Child protection social workers walk a tightrope between protecting children in their families and protecting them from their families. Well-documented scandals have involved both the failures of social workers to intervene soon enough, if at all, and failures involving premature or draconian interventions which were subsequently found to be unwarranted.

While doctors differ and patients die, there is a public expectation that social workers will protect all of the children all of the time. Although the perceived shortcomings of social workers often make the headlines, little is written about the unpalatable job they do for society, or about the individual children and families who are at the receiving end of their (often unwelcome) intervention.

Having retired from forty years in statutory social work, Paul Harrison decided to tell that story. Hanged If You Do…: Reflections from a Career in Child Protection is a personal account that finds humour even in the darkest places.

Hanged If You Do… provides an insight into the politics of child protection and addresses sensitive issues of public interest such as:

Supporting vulnerable families who may not want to be helped

Physical and sexual abuse

Mental illness

Drug addiction

Youth homelessness

Children in care

Adoption

Family privacy versus State authority Hanged If You Do… provides a vital insight into the changing world of child care and social work over the past 40 years and offers a compelling social history of that time. Paul Harrison is a registered social worker working in child