THE MUNRO REVIEW

The Munro Review of Child Protection in the United Kingdom

The Munro Review of Child Protection in the United Kingdom

Introduction

Adequate child protection is an integral part of a developed society. Modern social prerequisites for a successful require the society to be equipped with an infrastructure that can be expected to deliver adequate protection to children and families who are vulnerable. In this regard, there is an expansive body of literature that has accumulated as a result of extensive research in the area of child protection. However, the Munro Review of Child Protection - Part One: a Systems Analysis by Professor Eileen Munro is a publication that has managed to acquire significant acclaim and stands out amongst the rest for the same reason. This discussion will seek to provide a reflection on the publication while attempting to place the Munro Review within the current context of policy debates in relation to child protection in the UK. In addition, the discussion will also discuss the main recommendations of the Munro Review while highlighting the reasons because of which current reforms to child protection have been found to be ineffective. The discussion will also incorporate a critical analysis of the extent to which the Munro Review recommendations address current challenges to child protection and front-line social workers.

Discussion

When studying the Munro Review, it is imperative to realize that the review is actually the presentation of a preface of sorts for an extended research that will come forth as a continuation of the review. It is because of the same reason that the review was divided into three sections (Munro 2010). The first section presents a background and an introduction. The second section elaborates on interventions and practices that have been exercised in the past. The last section of the review (the smallest of the three sections), proposes steps that are designed to address the deficiencies in the interventions and practices that have been used to date.

A close analysis of the review reveals that the author has essentially chosen to divide child protection into three areas. These three areas are: management, inspection and action. This characteristic of the author's approach can be observed in the author's statement that: A dominant theme in the criticisms of current practice is the skew in priorities that has developed between the demands of the management and inspection processes and professionals' ability to exercise their professional judgment and act in the best interests of the child (Munro 2010).

It can be observed that the author has chosen to highlight the extensive uncertainty that is present in the current child protection infrastructure prevailing in the US. The author highlights this element of uncertainty by elaborating on the inability of former child protection practices to yield results. By doing so, the author highlights that former methods have been tainted with projections that were grounded in estimations when they should have been based on facts. In this regard, it is clear that the author considers the current system to be less than adequate (Munro ...