The End of 2022

One of the core aims of the journal is to encourage those new to academic publishing to submit their work to it. It is therefore fitting that in the current issue four of the five research articles are first authored by authors new to academic publishing who are either currently in social work practice or, in one case, was very recently so. We begin with Andrew Davies’ literature review on the highly challenging topic of mothers who kill their children. Davies’ motivation to study this topic in detail was spurred by a tragic case which occurred within the local authority area where he worked. The literature review explores the different categories of maternal filicide while noting the underlying complexities and uniqueness of each situation where a child is killed by their mother. The review reports that maternal filicide is rare and when it does occur is likely to be caused by a combination of societal, psychological and relationship-based factors such that it cannot be easily predicted. The article concludes by arguing for greater awareness of, and research into, this phenomenon while emphasising the need for better preventative supports in work with families. Our second paper is written by Debbie MacAulay and Susan Levy. MacAulay is now a qualified social worker practising with adults but the article draws on her placement experience during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide insights on how she used arts-based approaches to connect with young people online. Amongst the interesting reflections are that at the start of her placement MacAulay saw the use of creative arts as a weakness in her practice, having not enjoyed how they were taught to her at school. However, on placement she came to view arts-based methods as an essential communicative tool with young people. Drawing on examples, she illustrates how the methods supported her to build relationships in placement. Underlying the description of work is a sense of how MacAulay’s use of arts-based methods allowed young people to direct parts of the interactions with her, generating more reciprocal and even communicative exchanges.