New ways towards a service-oriented, participatory child protection in Hungary

Abstract

The core aspect of the child welfare and protection thought focusing on the family and channelling community resources is that in order to preserve the unity of the family, it is necessary to widely introduce from the local community the services into the family’s life, thus mobilizing the internal resources of the family, and acknowledging parenting, as a social value. Integrative child protection is a multidisciplinary and multidimensional process. The research examines how the Hungarian child protection professionals in child welfare services and centres, child protection institutions and foster care system reflect on the professional work, and on the dysfunctions identified in child protection field work. I also examine how social work training and practice can help to incorporate professional values into field work. I analyse how social assistance can be adequate in general, and how social work became asocial in the late modernity and in a rapidly changing, unpredictable service environment.