November 19, 2021 Research and Evidence

Blending systems thinking approaches for organisational analysis: Reviewing child protection in England

Literature reviews

By David C. Lane, Elke Husemann, Eileen Munro

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This paper concerns the innovative use of a blend of systems thinking ideas in the ‘Munro Review of Child Protection’, a high-profile examination of child protection activities in England, conducted for the Department for Education.

Three specific contributions that systems thinking made to the Review are then described—first, the systems-based analysis and visualisation of how a ‘compliance culture’ had grown up. Second is the creation of a large, complex systems map of current operations and the effects of past policies on them. Third, how the map gave shape to the range of issues the Review addressed and acted as an organising framework for the systemically coherent set of recommendations made.

The paper closes with an outline of the main implementation steps taken so far to create a child protection system with the critically reflective properties of a learning organisation, and methodological reflections on the benefits of systems thinking to support organisational analysis.

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