Creating a space to think in adversarial contexts: researching network meetings in statutory childcare interventions

This research investigated complex relationships between parents and professionals involved in care proceedings, through detailed observations of network meetings – a practice developed in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service to engage with families and professionals in adversarial contexts. These take place at the border between the domain of court, often dominated by structural preoccupations, and the clinic valuing experience and relationships. Six meetings were recorded and observed by the researcher in the room. The methodology drew on a number of epistemological traditions to capture the complexity and multi-layered nature of knowledge and experience. The study evolved into an ethnography-inspired exploration of structures, relationships and emotions emerging in meetings and the adversarial context of care proceedings. Successful meetings managed tensions between a structure-dominated domain and the experience-near domain of the clinic while avoiding being dominated by either. Practitioner points Structure can be both enabling and constraining Direct observation and bringing stakeholders together without legal representatives can allow new information and a deeper understanding of human stories to emerge Chairs have to emphasize the need to work together in order to create a genuine space to think A three-phase approach to meetings and assessments can provide a level of containment in order to move between the security of structure and the domain of experience.