Agent of support or agent of surveillance? The expectations on children's social care professionals in the prevention of youth radicalisation

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Across the world, the role of those in public health and welfare professions - such as healthcare, social care, and education - are rapidly changing amid political, cultural, and economic uncertainty and subsequent policy and public welfare reform. One way in which this is occurring is through the protection of young people from harm outside their family homes. Professionals responding to such harm often enter what is known as the 'pre-criminal space', holding responsibility for preventing the abuse of young people - particularly relating to violence and criminality. This emerging practice has stirred international debate around the ethical implications of tasking professionals with surveillance and control in the name of welfare and care. Using Carol Bacchi's 'What's the Problem Represented to Be Approach', this study will explore how responsibilities in crime prevention align or conflict with values of welfare-based professionals. Children's social care's enactment of the UK's 'Prevent Duty', aimed at preventing the radicalisation of young people into terrorism, will be used as a case study to examine how the prevention of violence via surveillance as a statutory duty aligns with the values that underpin social work. Through discourse analysis of national and local social policy alongside interviews with practitioners (n=18), the study will surface how conflicting value bases are managed in policy and practice. The knowledge produced will support social workers to navigate the 'pre-criminal space' while upholding the values of their profession, ensuring young people are not harmed by both the process of radicalisation and punitive system responses."