Research to Consider While Effectively Re-Designing Child Welfare Services

2021 ◽  
pp. 104973152110500
Author(s):  
Richard P. Barth ◽  
Jill Duerr Berrick ◽  
Antonio R. Garcia ◽  
Brett Drake ◽  
Melissa Jonson-Reid ◽  
...  

An intense appetite for reforming and transforming child welfare services in the United States is yielding many new initiatives. Vulnerable children and families who become involved with child welfare clearly deserve higher quality and more effective services. New policies, programs, and practices should be built on sound evidence. Reforms based on misunderstandings about what the current data show may ultimately harm families. This review highlights 10 commonly held misconceptions which we assert are inconsistent with the best available contemporary evidence. Implications for better alignment of evidence and reform are discussed.

Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Berger ◽  
Kristen S. Slack

This volume of The ANNALS aims to increase awareness among scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners of the size, scope, and functions of child welfare services in the United States. We aim to promote a wider understanding of the broad impacts of child welfare policies and point to ways in which child welfare services can be better incorporated into cross-cutting social policy debates. The articles in this volume offer concrete recommendations for policies and practices that can reduce child maltreatment, and for systemic approaches—both within the purview of child welfare services and across the broader community and social policy landscape—that can better identify and respond to the needs of children and families in which maltreatment has already occurred or where there is a risk of abuse and neglect. This introduction sets a foundation for understanding the contents of the volume: we provide an overview of child welfare services in the United States and highlight current challenges that the U.S. child welfare systems face.


Author(s):  
Mark E. Courtney

Child welfare services in the United States evolved from voluntary “child saving” efforts in the 19th century into a system of largely government-funded interventions aimed at identifying and protecting children from maltreatment, preserving the integrity of families that come to the attention of child welfare authorities, and finding permanent homes for children who cannot safely remain with their families. Since the 1970s, the federal government has played an increasing role in funding and creating the policy framework for child welfare practice. That child welfare services are disproportionately directed toward members of ethnic and racial minorities has been an enduring concern.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Hegar

This article analyses historical trends in privatization of child welfare services in the United States, including children’s homes, foster family care, and adoption. It also considers how professionalization and deprofessionalization of child welfare services have varied with shifts in the dominant auspices for the provision of social services.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halvor Fauske ◽  
Bente Kojan ◽  
Anita Skårstad Storhaug

By the end of the 20th century, social class appeared to be an old-fashioned and outdated concept. Serious doubts were expressed about the theoretical and empirical relevance of social class in understanding inequalities in contemporary society. However, experiences from completing research with children and families receiving support from child welfare services shows that applying a class perspective is useful. The purpose of our study was to explore the redistributive and cultural dimensions of social class in the context of child welfare. The data include survey interviews with 715 families in contact with the Norwegian child welfare services (CWS). We found that social class is important but with different effects compared with the industrial society. Our analysis highlighted the problems children and families involved with CWS face, associated with social inequalities based on class differences. We argue that social class is part of the social dynamic of late modern societies, and that this dynamic intertwines with the lives of families in CWS and the problem complexes they encounter in everyday life.


2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Morris ◽  
Gale Burford

There is a considerable body of research that demonstrates the positive impact of involving children's families and networks in designing and developing the services children need. This paper – using empirical evidence from evaluations conducted in the UK, USA and New Zealand – suggests professionals are struggling to promote participative practice. The paper explores this apparent resistance and raises some questions about the understandings held by professionals about children and families who take up child welfare services that enable traditional exclusive forms of practice to be sustained.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 2975-2988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Chamberland ◽  
Carl Lacharité ◽  
Marie-Ève Clément ◽  
Danielle Lessard

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oivin Christiansen ◽  
Karen J. Skaale Havnen ◽  
Dag Skilbred

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