scholarly journals The experience of the COVID‐19 pandemic for families of infants involved with Child Protection Services for maltreatment concerns

Author(s):  
Alison Fogarty ◽  
Andi Jones ◽  
Kirsty Evans ◽  
Jacquie O’Brien ◽  
Rebecca Giallo
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
Fang Zhao ◽  
Ning Zhu ◽  
Juha Hämäläinen

This study investigated the resilience of the Chinese child protection system in responding to the special needs of children in difficulty under the specific circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study applied qualitative document analysis of child protection administrative documents, in-depth interviews with 13 child protection professionals, and an in-depth case study of 14 children living in difficulty, complemented by relevant information available in the media. The results indicate that there are good policies in China’s child protection services but the organizational and functional fragmentation complicates implementation, suggesting a need for the development of bottom-up practices. The essential conclusion supported by these results is that the child protection system should be regarded and developed as a systematic project combining the legal, policymaking, and professional systems of child welfare services as well as governmental and non-governmental forces. As the COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the need to develop the field of child protection holistically as an integrated system in terms of social sustainability in China, an international literature-based comparison indicates that the pandemic has also raised similar political awareness in other countries.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
CIARÁN MURPHY

Abstract The Munro Review of Child Protection asserted that the English child protection system had become overly ‘defensive’, ‘bureaucratised’ and ‘standardised’, meaning that social workers were not employing their discretion in the interests of the individual child. This paper reports on the results of an ethnographic case study of one of England’s statutory child protection teams. The research sought to explore the extent of social worker discretion relative to Munro’s call for ‘radical reform’ and a move towards a more ‘child-centred’ system. Employing an iterative mixed methods design – encompassing documentary analysis, observation, focus group, questionnaire, interview and ‘Critical Realist Grounded Theory’ – the study positioned the UK Government’s prolonged policy of ‘austerity’ as a barrier to social worker discretion. This was because the policy was seen to be contributing to an increased demand for child protection services; and a related sense amongst practitioners that they were afforded insufficient time with the child to garner the requisite knowledge, necessary for discretionary behaviour. Ultimately, despite evidence of progress relative to assertions that social worker discretion had been eroded, the paper concludes that there may still be ‘more to do’ if we are to achieve the ‘child-centred’ and ‘effective’ system that Munro advocated.


2021 ◽  
pp. 152483802110484
Author(s):  
Aino Suomi ◽  
Annalese Bolton ◽  
Dave Pasalich

Background Birth parents of children in the statutory child protection system have disproportionally high rates of trauma exposure and mental health problems, however, little is known about the extent to which this population display symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Complex PTSD. This study provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of the PTSD rates in parent samples involved in the child protection services. Method Articles were identified by searching PSYCINFO, Medline, CINAHL, and PILOTS. The search included terminology pertaining to parents, trauma, and child protective services and we included all peer-reviewed articles that reported a valid measure of PTSD and child protection service involvement. Results Fifteen studies were included in the review with a combined prevalence estimate for PTSD based on 11 studies ( n = 4871) was 26.0% (95% CI 20.0–32.0%) for mothers, and estimate based on three studies ( n = 2606) was 13.0% (95% CI 7.0%–18.0%) for fathers and 23.0% (95% CI 17.0–29.0) for all parents based on 7848 responses. Four studies that did not report prevalence rates, reported sample mean scores for PTSD that were consistently higher than in general population. Factors associated with parents’ PTSD symptoms included mental health co-morbidities, victimization of physical and sexual violence, and perpetration of child abuse. Conclusion There are high rates of PTSD in parents involved in the protective system, thus more targeted efforts are needed to identify and adequately address trauma symptoms of parents as part of child protection interventions.


10.1596/35622 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Posarac ◽  
Elena Andreeva ◽  
Dmitry Bychkov ◽  
Aleksandr Spivak ◽  
Olesya Feoktistova ◽  
...  

2004 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHEENA JOHNSON ◽  
STEPHANIE PETRIE

This paper looks at the concepts of ‘risk’ and ‘safety culture’ within a Social Work context, specifically in relation to child protection. Discussion is made of the systemic and organisational issues that are apparent in many inquiries into child death from abuse, and the authors argue that these issues need to be given a higher profile to ensure avoidable tragedies do not occur as a result of organisational failure. The concept of ‘safety culture’ is described as a tool of best practice used by some organisations in the commercial sector to ensure their risk, for example communication failure, in relation to organisational issues is both understood and controlled. The parallels between an organisational breakdown resulting in a disaster and those relating to the breakdown of childcare services are outlined in relation to two high profile examples, the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster and the tragic death of Victoria Climbie respectively. The authors discuss how the lessons learnt from such disasters and the ways in which high risk commercial organisations give organisational issues such high priority can, and should be, successfully transferred into other sectors, namely Social Work and Child Protection services.


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