Statutory Child Welfare Research Articles

Social work in an assembly line? The development of specialisation in child welfare and further internal division of work between 2003 and 2018

ABSTRACT Organisational specialisation characterises present social work in Sweden as internationally. Specialisation is often expected to lead to higher professional expertise. This study provides an overview of the development of specialisation and workforce characteristics in child welfare based on survey data collected in 2003, 2014 and 2018. The aim was to describe the development of specialisation and discuss the conditions for professional expertise in child welfare work. The results indicate that child welfare work is increasingly work task specialised. Social workers reported performing fewer tasks in 2014 and 2018 compared to 2003. This could be understood mainly as a form of statutory specialisation, indicating a shift in the professional role. Also, with the tendency to divide the work into only one or two phases of the process, child welfare work today almost resembles work at an assembly line. Compared with 2003, the statutory child welfare social workers surveyed in 2014 and 2018 were also significantly younger and less experienced. Since decision-making in child protection is a highly complex and challenging task, a question is if the development may be a survival strategy of the organisations rather than an opportunity for developing expertise.

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a solution-focused intervention in child protection services

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact on child welfare of introducing solution-focused principles and intervention techniques in the local child protection service of the island of Tenerife, Spain. 152 workers from 34 local child protection teams participated in the study. Goal achievement, parents’ and children’s self-reported well-being, and statutory child welfare measures were recorded during one year. Then the child protection teams were randomly assigned to a control or an experimental condition. 73 workers in the experimental condition, serving 271 families, received 30 h of training and 30 h of supervision in solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). 79 workers in the control condition, serving 206 families, continued to intervene as usual. The dependent variables were evaluated again in the experimental and in the control group one year after the supervision in SFBT had finished. Results indicate that the experimental and the control group had equivalent outcomes at pre-test. At post-test, the experimental group achieved better outcomes than the control group: workers’ and parents’ goal achievement ratings as well as parents’ and children well-being ratings were higher, fewer cases had been referred to risk teams, fewer children had been removed from their homes and recidivism was lower. The effects were small for goal achievement, medium for recidivism, and large for well-being and child removal. The teams that used SFBT reached these outcomes with fewer sessions and allocating fewer additional resources than the control group.

Monitoring a Fragile Child Protection System: a Longitudinal Local Area Ecological Analysis of the Inequalities Impact of Children’s Services Inspections on Statutory Child Welfare Interventions in England

AbstractChild protection systems monitoring is key to ensuring children’s wellbeing. In England, monitoring is rooted in onsite inspection, culminating in judgements ranging from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’. But inspection may carry unintended consequences where child protection systems are weak. One potential consequence is increased child welfare intervention rates. In this longitudinal ecological study of local authorities in England, we used Poisson mixed-effects regression models to assess whether child welfare intervention rates are higher in an inspection year, whether this is driven by inspection judgement, and whether more deprived areas experience different rates for a given inspection judgement. We investigated the impact of inspection on care entry, Child Protection Plan-initiation, and child-in-need status. We found that inspection was associated with a rise in rates across the spectrum of interventions. Worse judgements yielded higher rates. Inspection may also exacerbate existing inequalities. Unlike less deprived areas, more deprived areas judged inadequate did not experience an increase in the less intrusive ‘child-in-need’ interventions. Our findings suggest that a narrow focus on social work practice is unlikely to address weaknesses in the child protection system. Child protection systems monitoring should be guided by a holistic model of systems improvement, encompassing the socioeconomic determinants of quality.

How COVID-19 Is Placing Vulnerable Children at Risk and Why We Need a Different Approach to Child Welfare

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brings new worries about the welfare of children, particularly those of families living in poverty and impacted other risk factors. These children will struggle more during the pandemic because of financial pressures and stress placed on parents, as well as their limited access to services and systems of support. In this commentary, we explain how current circumstances reinforce the need for systemic change within statutory child welfare systems and the benefits that would accrue by implementing a continuum of services that combine universal supports with early intervention strategies. We also focus on promising approaches consistent with goals for public health prevention and draw out ideas related workforce development and cross-sector collaboration.

Evidencing better child protection practice: why representations of domestic violence matter

ABSTRACT Lawyers and child protection workers are actively engaged in the process of constructing and representing domestic violence and risk through the processes of collecting, documenting and presenting evidence. These processes frequently reflect the application of dominant gendered stereotypes commonly perpetuated within patriarchal societies through institutional practices. Such practices commonly include: constructing mothers who parent in the context of domestic violence as failing to protect their children, rendering invisible domestically violent men by collecting limited evidence about their perpetration patterns and fathering practices and decontextualising survivors’ mental distress and/or problematic substance misuse. Drawing on feminist theory and using the example of legal practice in the Queensland statutory child welfare department, this Comment argues that hegemonic gendered representations frequently disadvantage women mothering in the context of domestic violence. The Comment illuminates how domestic violence informed capacity-building activities catalysed practice improvements particularly in relation to how evidence is collected, documented and presented.

Social workers as relational actors: descriptions of care order preparations in Finland

ABSTRACT This article examines what social workers do when preparing the removal of a child into public care in statutory child welfare. The focus is on how social workers describe both their ‘doing’ and themselves in care order preparations. Care order preparations take place at the crossroads of the different needs and rights of children and their parents as well as those arising from professionalism, law and bureaucracy. They involve the use of professional and public power given to social workers. The thematic analysis is based on interviews with Finnish social workers (29) in which they describe a preparatory process. The analysis focuses on the descriptions of ‘doing’ and those of the ‘doer’. Talking, writing and coordinating form an essential part of social work in the descriptions of care order preparations. When describing their work, social workers speak about themselves as relational actors and very little as agents of the statutory, bureaucratic system. This reflects the non-adversial nature of the Finnish child welfare system with its emphasis on consensus as well as the current dominant discourse on what ‘good’ social work in child welfare is. Given the nature of care orders and the restrictions on family life likely to arise as a result of the preparatory process, other approaches to describe ‘doing’ care order preparations could be expected as well.

THE FINAL WORD: After the Residential School Apology: Why All Canadians Should Care about a Racial Equality Case Before the Canadian Human Rights Commission

cblackst@fncfcs.com There is no way around it – if you are a First Nations child on reserve in Canada you simply get less government funding for statutory child welfare services than other children even though there are more First Nations children in child welfare care now than at the height of residential school operations. The federal government has failed to fully address the inequalities even after leading experts, including the Auditor General of Canada, have called for action. The Department of Indian Affairs (INAC) has publicly acknowledged that it’s outdated funding formula results in growing numbers of First Nations children being removed from their families and placed in child welfare care. The Auditor General recently found that the federal government’s new child welfare funding approach also fails to ensure equity.

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.

The New Zealand Family Group Conference Confidentiality Protections: Lessons Learned and an Application in U.S. Child Welfare Systems

With the adoption of statutes, policies and administrative guidance since the late 1980s, statutory child welfare agencies around the world have been implementing practice approaches to resolving and addressing child abuse and neglect concerns that involve extended family systems in decision making and planning. One such approach is the family group conference (FGC), enshrined in New Zealand law. This article provides a historical context and describes numerous provisions of the family group conference that protect participants and the proceedings. It then describes applications of FGC‐like approaches in the United States where practice models and policies—not laws—guide the implementation of such approaches.

Role type, risk perceptions and judgements in child welfare: A mixed methods vignette study

Variable outcomes when family characteristics are similar are a problem in child welfare systems. Perceptions of risk and safety can vary widely, resulting in lack of consistency in practise and professional conflicts. This article reports on a mixed methods study that used an ecological approach to understanding variability in child welfare decision-making. Phase one of the study used a staged online vignette-based survey to compare statutory and non-governmental organization (NGO) child welfare practitioners' perceptions of risk, safety, and harm over time (n = 67), and key decisions such as when to substantiate. The survey also elicited qualitative responses about their conceptualisation of risk factors, safety factors, plan goals, knowledge bases and practice responses. Role type shapes differences in perceptions of the levels of risk, safety, substantiation and future harm. Statutory workers perceived present and future risk levels as lower than NGO workers, safety higher, and substantiated later. Both groups defined risk factors and safety factors at stages one and two in similar ways, and identified similar knowledge bases they would use in practice. Differences in safety constructions, practise responses and goals occurred at later stages. These findings suggest that despite broad similarities in knowledge bases, perceptions of the level of risk can still differ. This may be explained by the ‘situated role’ of the practitioner in relation to their position on the prevention – intervention continuum. Implications for theory, practice and research are discussed.

Transnational social workers in statutory child welfare: A scoping review

Internationally, child welfare services experience chronic workforce shortages and high rates of staff turnover. One strategy adopted to fill critical workforce gaps is the international recruitment of social workers. Child welfare employers in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have a shared tradition of recruiting transnational social workers to address ongoing labour shortages in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. This raises questions about the impact of this practice for those migrating social workers and about practice with indigenous populations. This paper scoped publications to identify emerging themes about social work movement between these countries, with a focus on knowledge that can prepare transnational social workers for the unique Australian context, including working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The review found that international recruitment to statutory child welfare in Australia is not well researched, with limited evidence about the profile of recruits, the effectiveness of this strategy and retention rates. The demographics and experiences of overseas qualified social workers in child welfare over the past 40years in the various Australian jurisdictions remain relatively unknown. There are major gaps in knowledge about the ways international recruitment affects outcomes for children, and their families, in Australia's statutory child welfare services delivery.

Building Relationships in a Cold Climate: A Case Study of Family Engagement within an ‘Edge of Care’ Family Support Service

Drawing on a case study generated as part of a larger evaluation, this article explores engagement between one family and an ‘edge of care’ intensive family support service, within a cold climate of public spending cuts and rising numbers of children in care. The focus on engagement in the case study illustrates theories about relationship building at the ‘edge of care’: the importance of an empathic relationship; harnessing parents’ agency for change while raising child welfare concerns; allowing parents space to maintain a positive self-conception of parenthood while supporting improvements; and engagement with family practices. The case study highlights that, despite the potential disciplinary aspects of intensive family support, the parents valued the ‘edge of care’ service because it provided them with the help they felt they needed, contrasting with their prior experience of statutory child welfare agency practice.

The Value of Family Welfare Conferencing within the Child Protection and Welfare System

The Family Welfare Conference (FWC) is a model used within the child protection and welfare services to address concerns about the needs of children and their family's ability to respond to these needs. The FWC model operates in partnership with family members, who participate in identifying both the issues of concern and potential responses to address these. The core premise of the FWC model involves greater engagement by family members in the process of responding to matters connected to their children's protection and welfare. This paper presents the findings of a research study on the value placed on the FWC model by social workers working in a statutory child protection and welfare department in the Republic of Ireland. A mixed-methods study was employed with social workers asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire and to participate in a face-to-face interview. The main findings highlight the value of the FWC as a model of relationship-based practice, with participation and partnership with family members viewed as crucial elements. The particular strengths identified in the model include the relationship that is established and developed between the FWC coordinator and the family members, the decision-making methods engaged in by families, and the increased understanding of the issues involved by virtue of participation within the FWC process. The place of the FWC within child protection and welfare services is considered in light of these findings, with an overall positive viewpoint presented.

Messages to Social Work Education: What Makes Social Workers Continue and Cope in Child Welfare?

This article examines the positive elements which make social workers continue their career with a focus on statutory child welfare. Such analysis is needed, as existing research tends to highlight stress, exhaustion and career break-up issues. The empirical data consist of focus groups of 28 social workers and a questionnaire addressed to 56 professionals in child welfare in two Finnish urban municipalities. The focus groups were targeted at novice, expert and veteran social workers. The analysis presents organisational, person-related and client-work-related positive elements from the point of view of social workers. The results highlight that social work in child welfare may be experienced as being rewarding and professionally challenging. The positive elements vary among novice, expert and veteran social workers, with the latter especially viewing their work as independent expert work with major opportunities to make a change in children's lives. Commitment to care of children is one of the key motivating factors. The study suggests that social work education should recognise that the subjective motivation to do social work may change during one's career and that social work may be simultaneously both stressful and rewarding. Students should learn how to balance these aspects of their work.

Obstetric and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with severe mental illness at a specialist antenatal clinic.

To evaluate the obstetric and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with severe mental illness (SMI) who attended a specialist multidisciplinary antenatal clinic in Perth, Western Australia. A retrospective case-note audit of outcomes from the Childbirth and Mental Illness Antenatal Clinic (CAMI clinic) at King Edward Memorial Hospital for pregnant women with severe mental illness (SMI), aged 18-41 years, who gave birth between December 2007 and April 2011, and their babies. Obstetric and neonatal outcomes for 138 women and newborns from singleton live births. Data were compared between three diagnostic groups (schizophrenia, bipolar and non-psychotic SMI), and with WA obstetric and perinatal statistics for 2008. 44 women with schizophrenia, 56 with bipolar disorder and 38 with non-psychotic SMI attended antenatal care for an average of 7.7 (SD, 3.3) visits. The proportion of women who smoked tobacco was significantly higher than that in the WA antenatal population (46% v 15%; P < 0.0001). Alcohol use, illicit substance use and psychotropic medication exposure during pregnancy were high. The women were at increased risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (15% v 4%; P < 0.0001) and pre-eclampsia (9% v 3%; P < 0.0001), and birth complications were more common. Babies born to CAMI clinic women were less likely to have Apgar scores ≥ 8 at 1 minute and 5 minutes. Pregnant women with schizophrenia had more psychiatric relapses during pregnancy, and had more statutory child welfare involvement. Gestational age at birth and infant birth weights were similar for the pregnant women with SMI and the WA population in 2008. Women attending our specialist clinic had increased rates of obstetric and neonatal complications compared with the general population, and were exposed to a cluster of risk factors. We report encouraging trends in antenatal attendance, gestational age at birth, and birth weights. Managing pregnant women with SMI will require a comprehensive approach aimed at early detection of obstetric complications and psychosocial difficulties, as well as neonatal monitoring. Optimising prepregnancy maternal health and welfare may also be of benefit.

Fifteen Years of Family Group Conferencing: Coordinators Talk About Their Experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand

Marie Connolly PhD is Chief Social Worker with the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services in New Zealand. Until recently, she was Associate Professor and Director of the Te Awatea Violence Research Centre at the Department of Social Work, University of Canterbury. Her research interests include child and family welfare and in particular participatory practice with families in child protection. She has a social work background in statutory child welfare.

Child Welfare Workers' Use of Theory in Working with Physical Child Abuse: Implications for Professional Supervision

This article examines child welfare workers' understanding of physical child abuse and the implications for those supervising these workers. The article is based on the results of a study that involved in-depth interviews and focus groups with statutory child welfare workers. Analysis revealed that workers' understanding of physical child abuse embodied a wide range of ideas that were generally consistent with existing literature. The study highlights the value and utility of a reflective approach in stimulating and making explicit the theoretical underpinnings of child welfare workers practice. Specific implications for professional supervision are addressed.

New Directionsin child protection and family support in Western Australia: a policy initiative to re‐focus child welfare practice

There is now considerable evidence from numerous countries that statutory child welfare agencies are being overwhelmed by a massive increase in child protection referrals which require investigation, while there has been a growing failure to develop preventive family support services. This paper describes the changes introduced in Western Australia to address this situation in what has come to be calledNew Directions in Child Protection and Family Support. The results demonstrate that the changes have led to a significant restructuring of the way the Department of Family and Children’s Services there responds to concerns expressed about children. It is argued that this has had an impact on the proportion of child maltreatment cases which are substantiated and the way responses are prioritized and allocated, and has provided the Department with a more explicit and clearer focus for its work in a period of increasing demand and rapid change.

Change from within? social work proposals to change centrelink policy in cases of suspected child abuse

Centrelink, the new government statutory agency providing government services to the Australian Public, and the Department of Social Security (DSS) have, for some time, employed social workers. However, where there are children at risk of abuse or neglect, DSS and Centrelink, in accordance with DSS Legislation, do not routinely allow their social workers, in their network of local offices, to directly notify the relevant statutory child welfare authority. This is different from other Federal, State and community agencies which employ social workers. There have been various policy attempts to persuade DSS and Centrelink to mandate their social workers to notify child abuse cases. Subsequent to these submissions, in 1997, the Acting Secretary to the Department of Social Security altered and extended this delegation to Area Social Workers and Regional Managers to perform this function, but not the social workers in local offices. This article argues that Senior Customer Service Centre Social Workers should be mandated to report cases of suspected child abuse. This paper reflects the views of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of Centrelink, the Department of Social Security, nor the Minister for Social Security.

Maintaining links: Resource demands and social work attitudes in respect to parent–child access in a statutory child welfare agency

This paper investigates the demands on social work resources in the north east region of the Department For Family and Community Services in South Australia, and examines the attitudes of workers to the question of access. Twenty three social workers, working predominantly in Child and Family Teams, were interviewed. A two part questionnaire was devised. The initial data covered information relating to the frequency, duration and supervision of access visits. The second part of the questionnaire used a semi-structured, open-ended format in order to explore social workers' knowledge and values in respect to access. The results of these interviews are presented and the implications for policy and practice in relation to statutory social work are discussed.