Collaborating to safeguard children in Taiwan: Systemic transformation

Abstract

Child abuse and exploitation pose significant threats to the health and well-being of children. While the Taiwanese governmentintroduced the Protection of Children and Youth Welfare and Rights Act in 2011 to address these issues, progress has been slow. This paper aims to examine the evolution of Taiwan’s child protection system (CPS), with a particular focus on interdepartmental collaboration. Through the collection of legislation, statistics, conference proceedings, and reports, this study analyzes the working model between law enforcement and public health. Three cases of collaboration between law enforcement and public health at the community level are presented: social safety net programs, early intervention for child abuse, and trauma-informed training for first responders. The accomplishments and challenges of each project are discussed, along with a review of the CPS in relation to the United Nations (UN) strategy INSPIRE’s approaches. Although Taiwan has shown a commendable emphasis on prevention and family support, the collaboration between law enforcement and public health is still in its early stages. The next crucial step is to strengthen integration in the early stages of identifying, assessing, and referring cases of child abuse and neglect. This can be achieved by generating more evidence on effective working models and promoting their implementation.