Statutory Child Protection Research Articles

Addressing the Clinical Burden of Child Physical Abuse and Neglect in a Large Metropolitan Region: Improving the Evidence-Base

Children at risk of abuse are more likely to be hospitalized and utilize health services according to international research. In a large metropolitan health region in New South Wales, Australia, there was little known of the clinical burden of child physical abuse and/or neglect (PAN), or of systems for clinical assessment of children presenting with abuse/neglect. We aimed to identify the number of children presenting with suspected PAN to emergency departments (EDs) and paediatric services in this region, to determine enablers and barriers to assessment for children with PAN presenting to frontline services, and to identify best practices to address gaps. We collated available data on children presenting to EDs and paediatric services with suspected PAN in 2007. We interviewed 36 health professionals from nine hospitals and 12 statutory child protection professionals, across the region before undertaking relevant document analysis. Of 64,700 paediatric ED presentations, a quarter were due to injury; 2%–5% of these were due to maltreatment. Clinician estimates and assessments of PAN varied widely; health and welfare workers identified major practice gaps, as well as good local practice. We identified feasible minimum standards for improving clinical assessment and follow-up for children presenting with PAN, given the right organizational support.

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.

Victoria's Child FIRST and IFS differential response system: Progress and issues

Differential response has long been utilized by statutory child protection systems in Australia. This article describes the advent and history of Victoria's differential response system, with a particular focus on the Child FIRST and IFS programme. This program entails a partnership arrangement between the Department of Human Services child protection services and community-based, not-for-profit agencies to provide a diverse range of early intervention and prevention services. The findings of a recent external service system evaluation, a judicial inquiry, and the large-scale Child and Family Services Outcomes Survey of parents/carers perspectives of their service experiences are used to critically examine the effectiveness of this differential response approach. Service-user perspectives of the health and wellbeing of children and families are identified, as well as the recognized implementation issues posing significant challenges for the goal of an integrated partnership system. The need for ongoing reform agendas is highlighted along with the policy, program and structural tensions that exist in differential response systems, which are reliant upon partnerships and shared responsibilities for protecting children and assisting vulnerable families. Suggestions are made for utilizing robust research and evaluation that gives voice to service users and promotes their rights and interests.

Australia's Children's Courts: An assessment of the status of and challenges facing the child welfare jurisdiction in Victoria

This article reports the findings of a study of the views of Victoria's Children's Court magistrates on the current status and challenges faced by the Children's Court as well as proposals for reform that have recently been canvassed in Australia and overseas. This study was part of a larger “national assessment” of Australia's Children's Courts.The Children's Court is a key social institution whose legal decision-making has major social consequences for children and families. This paper reports on the findings of a study which examined the court's contemporary status and challenges from the perspective of judicial officers and other stakeholders; it sought also their views about their degree of support for a range of possible reforms. The focus of this article is on the Court's child welfare jurisdiction which hears child protection matters brought before the Court by the statutory child protection service. This study was part of a larger national assessment of Australia's eight state and territory Children's Courts. The findings point to support for change in the approach to, and management of, child protection matters, within a more problem-solving court. Findings also point to the need for research on the understanding of court processes and decisions by parents and families.

G164 Unmet health needs identified during child protection medical assessments and their follow-up: A one year retrospective review of medical reports

BackgroundAbuse and neglect cause long-term damage to a child’s health and wellbeing. Emerging evidence highlights the dual role of statutory child protection medical assessments (CPMA) as being an opportunity to...

Narrative Practice and the Signs of Safety Approach: Engaging Adolescents in Building Rigorous Safety Plans

The Signs of Safety approach to child protection has been gaining prominence around the world and this approach has developed through learning from good practice. Generally, examples of good practice are derived from adults who pose a risk to children, while this paper outlines an example of good practice that engages an adolescent in building a safety plan. It addresses the balance needed to be struck between the complex nature of addressing concerns and developing a rigorous safety plan while not shaming the young person and creating resistance or avoidance. This paper therefore sets out how the Signs of Safety approach can be synthesised with narrative practice to create an effective approach in working with young people. Using the externalising process along with re-membering conversations, positive alternative stories can be created about the young person's identity that support desistance and promote engagement with the authorities. A case example is used to demonstrate this synthesis where a young person has displayed harmful sexual behaviour towards a child. Consideration is given as to how this approach reduces shame-inducing practice often associated with statutory child protection processes. It concludes with the potential for such an approach to be applied more widely to working with young people.

The Impact of Limited Organisational and Community Resources on Novice Child Protection Workers: A Queensland Example

A high turnover of staff at the Queensland statutory child protection agency, combined with a lack of experienced prospective employees, means that the agency is increasingly relying on new university graduates. However, the availability of resources is a risk to the continued engagement of child protection workers because they do not feel that they are able to adequately service the clients who they work with, and is one reason why they may choose to leave the agency. In order to gain a greater understanding of how graduate child protection workers perceive both organisational and community resourcing, this study interviewed 20 child protection workers who were still in their first 12 months of employment in the agency. The results suggest that insufficient staffing within the agency affected the work of the child protection workers. Participants identified that additional organisational resources of that which would improve the capacity of child protection workers to fulfil their role in a more efficient and safe manner included motor vehicles and administrative support. Participants expressed the view that resources external to the organisation were necessary to promote practice and improve outcomes for children and families. In the absence of additional resources being made available, effectively allocating resources within child protection offices, as well as encouraging the workers to develop their knowledge of available resources, should help address this issue. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.‘The results suggest that insufficient staffing within the agency affected the work of the child protection workers’Key Practitioner Messages Dissatisfaction with resourcing both within a statutory child protection agency and within community‐based organisations external to the agency affect child protection workers' job satisfaction. Effectively allocating existing resources within child protection offices and encouraging new child protection workers to develop their awareness of external resources should assist these practitioners to fully utilise the resources available to assist children.

Re-referral for Complex Child Abuse and Neglect Concerns: The Influence of Family and Child Factors in a 25 Year Data Set

ObjectiveThe study reviewed a 25-year dataset of child abuse and neglect concerns, examining child and family factors associated with re-referral.MethodsSuspected child abuse and neglect data collated from a variety of sources including child protection, health, police and education by a multidisciplinary Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect team for the 25-year period of 1980 to 2005 was entered for analysis. Case referral criteria for the team included clinician perception of the case as being complex and necessitating multidisciplinary case planning. The dataset contained 6669 cases of child abuse and neglect concerns, relating to 5943 unique children.ResultsThe majority of children (90.5%) experienced only one referral to the team, with the remaining experiencing between 2–6 referrals. Through the utilisation of regression analysis, the factors of number of abuse types present at the initial concern, parental abuse as a child, parental intellectual disability, parental history of violence, perpetrator of intrafamilial origin, disabled children in family, and financial stress in family were found to significantly predict complex case re-referral respectively.ConclusionsChildren within this Australian sample of complex cases experienced rates of re-referral similar to those reported internationally. Family and child factors identified as predictors of re-referral in this 25-year dataset support previous international studies on statutory child protection re-referral, and evidence for the association between previously unstudied variables and re-referral likelihood for complex cases.

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.

‘You Don't Have to Shout’—Vocal Behaviour in Social Work Communication

In the context of an increasing trend toward indirect service user/practitioner contact, this article argues that voice quality, vocal features, and the use of paralanguage can facilitate communication and/or negatively reinforce social difference and professional hierarchies of power in social work practice. These issues will be considered with reference to a finding from a qualitative research study undertaken in New Zealand with Intake Social Workers (ISW) at the National Contact Centre of Child Youth and Family (CYF). The National Contact Centre (NCC) is a social work call centre, and the official entry point to New Zealand's statutory child protection system. The research explored how ISWs constructed their practice in a call centre environment. The study identified the importance to many ISWs of achieving a calm, respectful telephone manner towards service users. A smaller number of participants showed more in-depth appreciation of the impact of vocal behaviour on practice, drawing attention to the effect of paralanguage on relationships with callers. Strategies for the teaching of this skill set to social work students will be considered.

Workforce Development: A Pathway to Reforming Child Protection Systems in Australia

The Australian child protection system is struggling to successfully address voluminous child protection notifications, increasing numbers of children in state care, decreasing foster-carers and chronic workforce issues. In this paper, we argue that the capacity of statutory child protection agencies to achieve their social policy objectives is severely hampered by their failure to acknowledge or challenge the competing ideologies that underpin contemporary child protection practices. This failure means that the individuals who work in this area experience contradictory demands that compromise their capacity to work effectively and often render their work conditions intolerable, amidst the ongoing threat of media criticism that they are failing. Meanwhile, children and families in need experience risk assessment and interventions often reported to be debilitating and traumatising. This paper highlights many of the problems experienced by people working in and for child protection services in Australia and advocates for urgent reform. To build more sustainable and high-quality child protection services, we argue, workforce development must be central to institutional and organisational reform. In order to achieve necessary change, improve workforce retention and the quality of work, we posit that workforce development strategies must include the reconceptualisation of underpinning ideologies and current approaches practice.

Compulsory participation in a child protection and family enhancement program: Mothers’ experiences

A wide range of statutory and non-statutory child protection and family support services exist to prevent the occurrence or re-occurrence of maltreatment. They may be oriented towards primary, secondary or tertiary levels of prevention, employ various types of professional and/or paraprofessional workers, and target a diverse range of groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of parents who were directed by child protection authorities to attend a tertiary level child protection and family enhancement program. In depth unstructured interviews were used to gather data about these parents’ experience. Thematic content analysis of these transcripts identified four major themes as follows: 1) It’s a good place to be: Participation as an affordable social outlet; 2) Learning about kids: Participation as a source of learning; 3) They are there for me: Participation as a source of practical help and support; and, 4) I am a good mother: Participation as a source of tension and conflict. Participants’ perceptions of friendship with workers emerged as the most significant and valued aspect of their experience. These feelings of friendship were tested when staff undertook their mandatory reporting role. Feelings of betrayal arose that challenged the women’s previous unconditional feelings of trust, and jeopardized the therapeutic relationships that had been established.

Assessment: when does it help and when does it hinder? Parents' experiences of the assessment process

ABSTRACTIt is widely acknowledged that there are significant benefits when statutory child protection agencies and parents are able to engage cooperatively with one another to ensure the well‐being of children. Despite promising innovations there are ongoing concerns that the current child protection model alienates and confuses many parents. It is hypothesized that a significant reason for this is that statutory agencies have become reliant on formalistic assessment, and as a consequence interactions with parents have become dominated by a focus on assessment‐compliance. A qualitative study of 40 parents who had recently been investigated in Australia is reported. The analysis suggests that many parents find characteristics of assessment processes intrusive and that this undermines engagement. It is concluded that there should be greater debate about the role that assessment plays in child protection practice.

Defining standards for medico-legal reports in forensic evaluation of suspicious childhood injury

Expert opinions in the form of medico-legal reports are requested by police investigators and statutory child protection officers from child protection/forensic paediatricians to help them to make child protection and prosecution decisions. These reports must be understood and able to be correctly interpreted by a range of professionals and as well as comply with the requirements of expert court reports. There is currently much variation in report construction. Having a medico-legal report framework which defines structure and standards assists report-writers to achieve objectivity, can be useful for training, peer review audits and ensures optimal standards in opinion formulation. Using legal judgements relating to child abuse proceedings, author experience and the limited existing literature, a tool is presented which defines report standards specifically in relation to the assessment of suspicious injuries.

Sex Offender Risk Assessments in the Child Protection Context. Helpful or Not?

When a convicted or alleged child sex offender is living, or having contact, with his own children or stepchildren, the obvious worry is that these children are victims or will become victims of sexual abuse. One way of determining the risk of this occurring is for the convicted or alleged offender to undergo a forensic sex offender risk assessment. In this article I raise questions regarding the usefulness of sex offender risk assessments within the statutory child protection context. Most importantly, I ask whether static and dynamic risk assessment instruments can accurately predict the risk an alleged or convicted sex offender poses to his own children. I conclude that ‘high’, ‘moderate’, and ‘low’ risk outcomes of forensic sex offender risk assessments in the child protection context are unreliable and can result in error, and explain that these errors have consequences that, within the child protection context, have consequences that can be dangerous to children.

Medical assessment for child sexual abuse: A post‐code lottery?

To describe the number of children and young people in New Zealand who receive a medical assessment for sexual abuse, the proportion of those where there is concern about sexual abuse who receive such assessments and the way in which assessment services are structured. Medical assessments for child and adolescent sexual abuse over 12 months were counted by direct communication with health providers throughout New Zealand, and compared with the number of cases substantiated by statutory child protective services, the number of claims for counselling for mental injury from sexual abuse and the regional population. All doctors providing medical assessments were surveyed as to how this was organised by region. There were 804 medical assessments. Child protective services regarded 1207 cases as substantiated, and 1434 claims for mental injury were lodged. There was marked regional variation. In a matched sample, only 38% of cases of substantiated sexual abuse were seen for a medical assessment. A doctor with expertise in the assessment of sexual abuse was available in most areas, but service structure varied widely. The availability of nurse or social work support was poor. The proportion of children and adolescents receiving a medical assessment, and the quality of service structure, was directly related to regional population. Health assessments for alleged child and adolescent sexual abuse are relatively infrequent, nationally inconsistent and often poorly supported by local health systems. There is also marked but apparently unrelated regional variation in statutory child protection practice.

Linking Adults' Problems with Children's Pain: Legal, Ethical and Clinical Issues

The focus of this article is on families with both parental mental health issues and child protection concerns, a common clinical situation. Ethical dilemmas can arise from conflicting laws in a particular jurisdiction. This is evident in the State of South Australia, Australia. The issue is highlighted by examining the Mental Health Act 1993 (SA), the Children's Protection Act 1993 (SA) and Mental Health Act 2009 (SA). In developing a family approach where a parent has a mental illness and where statutory child protection concerns exist, both the Mental Health Act and the Children's Protection Act are needed to inform the clinical decision making for family members. Clinical, ethical, and legal issues are discussed. Two ethical models: Relational Ethics and Co-operation Despite Disagreement put forward the need for services to develop meaningful dialogue and collaborative practice. Professional codes of ethics need to address these complex, pluralistic ethical issues.

History repeating: child protection responses to domestic violence

Statutory child protection has a long and contested history in domestic violence intervention where children are involved. The inadequacy of the response has been raised by researchers, women and their advocates for more than 20 years. In fact, Linda Gordon, in her classic analysis of the files of charitable agencies from 1880 to 1960, showed that violent men were ignored, women whose own lives were in danger were judged as inadequate when they failed to protect their children and 'child rescue' was frequently seen as the solution to protecting vulnerable children. The same issues continue to be raised today. The repetitive pattern points to the structured nature of the problem which goes beyond the intentions and practice of individual workers. A policy response and a cultural change is needed, which tackles not only the 'age old' but also some of the newer permutations of intervention in this area. This paper will explore aspects of this structured pattern and then draw from international research and projects which are grappling with positive changes to child protection intervention in this area.

Children of substance‐using mothers: child health engagement and child protection outcomes

Maternal substance use has been associated with a range of child risk factors. The study investigated the relationship between engagement with child health services and child protection outcomes for children of substance-using mothers. The sample comprised 119 children of mothers who disclosed opiate, amphetamine or methadone use during a maternity admission between 2000 and 2003. Statutory child protection agency and child health engagement information for the first 2 years of life was obtained. The relationship between type of maternal substance use, child health engagement and child protection outcomes was examined. Of study group infants, 72% were engaged with child health services during the first 2 years of life. Chi-squared analysis showed no significant relationship between child health engagement and child protection reports. Child health engagement was associated with decreased substantiated child protection notifications for children of methadone using mothers, but not for children of illicit substance users. Almost a quarter of identified children of substance-using mothers are not accessing standard child health services in their first 2 years of life. This study provides support for increased attention to the provision of child health services for children of methadone using mothers. Further research into effective intervention strategies for children of illicit substance-using mothers is indicated.