Concluding thoughts

This concluding chapter argues that, in order to do differently, people need bigger conversations that involve those from a range of endeavours and disciplines and all those concerned with, and impacted by, child protection. In social work, talking about the relationship between child abuse, neglect, and poverty is currently framed by notions of reinforcing or avoiding stigmatising or oppressive generalisations. However, accepting that poverty means it is more likely that children may be harmed means the societal and individual value of reducing child and family poverty becomes clearer. Poverty is a child protection matter and social work needs a conversation about what this means for the knowledge base and everyday practices. The chapter then explores some possibilities for democratising conversations more generally.