Feature - Social Care: Volunteers in child protection
Children & Young People Now
30 January 2008
An innovative project is breaking new ground by using volunteers to support families with children already in the child protection system. Mathew Little finds out what's involved in the scheme and how it supports statutory social work.
Two or three times a week, John Cliff, a retired insurance broker from Bromley in south London, pays a visit to a family in another part of the borough. He first met them 18 months ago and is still a regular caller. "If you can imagine a small house, a mother, no father, five children aged between two and 16, a dog and...