Child protection

Like walking on eggshells’: service user views and expectations of the child protection system

by Nicola Carr

Co-authored with Helen Buckley and Sadhbh Whelan

This paper reports on a study of service users' views on Irish child protection services. Qualitative interviews were... more This paper reports on a study of service users' views on Irish child protection services. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 67 service users, including young people between 13 and 23. The findings showed that despite refocusing and public service management reforms, service users still experience involvement with the services as intimidating and stressful and while they acknowledged opportunities to participate in the child protection process, they found the experience to be very difficult. Their definition of ‘needs’ was somewhat at odds with that suggested in official documentation, and they viewed the execution of a child protection plan more as a coercive requirement to comply with ‘tasks’ set by workers than a conjoint effort to enhance their children's welfare. As in previous studies, the data showed how the development of good relationships between workers and service users could compensate for the harsher aspects of involvement with child protection. In addition, this study demonstrated a high level of discernment on the part of service users, highlighting their expectation of quality standards in respect of courtesy, respect, accountability, transparency and practitioner expertise.

For Kids' Sake: A workforce development resource for family sensitive policy and practice in the Alcohol and Other Drugs sector

by Samantha Battams

Child wellbeing and protection concerns and the response of the alcohol and other drugs sector in Australia

by Samantha Battams

A Formative Evaluation of the Jobstown Alternative Response Model (ARM)

by Fergal Landy

Social workers' perspectives on parental engagement when children are at risk in Romanian society (2012). Child and Family Social Work. Article first published online: 30 MAR 2012 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2012.00851.x

by Salomea Popoviciu

co-authored with D. Birle, I. Popoviciu & D. Bara

This paper presents the findings of a study that looked at social workers' perspectives on parental engagement in... more This paper presents the findings of a study that looked at social workers' perspectives on parental engagement in making the difficult choice of either taking the child into care or keeping the family together. The paper first explores the specific context of children at risk in Romanian society and explains that in this middle-income nation there is an absence of evidence-based risk assessment tools, which prompts social workers to use their own ‘common sense’ risk assessment indicators. The findings of this small-scale, non-representative study on several public non-voluntary child protection services in Romania suggest that social workers' perceptions of specific dimensions of parental engagement in non-voluntary child protection may influence service delivery decisions and outcomes.

Exploring the interrelatedness of child protection issues in Rwanda: An application of the SAFE Model

by Timothy Williams

2012 Social Science and Medicine

Direct social work with disabled children: The experiences of a specialist team

by David Wilkins

Co-authored with Loren Goodman and Rhiannon Hooper

This article is a follow-on from the “Tools social workers can use to talk to children” (Shemmings et al, 2011) and... more This article is a follow-on from the “Tools social workers can use to talk to children” (Shemmings et al, 2011) and discusses how the tools can be used or adapted for use with disabled children.

Child Protection in Texas: Caseworkers Attitudes and Perceptions Towards CPS Services

by Texas State PA Applied Research Projects

Zarate, Emilia Maria, "Child Protection in Texas: Caseworkers Attitudes and Perceptions Towards CPS Services" (2007). Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. Paper 210.
http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/210

Purpose: The purpose of this applied research project is to explore caseworkers’ attitudes and perceptions towards... more Purpose: The purpose of this applied research project is to explore caseworkers’ attitudes and perceptions towards services provided to children and families in the state of Texas. The research uses working hypotheses as the conceptual framework.

Method: Six working hypotheses were created that examine services provided by Child Protective Services (CPS). All working hypotheses and sub hypotheses were tested using group interviews. The sample size included 30 CPS caseworkers (Investigators, Family Based Safety Service workers, or Conservatorship workers). Five group interviews were conducted with 6 caseworkers in each group. The interviewees’ responses were recorded and categorized using a Likert scale, from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree and a Not Always response. The interviewees also gave their opinion and experiences about working for CPS.

Findings: The interviewees generally agreed that family based safety services have a positive impact on family preservation. The majority of interviewees disagreed that CPS places less emphasis on kinship care. Most interviewees agreed that foster care is fraught with safety concerns. A large number of interviewees agreed that children who are placed in institutions and group homes are there due to extreme behavioral or emotional problems and the children are often medicated, regardless of their ages. The majority of interviewees agreed that permanency planning teams act in the best interest of the families and children. Lastly, most of the interviewees disagreed that parental rights are often terminated unnecessarily.

Poverty, Risk and Families' Responses: Evidence from Young Lives

by Kirrily Pells

This paper brings together existing Young Lives research and policy analysis, alongside new findings, to argue that... more This paper brings together existing Young Lives research and policy analysis, alongside new findings, to argue that poverty and inequalities are at the heart of childhood risk, shaping
which children are at risk, access to sources of protection, and children’s life chances. Drawing on the rounds of survey and qualitative data collection conducted to date, it illustrates
how risk is mediated through poverty and structural disadvantage, meaning that children from groups with low social status, from rural areas and the poorest households, have increased risk of having poorer outcomes in education, health and subjective well-being indicators. Policymakers concerned with reducing risk and improving protection should not focus on
enabling individual children to ‘beat the odds’ but instead on ‘changing the odds’ (Seccombe, 2002). This means targeting the root causes of children’s poor life chances, namely poverty
and inequalities, rather than just the symptoms of risk.

Shifting Priorities in child protection in Sierra Leone since Lomé

by Susan Shepler

Shepler, S. (2010). Shifting priorities in child protection in Sierra Leone since Lomé. Sierra Leone Beyond Lomé: Challenges and Possibilities for a Post-War Nation. M. Mustapha and J. Bangura. New York, Palgrave Macmillan.

Tools social workers can use to talk to children

by David Wilkins

Co-authored with David Shemmings, Yvonne Shemmings, Yvalia Febrer, Alice Cook, Fran Feeley and Claire Denham.

Which techniques and resources should be in every social worker’s toolkit when doing direct work with children? more Which techniques and resources should be in every social worker’s toolkit when doing direct work with children?

The Munro Review highlighted that the only way to create a “child-centred” system was for social workers to have the time and the skill to undertake a great deal more direct work with children.

Direct work needs to done in the right setting and involves more than asking a child “how are things?” Sometimes they need different media – paint, clay, pen and paper, puppets, virtual reality – to make sense of their “wishes and feelings”.

This guide offers practical demonstrations of direct work methods each of which seeks to understand the mind of the child and the child’s world.

Consumer Laws

by Historically Digitized

Protecting the children of Haiti

by Timothy Williams

2010, New England Journal of Medicine

“She needs a smack in the gob”: negotiating what is appropriate talk in front of children in family therapy

by Michelle O'Reilly

with Nicola Parker published in the Journal of Family Therapy - in press

Tackling the day-to-day challenges of family therapy can prove difficult for professionals. A particular issue arising... more Tackling the day-to-day challenges of family therapy can prove difficult for professionals. A particular issue arising in family therapy is the notion of what is appropriate for children. Families report events from their social world, ‘out there’ to the therapy, ‘in here’. There are occasions where the content is ‘adult’ in nature and this has to be managed in front of the children. On other occasions family members use derogatory or negative descriptions of their children and the children are present. Drawing upon naturally occurring family therapy sessions, we present a discourse analysis of how this is managed through a range of discursive resources. We show that adult family members construct what is inappropriate for children to be exposed to by positioning blame with others. This has implications for how family therapists deal with inappropriateness when children are present while maintaining the equilibrium of therapeutic alliances.

Prophylactic, Anti-paedophile Hymn-Writing in Colonial India: An Introduction to Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) and Her Missionary Writings

by Nancy Jiwon Cho

published in 'The Modern Language Review', 104 (2009), 353-74

Breaking the Wall of Silence: Practitioners’ Responses to Trafficked Children and Young People

by Patricia Hynes

Pearce, J.J., Hynes, P. and S. Bovarnick (2009), Breaking the Wall of Silence: Practitioners’ Responses to Trafficked Children and Young People, NSPCC and University of Bedfordshire

Understanding the ‘Vulnerabilities’, ‘Resilience’ and Processes of the Trafficking of Children and Young People into, within and out of the UK

by Patricia Hynes

Hynes, P., (2010), Understanding the ‘Vulnerabilities’, ‘Resilience’ and Processes of the Trafficking of Children and Young People into, within and out of the UK, Youth & Policy (special edition), Vol.104, p.97-118.

Awareness about the trafficking of children and young people into, within and out of the UK has grown over the past... more Awareness about the trafficking of children and young people into, within and out of the UK has grown over the past decade. This article draws upon qualitative research into agency responses to the trafficking of children and young people (Pearce, Hynes and Bovarnick, 2009). It highlights issues within refugee and forced migration studies applicable to debates on trafficking, in particular exploring the concepts of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’. It suggests that trafficking is a process rather than a one-off ‘event’; that during this process there are global points of ‘vulnerability’ for children and young people; and that understanding the environmental background of the individual child and the human rights context within countries of origin are essential elements in the identification of trafficked children. It suggests that between these global points of ‘vulnerability’ there may be spaces where those with a duty to care for trafficked children and young people can provide services that build on the resilience, coping strategies, survival techniques and hopes of trafficked children.

Disorganised attachment indicates child maltreatment: how is this link useful for child protection social workers?

by David Wilkins

Published in Journal of Social Work Practice, 2011

This paper examines the indicative link between disorganised attachment and child maltreatment in the context of child... more This paper examines the indicative link between disorganised attachment and child maltreatment in the context of child protection social work in England. Attachment researchers are showing an increasing interest in the concept of disorganised attachment but there is also a growing interest as to how child protection social workers can more reliably detect child maltreatment by developing their knowledge of disorganised attachment. This paper sets out to examine what is known about the link between disorganised attachment and child maltreatment and considers how the legal concept of ‘significant harm’ fits with this link. Reference is made to the Assessment of Disorganised Attachment and Maltreatment (ADAM) project, set up with the aim of educating child protection social workers in the use of disorganised attachment as an especially useful method of assessing whether a child is at risk of significant harm.

Complexity, conflict and uncertainty: Issues in collaboration between child protection and mental health services

by Kylie Rixon

Darlington, Y., Feeney, J.A. & Rixon, K. (2004). Children and Youth Services Review, 26(12) 1175-1192.

This paper provides an analysis of data from a state-wide survey of statutory child protection workers, adult mental... more This paper provides an analysis of data from a state-wide survey of statutory child protection workers, adult mental health workers, and child mental health workers. Respondents provided details of their experience of collaboration on cases where a parent had mental health problems and there were serious child protection concerns. The survey was conducted as part of a large mixed-method research project on developing best practice at the intersection of child protection and mental health services. Descriptions of 300 cases were provided by 122 respondents. Analyses revealed that a great deal of collaboration occurred across a wide range of government and community-based agencies; that collaborative processes were often positive and rewarding for workers; and that collaboration was most difficult when the nature of the parental mental illness or the need for child protection intervention was contested. The difficulties experienced included communication, role clarity, competing primary focus, contested parental mental health needs, contested child protection needs, and resources.

Practice challenges at the intersection of child protection

by Kylie Rixon

Darlington, Y., Feeney, J., & Rixon, K. (2005). Child and Family Social Work, 10, 239–247

This paper examines the complexity of collaboration between child protection and mental health services, where a... more This paper examines the complexity of collaboration between child protection and mental health services, where a parent has a mental illness and there are protection concerns for children. The paper reports on data from focused in-depth interviews with 36 child protection workers, adult mental health workers and child and youth mental health workers. Data were analysed thematically, using NVivo to facilitate data management and analysis. Two dimensions were identified. The first, the process of collaboration, relates to four
factors that assisted the collaborative process: communication, knowledge, role clarity and resources. The second dimension considers the challenges presented to collaborative work when a parent has a mental illness and a child is in need of protection, and identifies issues that are inherent in cases of this kind. Two types of challenge were identified. The first related to characteristics of mental illness,
and included the episodic and/or unpredictable nature of mental illness, incorporating information from psychiatric and parenting capacity assessments, and the provision of ongoing support. The second type of challenge concerned the tension between the conflicting needs of parents and their children, and how this was viewed from both the adult mental health and the child protection perspective. Implications for policy and practice are identified in relation to the need for service models that provide ongoing, flexible support that can be intensified or held back as needed.