Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Given recent legislative changes to the child welfare system in Aotearoa New Zealand, it was deemed timely to examine the challenges faced by school-based social workers and other school professionals in responding to child abuse and neglect (CAN).METHOD: A qualitative study of school professionals’ responses to CAN included 20 semistructured interviews with school-based social workers. The participants were asked to describe two things that, from their perspective, would improve schools’ responses to CAN. This article reports on this aspect of the study.FINDINGS: Four main themes were identified in social workers’ responses: the necessity for improved training for teachers on CAN; better support for teachers; a more holistic approach to child wellbeing; and enhanced understanding of child welfare.IMPLICATIONS: These findings pose challenges to both initial teacher education and crossagency child protection. School social workers use their relationship skills and knowledge to act as bridges between teacher education, school leaders, teachers and the Ministry for Children Oranga Tamariki and believe they can do more.
Highlights
Given recent legislative changes to the child welfare system in Aotearoa New Zealand, it was deemed timely to examine the challenges faced by school-based social workers and other school professionals in responding to child abuse and neglect (CAN)
Thirty years have passed since the initial pilot of the “social workers in schools” (SWiS) programme and, given the proposed legislative and impending structural changes to the contracting body, and child protection in general in Aotearoa New Zealand, it is worth examining both the nature of the work and the experiences of school social workers
The article reports on phase one of a qualitative study which has explored the role of schools in responding to child maltreatment
Summary
Social work in schools in Aotearoa New Zealand has a relatively short history. Child abuse and neglect can have a significant impact on a child’s ability to fully participate in primary school life with the ramifications of undetected of unreported CAN might have ripple effects which can last years (Klika & Herrenkohl, 2013; Romano, Babchishin, Marquis, & Frechette, 2015) Researchers in this field have noted the critical role of teachers in detecting and reporting CAN. Aotearoa New Zealand research on professionals’ reporting behaviour has been limited and the most recent data were collated by Rodriguez (2002) who reported that, in the absence of legislated mandatory reporting, teachers and other professionals make decisions about reporting child abuse concerns based on subjective judgment and knowledge of situational factors Against this backdrop of research, it is surprising that little is known about how social workers and school professionals work together to address matters of child welfare. This article reports on aspects of a sequential qualitative study, with a particular focus on school-based social workers and their beliefs about what needs to change to improve school processes of addressing child welfare concerns
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