Working together, or keeping apart? A critical discourse analysis of the revised working together guidance (2013)

摘要

This article gives an account of a discourse analysis in which a section of revised Government policy, Working Together to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children, was subjected to critical discourse analysis (CDA). Setting out the context in which the policy was published, this article outlines the recent policy context and articulates the chosen method of CDA to undertake a small-scale study in relation to the revised Working Together and discusses the findings of the analysis. It offers an insight into how the issue of child protection is understood, managed and made tolerable, through the policy's discourse. It concludes that the revised documentation, a result of Munro's review of child protection (2011), fails to adequately acknowledge the complexity involved in protecting and safeguarding children.