained how possessing background knowledge about a particular ethnic or faith community could assist rapport building, as seen in the interview extract below related to work with asylum seekers.

And I kind of worked on the assumption that if I showed an interest in their culture then it might help build rapport, so I learnt a bit about [it]. I know it's not always easy to learn a lot about an entire country, but having some sort of understanding…So just having a knowledge of differences in culture, things like that, I just felt that it helped and in my experience it did because you’re showing an interest in them. (SW6)

At the same time, a number of practitioners revealed skills in using knowledge about different cultures and faiths to inform their practice while remaining open-minded and alert to the particular beliefs and observances of each family without employing stereotypes as demonstrated in the extract below.

Yes, you’ve got a little bit of an indication, you know some of the research, you know some of that background but don’t always assume; don’t always assume that that's the case. You often will go in to a family, people will assume that that's the way that they would want you to treat them or respect them within the home etc. but when you start talking with them, they might say, “Well we don’t do that in our family, we don’t do X, Y, Z, we don’t do that. They may do up the road, but we don’t” and we find that a lot. (SW3)

Some practitioners (SW7, SW11, SW13, and FSW14) also recognised how structural inequalities framed the experience of many families from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds and the importance of incorporating these considerations into their work as evidenced in the excerpt below.

We cannot overlook issues that are affecting the whole family. Financial concerns, health issues, housing and the environment in which they are living. These have a massive, significant impact and we actively also need to work against and sometimes with policies that are facilitating disadvantage and discrimination against communities. (SW7)

Cultural encounter

Practitioners reported not only on the aspects of their work which utilised cultural skill and knowledge, but also recounted interactions with children and family members which demonstrated how they used these in ways which changed their practice. In the excerpt below, a White British social worker intervening with a White British traveller family who is cognizant of their distinctive cultural background and focused particularly on matters surrounding children's schooling, health, and mobile lifestyle, which are major sources of structural inequalities (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2016; Wilkin et al., 2010).

Again, sometimes children in the travelling community might be home schooled, so it is making sure that education is met, but still not necessarily in a way forcing them into mainstream schools. If that is not going to be the case, because obviously some of these families stay in the travelling community, they will up sticks and move around and certain things. But it is making sure that if they are in our area, that their children are getting educational needs, are getting health support. And it is just speaking to them about that, and making sure that they, the families, know that we are here to access those supports. (SW8)

Cultural encounters could also involve complex dynamics which involved practitioners in the sophisticated application of cultural knowledge and skills to work through challenging situations, as demonstrated in the vignette below where a social worker recounts using knowledge of how men are commonly positioned within another cultural context to ask mothers subject to domestic violence what their perception is of this in order to formulate appropriate professional responses.

A lot of our work, we look at domestic violence and controlling behaviour and things like that, and a lot of cultures and faiths do have the dominant male. If we're talking to a white European family, that dominant male is not always accepted, or his behaviour is not always acceptable. When you're discussing it with some other cultures and other faiths, that is how their family [is] and how they behave. The father is the dominant figure, is the one that makes all the decisions, is the one that does the discipline and is the one that is answerable to. Perhaps if we were talking to a white family about that, we would question that. I think it's important that you have to address, is he doing that in the realms of his religion or his culture, or is it more beyond that? I think that's really difficult, because especially females just want to shut down about that, they don't want to talk about it. ‘It is what it is’ that's what I get told a lot, ‘it is what it is’. Within the male being dominant and that being acceptable, it's not acceptable for him to be abusive. It's finding out the fine line between what's acceptable and what's not acceptable, and whether the female understands that or accepts it, or just thinks that's how it is, because that's her faith, that's her culture. (FSW9)

Cultural desire

A number of practitioners (SW6, SW7, SW11, and SW16) discussed aspects of their work which related to the cultural desire. SW6 emphasized his willingness to ascertain some broad general knowledge of young people's cultural or faith background to enable him to ask tactful attentive questions about their heritage and what was significant to them. A social worker elaborates further on this aspect of cross-cultural work in the excerpt below. This articulates the importance of employing cultural skills to convey to children and families the practitioners’ genuine interest in their heritage and a willingness to adapt their practice.

I think it's about listening to what they’ve got to say really and asking those questions and hearing their experiences and them knowing that you want to hear that, that you’re interested in what they’ve got to say and that you’ll take on board what they’ve got to say. (SW11)

Discussion

A phenomenological perspective combined with coding of longer blocks of meaning preserved the inter-dependence of affective, cognitive and behavioral aspects of cross-cultural engagement with families and children. This has underpinned the presentation of extended interview excerpts, which pull practitioner values, attitudes and practices into relationship with each other. Exploring the subjective perspective of workers assisted to demonstrate the links between worldview and action, which is essential in making good practice transferable. Behavioral responses in cross-cultural contexts, depleted of their correlative affective and cognitive dimensions, risk becoming standardized reactions, rather than reflexive interactions adapted to a particular family member and their circumstances.

These qualitative data reveal that while an assessment format can prompt some engagement with aspects of race and ethnicity, on their own they cannot prescribe the depth of cultural encounter. Moreover, social workers from White British backgrounds have distinctive experience and challenges from those of Black and South Asian backgrounds. White social workers are most often aware of the gap between their experience as a White person and that of the Black, Asian, and minority ethnic families they are working with. Conversely, Black social workers are aware of how racism and cultural stereotypes affect them personally, causing distress and disrupting their practice. However, these practitioners also use this aspect of their position to draw alongside Black, Asian, and minority ethnic individuals and families, to deepen their perceptiveness and capacity for advanced empathy. Many social workers and family support workers from all ethnic backgrounds demonstrated cultural skills in their communication, with examples of sensitive and tactful questions to elicit information on the meaning and influences of culture and faith in daily life. They often observed behavior without jumping to conclusions and asked for cultural information rather than making assumptions about what was happening. At the same time, some practitioners evidenced how they used authoritative communication skills to challenge blanket attributions by parents of their behavior to cultural norms.

Both social workers and family support workers in this study used cultural knowledge to show an interest in parents and children from a different heritage background and were willing to be candid about those aspects they did not know about or understand. Many demonstrated how they used cultural knowledge to initiate conversations about people's lives without deploying stereotypes or foreclosing genuine encounter with the unique pattern of cultural and spiritual influences bearing upon a particular family. Some also revealed how their knowledge of inequalities informed an intersectional perspective of people's lives which were also affected by racism, poverty, and health inequalities.

Those social workers and family support workers who articulated an integration of cultural awareness, skills, and knowledge during interview also evidenced aspects of cultural encounter. This was evident in their reflexive responses to their work with families from a different heritage background to themselves, and in changes to their practice as a consequence. Many of these practitioners drew on parallels from aspects of their own life experience, which reduced the widespread tendency to other people from a different racial or ethnic group; exaggerating differences, often to the point of caricature (Boyce & Chunnu, 2020). Yet at the same time, they showed an ability to use authority to assess risk and make challenges in situations where culture or faith was cited by parents or caretakers as a justification for their behavior. Indeed, many practitioners conveyed in their interviews cultural desire in terms of a genuine interest in other cultural and faith experience. A number of them put in effort and time to research the broad cultural background and spiritual beliefs of both recent migrants and long-established minority communities in Britain. The deeper cultural encounter and more holistic assessment of needs that were achieved were evident in many of the examples given by these practitioners of their work.

Limitations of the research

In the qualitative sample of 17 practitioners, three practitioners were from Black or Asian backgrounds and three were male, while only one social worker was newly qualified. This means that the predominating perspective in the data set is the subjectivity of a White British mid-career female practitioner. Undoubtedly a further study in this area would be enriched by greater representation of males, early career workers, and those from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds.

This explorative the study sought to examine whether the ASKED model could be applied to identify the elements of good practice developed by frontline practitioners working in cross-cultural contexts and to elicit these in a transferable form. As an initial foray, it has produced a limited range of good practices. Increasing the set of transferable practices related to cultural competence necessitates further research premised on the utility of this model from the outset and employing an explicit ASKED framing for data gathering.

Conclusions

The study demonstrated that the utility of the ASKED model of cultural competence in organizing emergent good practices into a framework, which while originally designed for application in the nursing care, can be effectively utilized by social work. The ASKED model offers a framework which moves beyond proforma assessments with sometimes quite narrow prompts around race, ethnicity and faith and instead works with these aspects of family life in dynamic and integrated ways. Frontline practitioners are already developing sensitive and holistic approaches to working with culture and faith, and the ASKED model is a systematic structure for capturing this good practice to facilitate sharing it with other child protection professionals.

As noted above, training in the UK regarding racial and ethnic diversity has centered on anti-oppressive theory and practice, while cultural competence is under-elaborated. Our research indicates that ASKED, which is informed by a wide literature base, enables social workers to develop actual working practices that are anti-oppressive unlike holding anti-oppressive attitudes, which are not effectively translated into tangible behaviors, as evidenced by the over-representation of Black children in the child protection system.

We advocate further research into good practices utilizing the ASKED model to elicit a comprehensive understanding of the interdependencies between social workers’ attitudes, values and practices in their interventions with Black, Asian, and minority ethnic families. We suggest that the more widespread adoption of ASKED would also create a shared approach to integrating a cultural dimension into practice and enabling the transfer of good practice between workers.