Statutory Child Protection Services Research Articles

Supporting High-Risk Families Through a Pregnancy Family Conferencing Model: Experiences of Professionals

ABSTRACT Effective child protection responses in the perinatal period can reduce the need for long-term service intervention. A Pregnancy Family Conferencing (PFC) initiative was established in one Local Health District in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, by child protection and health services to facilitate strengths-focused planning with families identified as high risk. This qualitative study explores the experiences of professionals engaged with PFC. Findings highlight the importance of hope, building trust in difficult circumstances, and ensuring transparency, with benefits for interagency partnerships and finding meaning in the work. Findings have implications for services seeking to support families engaged with statutory child protection services during the perinatal period. IMPLICATIONS PFC provides an alternative model for child protection and health systems, promoting collaborative decision making through a strengths-based framework to benefit families and children. The findings show that PFC participation also can benefit professionals through the formation of trusting interagency and interdisciplinary collegial relationships, and working effectively with families to reduce risks.

The heuristic divergence between community reporters and child protection agencies: Negotiating risk amidst shifting sands

BackgroundChildren enter the statutory part of ‘notify-investigate’ child protection systems via the reports of others, combined with acceptance by the statutory agency. This key nexus determines entry or deflection from statutory child protection services. ObjectiveTo examine the decision reasoning and processes of community (non-governmental organisation) workers that underpin reports to statutory services. Participants and settingParticipants are non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers in Aotearoa New Zealand. MethodsThe methods are focus groups, interviews and a ‘think – aloud’ vignette-based protocol, used to elicit reporting decision rationales and experiences. Theoretical concepts of heuristics, institutional co-responsibility, and policy change are used to explore the study findings. ResultsMost cases are reported only after NGO workers ‘build a picture’ in the context of relationships with families and efforts to address risks. Reporting is a last resort option and occurs after ‘tipping point’ changes in the balance of protective and risk factors. Participants note a rising threshold and changes to the criteria for report acceptance by Oranga Tamariki (the statutory agency) in recent years, due to changing policy aims, abuse definitions, an ‘add value’ principle, and workload pressures. This heuristic change results in many reports not accepted or acted on, leading to frustration, anxiety, and ethical ambivalence for NGO workers. ConclusionsThe rising threshold and ‘adding value’ principle while aimed at collective responsibility to family issues, is perceived by NGO workers as a deflection heuristic by Oranga Tamariki. In their view, it is applied too broadly, acts as a blunt tool that does not account for differences in role and power, and is used to deflect risk responsibility. Implications for children and whānau, (extended families) the possibilities for ‘co-responsibility’, ethical reasoning, and the data generated by reports are discussed.

The social support systems of mothers with problematic substance use in their infant's first year

AbstractThe infants of women with histories of problematic alcohol and other drug use are among the most vulnerable children known to statutory child protection services, which they enter at a younger age, and in which they remain longer. The net results include overwhelmed child protection systems and the birth of subsequent children conceived to ease women's grief at the loss their infants. Without adequate and appropriate support to the mother and her family, the pattern repeats. Obstetric services have an important role to play in the assessment of risk and protective factors in the perinatal period and in determining pathways to service provision. A comprehensive assessment considers the availability and quality of informal support prior to activation of formal systems of support, both statutory, where engagement is mandated, and non‐statutory, where support is offered on a voluntary basis. This paper uses quantitative methods to explore the social networks of women with problematic substance use in the transition to motherhood and the relationship between formal and informal support systems and infant outcomes. Surveys were held with two counsellors from the Women's Alcohol and Drug Service (WADS), a specialist obstetric clinic in Melbourne, Australia, and with 18 child protection workers. In addition, the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire (Norbeck, 1984; Norbeck et al., 1983) was administered with 20 participating mothers to measure levels of formal and informal support, as well as the type and quality of support available to mothers over a 12‐month period, and to consider the provision of social support against known outcomes for infants. The findings demonstrate that WADS counsellors made several referrals for most women but that there was little in the way of long‐term follow‐up by non‐statutory service providers, with most women experiencing a dramatic drop in support over the 12‐month period. Women whose main informal support was from a domestically violent partner, and those who had been in out‐of‐home care in their own childhood, were particularly vulnerable to losing the care of their infant. The role of child protection varied markedly across the 12‐month period, particularly in relation to the extent that a relationship between formal and informal systems of support for mothers and their infants could be established. Overall, the study findings demonstrate that mothers experienced diminishing formal and informal support over time and that the quality of social support available to the mother was more important in terms of outcomes for women and their infants than the quantity.

Ka mua, ka muri—Walking backwards into the future

INTRODUCTION: Spurred by critical reviews of Oranga Tamariki–Ministry for Children, Aotearoa New Zealand’s statutory child protection agency, and growing calls for services delivered “by Māori, for Māori, with Māori”, the New Zealand government is taking significant steps toward devolving responsibility for supporting the wellbeing of tamariki, rangatahi, and whanau Māori from the Crown to Iwi and Māori social service providers. Frequently overlooked in discussions of Crown–Māori partnerships are community-based Māta Waka (pan-tribal) organisations, which provide a range of much-needed services to tamariki, rangatahi and whānau Māori who are not mana whenua. The purpose of this Kaupapa Māori research was to examine the expectations that kaimahi working for a Māta Waka Kaupapa Māori service provider have of other organisations that: 1) partner with tamariki, rangatahi and whānau Māori; and, 2) partner with Māta Waka. APPROACH: Drawing on findings from wānanga with kaimahi, this article illuminates the principles and values that guide their practice, using these as a foundation for exploring the complexities, challenges, and opportunities inherent in building effective partnerships with statutory child protection services on behalf of tamariki, rangatahi and whānau Māori across differences in mandate, power, world views, and guiding frameworks or tikanga Māori. IMPLICATIONS: The study findings have implications for current Crown–Māori partnership efforts and, by extension, for the wellbeing of tamariki, rangatahi, and whānau Māori.

Pregnant women involved with statutory child protection services: The impact of difficult-to-reach on recruiting a non-biased sample

Pregnant women involved with statutory child protection services could be considered hidden in society or ‘silenced’ due to the lack of published evidence on whether state intervention with this group is beneficial. Scholars continue to call for research exploring the experience of at-risk pregnant women, in particular, for research that examines the impact of prenatal state involvement on outcomes for newborn babies, their mothers, and their significant others such as fathers, partners, families and communities. This study describes a researcher’s experience of attempting to recruit a purposeful sample of women who were the subject of an unborn child high risk birth alert in New South Wales, Australia. Short Message Service mobile telephone messages were utilised to invite participation via an opt-in approach, as a means to hear women’s experiences of the services they received while pregnant with their last child. From a population of eighty-nine, the strategy recruited only two participants. By describing the process undertaken to recruit a non-biased sample of at-risk women to a qualitative research study, future researchers may be able to deploy recruitment strategies that enable and encourage at-risk women to participate in research, in turn, allowing us to hear their voices.

Aboriginal parents' experiences of having their children removed by statutory child protection services

AbstractThe number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in out‐of‐home care has more than doubled in the past decade. Research into the experiences of parents who have had their children removed is an emerging area; though very few of these studies are specific to Indigenous children and families. This paper presents a participatory research study that explored the experiences of a group of Aboriginal Australian parents who have had their children removed by child protection authorities in one Australian state, New South Wales. This paper highlights the challenges for Indigenous families navigating the child protection system, specifically the ongoing experience of feeling powerless following the removal of their children, and in creating environments that maintain quality relationships with their children. The paper then offers suggestions for supporting families in light of the findings.

Towards Parity in Protection: Barriers to Effective Child Protection and Welfare Assessment with Disabled Children in the Republic of Ireland

ABSTRACT Disabled children experience increased risk of abuse and neglect. Concurrently, serious concerns and practical impediments persist regarding the capacity of statutory child protection and welfare services to respond adequately to their needs. Specifically, the focus in this article is on the assessment stage of the social work process within child protection and welfare teams in the Republic of Ireland. Within this, critical commentary on the literature in this article sets out barriers to professional assessment. These include those associated with interviewing children with cognitive and linguistic impairments, negotiating resource constraints, and overcoming knowledge impediments. Following a thematic overview of literature, theoretical vantage points associated with ableism and derived from the broad field of disability studies, informs concluding analysis with focus on lessons learned for future practice. The proposition is, that theoretical perspectives associated with ableism may aid practitioners in seeking to overcome knowledge, attitudinal and social equality barriers to effective child protection, that existing literature alludes to.

No Further Action: Contextualising Social Care Decisions for Children Victimised in Extra-Familial Settings

England’s child protection system is intended to safeguard young people at risk of significant harm – physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect. When young people are physically assaulted, stabbed or groomed into drugs trafficking they experience significant harm. To this extent they are entitled to support from statutory child protection services. Using findings from one component of a mixed method multi-site study, data from referrals and assessments into children’s social care is examined to identify the extent to which the right support and protection is realised. Such analysis indicates that despite being at risk of significant harm, young people abused in community or peer, rather than familial, settings will most likely receive a ‘no further action’ decision from social workers following referrals for support. This article suggests that to a certain extent no further action decisions are aligned to the legal and cultural parameters of social work and child protection practice, thus raising questions about the sufficiency of such for safeguarding young people abused in extra-familial settings.

From Prevention through to Therapy: Supporting Evidence‐Informed Practice across the Spectrum of Child Maltreatment

From Prevention through to Therapy: Supporting Evidence‐Informed Practice across the Spectrum of Child Maltreatment

Child protection and fathering where there is domestic violence: Contradictions and consequences

AbstractChildren live in different contexts of protection and vulnerability when exposed to domestic violence. The negative impacts for many children are consistent and widely acknowledged. However, the implication that this requires men who use violence to address their fathering has been slower to emerge. This article draws from 69 in‐depth qualitative interviews with men, women, and workers across four men's behaviour change programmes in rural Victoria, Australia. Particular attention is given to men's attitudes to their fathering and the formal and informal consequences they experienced as a result of their violence and its impact on their fathering. Although most men came to recognize that their violence impacted their children, they failed to make the connection that the involvement of statutory child protection services in their lives was a direct consequence of their abusive behaviour. This article explores this disconnection by fathers who use violence, their attitude to the involvement of statutory child protection services, and identifies the implications for social work practitioners in addressing this issue.

Affect and Emotion in a Parent’s Engagement with Statutory Child-Protection Services: Navigating Stigma and ‘Identity Assault’

Affect and Emotion in a Parent’s Engagement with Statutory Child-Protection Services: Navigating Stigma and ‘Identity Assault’

Affect and Emotion in a Parent’s Engagement with Statutory Child-Protection Services: Navigating Stigma and ‘Identity Assault’

Affect and Emotion in a Parent’s Engagement with Statutory Child-Protection Services: Navigating Stigma and ‘Identity Assault’

Responding to child deaths: the work of Australia's Victorian Child Death Review Committee

The Victorian Child Death Review Committee (VCDRC) in Australia is a multidisciplinary Ministerial Advisory Committee established to review the deaths of children either currently child protection clients or known to the statutory child protection system. The Committee provides advice about each child death as well as insights into what are the surrounding patterns and issues. Key to this role is examining the contribution of the service sectors to the protection of children and the routine practices that are in place to respond to children and vulnerability. This paper provides a snapshot of the cases referred to the VCDRC and the key messages for practice drawn from them. What emerges is that often the threshold for when statutory child protection services must be involved in child and family matters can be ambiguous and that agreement about intervention, the level and nature of need or risk, and when cumulative harm and neglect require statutory responses are not always shared between agencies. It is clear that the lack of common frameworks about what constitutes child protection intervention challenges services. It is recommended that there be and used agreed definitions and frameworks to ensure shared understandings and collaborative responses across the service and legal systems.

A queueing model for the capacity planning of a multi-phase human services process

The increasing availability of data concerning service demand and service provision has enabled the application of queueing models in new domains. In this paper, we present a case study involving a queueing model of the multi-phase statutory child protection services process in the State of Victoria, Australia. The model, which has been calibrated using field data, supports the exploration of alternative scenarios of client types and loads, and of staffing levels. The model is intended as a tool for managers to examine and provide an insight into the process and enables a quantitative analysis of the process, to assist in resource analysis and capacity planning. It provides for calibration at the caseworker level, including the requirement for a caseworker to handle multiple cases simultaneously. Closed form analysis of the model, a network of processor sharing queues, is not feasible. We describe three methods that support performance analysis of the process at different levels, drawing on mathematical results from the literature and using both analytic and simulation techniques.

Private and public voices: Does family group conferencing privilege the voice of children and families in child welfare?

This article examines the use of family group conferencing in child protection and considers its ability to privilege the voice of children and families who reach the attention of statutory child protection services. The family group conference (FGC) is a process of family decision-making in child protection, originally developed in Aotearoa New Zealand, and now practised in many countries including the UK. Examining the literature and research relating to the FGC it considers whether the approach provides a genuine context of participation and partnership, or whether it has become an instrumental professionally led practice as families are charged with greater responsibilities for children at risk.

Private and public voices: Does family group conferencing privilege the voice of children and families in child welfare?

This article examines the use of family group conferencing in child protection and considers its ability to privilege the voice of children and families who reach the attention of statutory child protection services. The family group conference (FGC) is a process of family decision-making in child protection, originally developed in Aotearoa New Zealand, and now practised in many countries including the UK. Examining the literature and research relating to the FGC it considers whether the approach provides a genuine context of participation and partnership, or whether it has become an instrumental professionally led practice as families are charged with greater responsibilities for children at risk.

Equipping child protection practitioners to intervene to protect children from cumulative harm: legislation and policy in Victoria, Australia

Many children are repeatedly reported to statutory child protection services, but do not receive the protection they need. Many such children are suffering chronic maltreatment, which is likely to result in cumulative harm. Chronic maltreatment encompasses emotional abuse and chronic neglect. As a result, children can experience a range of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural problems that are more serious than those associated with other abuse types.This paper focuses on the Victorian statutory child protection system, and considers why cumulative harm is not receiving the attention the legislation intends. Under the Victorian legislation cumulative harm must be proven on grounds of emotional abuse and/or neglect. However, it is difficult for child protection practitioners to place before the court the necessary evidence to establish these grounds.The paper concludes that the legal definitions of emotional abuse and neglect should not require evidence of a link between the abusive actions of the parent and the poor outcomes for the child. The evidentiary focus should be on the actions of the parent. Furthermore, legislation should focus on abusive parental behaviours that are likely to result in cumulative harm, which are more concrete and measureable than emotional abuse and neglect, such as intimate partner violence and parental illicit drug use.

A Practice Framework for Assessments at Tower Hamlets Children's Social Care: Building on the Munro Review

The Munro review of child protection explains in depth the contemporary challenges in delivering statutory child protection services. It notes that complexity, uncertainty and emotional challenges inherent in social work are contemporary issues not resolved through new national guidance or more bureaucratic procedures. Rather, practice needs reforming at the local level. Tragedies in practice have tended to usher in more and more bureaucratic responses alongside an unabated blame culture for practitioners. There is no doubt that practice reforms are needed to address this; however these are neither straightforward nor easily achieved. Busy and overloaded offices of child welfare, managers and workers wedded to pre-existing frameworks, and an ever anxious political system and public can unwittingly act against the development and reforming of social work practice. While challenges exist that need overcoming, this paper describes one such initiative, the new practice framework for assessments, developed and implemented in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, as part of the Munro review.

‘Like waking up in a Franz Kafka novel’: Service users' experiences of the child protection system when domestic violence and acrimonious separations are involved

The challenges that arise in respect of child abuse reports made in the context of domestic violence and/or acrimonious separation have been the subject of recent academic discussion. This paper adds a service user perspective to the debate and reports on the findings from a study conducted in the Republic of Ireland. In addition to the previously established evidence about such cases, it demonstrates the level of powerlessness and frustration experienced by families who found it difficult to have their needs heard or met. It also illustrates the very detrimental emotional impact on children and parents who frequently encountered indifference as well as insensitive and gendered responses from child protection staff. The findings indicate that mainstream statutory child protection services do not have the capacity to deal with these complex cases, and advocates the adoption of alternative approaches. Importantly, the study demonstrates the necessity to pay attention to the views of service users in developing an appropriate response.

Control and Social Work: A Reflection on Some Twenty-First Century Developments

The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed many changes in social work. This article discusses several of these developments in order to understand the rationale behind them and to consider how they impact on social workers and the social work role. Three separate but interconnected developments are highlighted. First, some key influences on statutory mental health and child protection services are discussed. Second, the author considers the role of the General Social Care Council (GSCC). Third, and related to the previous two points, the author looks at the way the term ‘vulnerable’, once considered a relatively rare condition or state, certainly for adults, has expanded to the point that to be considered vulnerable is no longer seen as an exceptional state but has, in many respects, become normalised. The purpose is twofold. First, to show the connections between developments in different services, and second, to highlight overarching societal developments that affect not only social workers but all of us, as procedural measures to protect the vulnerable become institutionalised. In the process, not only have social workers become more controlling, they have simultaneously become more controlled by procedural measures and regulatory authorities.