The Social Construction of Vulnerable Families in Children’s Centres: A Critical Discourse Analysis

In the UK, in an atmosphere of othering and labelling, a new label has emerged, that of vulnerable families. A key concern about the way many families are socially constructed because they are labelled as vulnerable, and the potential negative implications of that labelling. The role and use of power in these social constructions arguably cannot be underestimated. The aim of the research was to explore how vulnerable families are socially constructed in the context of Children’s Centres. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was used as the methodology for the thesis. A semi structured interview was used to gather data from twelve purposively recruited participants comprising of four centre managers, two leading practitioners and six family support workers. The participants worked in eight different Children’s Centres from one local authority, in a city in Southeast England. The voices of front-line Children’s Centre workers have often been overlooked and as such this study provides unique practice focused perspectives on how vulnerable families are supported and socially constructed. The findings of the research suggested neoliberal politics were influential in how vulnerable families were socially constructed to deflect from the structural inequalities that cause vulnerabilities in families. Definitions of vulnerability are multiple, varied and subject to influence by those in power. Labels were influential in the negative connotations in of vulnerable families. Children’s Centre workers often resisted negative social constructions of vulnerable families without considering underlying causes. The thesis contributes to the extant knowledge of the impacts of political power, structural and systemic inequalities on vulnerable families and contradicts the suggested neoliberal belief that individuals are in essentially responsible for their own vulnerabilities. One area of further research would be why practitioners working in practises related to social justice do not appear to consider the negative role of structural, systemic and intersecting inequalities in the everyday lives of the families they support.