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AbstractTraditionally, Ghanaian families facing difficulties address their problems by engaging kin, with the State being the last point of call. However, in recent times, more families facing difficulties are contacting social services to seek redress. So what contribution are kin and other informal social support networks providing to the care and safety of children of such families? This paper presents findings from 15 families receiving services from the Department of Social Welfare in Sekondi, Ghana. Through semistructured in‐depth interviews, the families shared their views on the roles played by their kin and informal social networks in contributing to the care of their children. The study findings suggest that kin still plays a vital role in the support of parenting through imbibing of norms and values; whereas the provision of casual support is provided by nonkin in one's social support network on the basis of reciprocity. Therefore, it was concluded that in developing social welfare policies to ensure better outcomes for children in Ghana attention also has to be placed on the supportive role of the community for families in danger of disruption as there is likely to be limited familial safety net for support in child care.

Promoting parental participation is one of the complex and delicate areas of child protection practice. Several authors argue that ensuring the participation of service users in child protection is a way to ensure a fit between service user needs and services. Studies on parental participation exist in some countries in the Western world, however, this is lacking in Ghana. This is the first study in Ghana to explore child protection workers and parents' experiences on participatory practices. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 8 child protection workers and 19 parents, this study reports participants' experiences of participatory practices. Workers indicated they ensured transparency and diversity while promoting participatory practices and parents reported their engagement in decision making as a prominent feature of their participation in case meetings. Barriers to participation were identified by the participants. The study findings suggested some measures to be put in place to overcome these barriers to ensure the full participation of parents during case meetings.

The success rate using formal mechanisms by Ghanaian social workers to ensure the best outcomes for the child when there is default in child maintenance payments is low; hence the need to explore other strategies. The objective of this research was to explore informal support resources that could be helpful to families involved with social services on delinquent child maintenance (DCM). Guided by a practice research approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 parents involved with a regional-level social service organization in Ghana. Their narratives were analyzed thematically using the NVivo software. Findings revealed that DCM is a problem for both sexes. Parents reported information, financial, and material support from relatives and neighbors to be relevant resources in addressing the problem. The study's findings suggest the need for social workers to focus on informal support when addressing DCM and emphasize parental roles as situation-based not gender-based.

AbstractTraditionally, the involvement of the extended family in nurturing children is seen as an essential cultural practice in most communities in Ghana. Though not formally regulated, often in the absence of birth parents, kin and kith continue to be involved in the care of children to promote family relations and culture. Yet there is little empirical evidence on how to improve the well‐being and safety of children in informal kinship care in Ghana. Thus, this study reports findings from in‐depth interviews with 15 young people, 18 to 23 years, from Banda—an ethnic group where informal kinship care is an accepted cultural practice. Data from the interviews were subjected to the constructivist grounded theory analysis. Adequate income for provision of basic needs, education and training, and supervision emerged as useful measures to promote the safety and well‐being of children in kinship care. It was recommended that informal kinship caregivers must be registered with the Department of Social Welfare to enable them access support and training. Further, social workers should create awareness among kinship caregivers in Ghana about their availability to provide counselling services for caregivers facing challenges.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) includes provisions to ensure that children and young people have a say in decisions affecting their lives. Although a signatory to the UNCRC, Ghana is a nation where little empirical evidence has been gathered regarding the barriers that prevent children from participating in child protection. Thus, in this article, we report on findings from a qualitative study into the barriers to children's participation in child protection practice in Ghana. The study was based on qualitative interviews with 15 child protection practitioners, and a constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyse data from the interviews. Intimidation, parental influence, communication problems, and confidentiality were identified as barriers to promoting participatory practices for children in the child protection process. The study findings suggest that engaging with children in separate rooms or spaces, away from the presence of parents and other adults, could help practitioners promote children's participation. It is recommended that practitioners should upgrade their skills for working with children by taking part in in-service training, workshops, and seminars to help address issues with communication. Practical actions suggested in this study may also be useful for other practitioners addressing similar issues.

International and local communities have made commitments to ensure that children with disabilities have equal opportunities in education, just like their non-disabled counterparts. Regardless of the increasing research about the development of inclusive education for children with disabilities, inclusive education is not achieved. This calls for a focus on what other professionals, like social workers, can contribute to the successful implementation of inclusive education. A systematic review yielding 11 studies revealed that social workers perform well-known generalist practitioner roles like advocacy, collaboration, education, facilitation and provider of psychosocial support which emphasises the need to involve social workers in inclusive schools.

Abstract
Custodial parents, often single mothers, face challenges regarding child maintenance, including a lack of financial commitments from non-custodial parents for their children's welfare. The evidence suggests that there is a strong link between child maintenance and poverty as well as other family violence issues. In addition to their primary child and family protection duties, child protection practitioners in Ghana have a mandate to assess child maintenance concerns. This dual responsibility may have the advantage of promoting holistic child and family practices, but it could also negatively impact families when practitioners overly focus on one responsibility at the expense of the other. We sought to understand and show whether families who reported child maintenance concerns to the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development in Ghana experienced challenges beyond child maintenance and whether practitioners identified these primary protection concerns in their assessments. Findings from qualitative in-depth interviews with seventeen parents show that these families experienced domestic violence, marital conflict and child abuse and neglect beyond the scope of a standard child maintenance case. The findings highlight the importance of child protection workers conducting comprehensive family assessments to resolve 'hidden' family difficulties when establishing child maintenance arrangements.