Social capital and child welfare

Social and economic inequalities have risen steeply in the UK over the past 20 years. Children and their families have been particularly disadvantaged by this creeping impoverishment, which is associated with negative effects on parenting capacity and developmental outcomes for children. The social capital of communities, which consists of the cultural resources and inter‐personal relationships between members, is also eroded by inequality and social exclusion. Evidence is presented that demonstrates the way in which children's welfare and family functioning are crucially dependent upon the social support available within local communities. It is argued that building social capital in poor communities is a more effective way of promoting children's welfare than the present emphasis on formal child protection and family support services and efforts to increase parenting skills and responsibilities. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An innovative child welfare pilot initiative: Results and outcomes

Successful family reunification is achieved only about 50% of the time when children are in foster care. Parents' ability to access and complete court ordered services are paramount in determining whether the family can achieve reunification. However, the research on how to best facilitate service access and utilization are sparse. A matched sample of 100 families with no prior child welfare involvement and at least one child in out of home care were selected from Department of Children and Family closed administrative case files. This study compared 48 families who received traditional child welfare services to 48 families who received a Family First model intervention (PFFP) from a large urban public child welfare agency. The independent variables were the elements that distinguished the Family First model from traditional child welfare services and included the number of caseworkers for the life of the case, caseload size, and service needs met through community partnerships. The dependent variables were the stability of the children's out of home placement, the time to reunification, the length of agency involvement, the stability of reunification at one year follow up, subsequent substantiated child maltreatment reports one year after the cases were closed, the distance a placement location was from the home of the family at intake, the match between identified needs and the timely access of services. Hierarchal regression and survival models were constructed to examine elements of the intervention for their impact on family outcomes. The results suggested that a community partnership model that incorporated family engagement, enhanced service provider accessibility, reduced caseloads, one caseworker for each family, are associated with successful reunification outcomes. Moreover, the intervention families were more likely to have their needs met with clinical or economic services, experienced fewer days in out-of-home placement, shorter involvement with the agency, reduced placement moves and were more likely to be reunified sooner compared to the group who received standard child welfare services. At one year follow up, the intervention families also had fewer substantiated child maltreatment reports and children were more likely to be living in the parental home. Implications for policy, research and practice are presented.     

Aboriginal child placement principle and family group conferences

Throughout the twentieth century, Aboriginal children have been removed from their family and cultural networks under a range of government policies that have professed to be ‘in their best interests’. This article outlines the historical context to the development of the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, which is currently the operating principle for all States and Territories in Australia when child welfare services have engaged with Aboriginal families and there is likelihood that a child may be removed. Because of problems with the implementation of the Principle, the option of family group conferences is suggested as a way of ensuring the objectives of the Principle are still met. Family Group Conferences originated in New Zealand initially as a response to the over-representation of Maori children in the substitute care system, and have since been part of child welfare legislation in that country for both Maori and non-Maori families since 1989. The application of the New Zealand model to working with Indigenous Australians will be discussed, along with a recommendation for this form of empowering practice to be considered more comprehensively as a family decision-making strategy within the field of child protection.     

Every Child Matters? A critical review of child welfare reforms in the context of minority ethnic children and families

This paper critically reviews some key government papers that together largely provide the foundation for the relevant child welfare reforms in England and Wales. The context of this review was to evaluate whether these papers and documents made sufficient reference to improving policies and practices for minority ethnic children and families involved in child welfare matters, given the research evidence from the early 1990s suggesting that such families may experience particular disadvantages or discriminations within the UK child welfare system. The research evidence cited draws upon studies that have considered the experiences of different minority ethnic groups from the point of referrals through to long term services, including those children who have been looked after in local authority care and those families that have been subject to care proceedings. This paper concludes that more is needed under the Every Child Matters agenda to both acknowledge and address the specific needs of minority ethnic children and their families, as identified in the range of studies published post Children Act 1989. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effectively addressing mental health issues in permanency-focused child welfare practice

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to highlight to the professional community the ongoing and shifting mental health needs of children exiting the child welfare system into permanent plans, dismissed from public caseloads yet still much in need of services, and, to present a model of one agency's integrated, outpatient intervention with promising preliminary data. The model offers a specialized; effective approach to the field to address the needs of families built by adoption and relative caregiving. The increasing number of adoptions, and relative and near-kin placements, mandate that competent, lifelong services to children and their permanent families correspondingly increase. This practice model poses one example of translating this responsibility into action, so that these children are discharged not just to one permanent family, but also with a plan for permanent competent support.     

Beyond the state: Conceptualizing protection in community settings

In the last two decades, the child welfare system has undergone a series of dramatic changes. We have moved from a broad concern for the social welfare of children and families to a restricted focus on detecting, investigating and assessing instances of child physical and sexual abuse and neglect. Spiraling reports of suspected or actual abuse and neglect, higher caseloads, reduced resources and lack of support for both families and workers, have all contributed to narrowing the focus of contemporary child welfare to one more aptly characterized as child protection. Child protection discourse is concerned with the nature and extent of state intervention into family life for the purpose of protecting children at risk of harm. While much attention has been given to boundaries and procedures for state intervention, it is less common to critically examine the actual activities involved in protection of children. An exception to this is the feminist scholarship on the topic, illustrating that protection is very much a gendered activity entailing the scrutiny of women's mothering practices and often associated with mother-blame. In this paper, another dimension to protection activity is explicated, namely that which occurs in a community setting. Drawing on a qualitative case study of a community agency that serves young mothers, we document its implications in 'child protection' processes and its markedly different approach to protection from formal child welfare agencies. Given the community agency's emphasis on supportive services to mothers, we turn a critical eye on usual conceptions of protection, where it occurs, and how it is accomplished.     

Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’

Attempts to record, understand and respond to variations in child welfare and protection reporting, service patterns and outcomes are international, numerous and longstanding. Reframing such variations as an issue of inequity between children and between families opens the way to a new approach to explaining the profound difference in intervention rates between and within countries and administrative districts. Recent accounts of variation have frequently been based on the idea that there is a binary division between bias and risk (or need). Here we propose seeing supply (bias) and demand (risk) factors as two aspects of a single system, both framed, in part, by social structures. A recent finding from a study of intervention rates in England, the ‘inverse intervention law’, is used to illustrate the complex ways in which a range of factors interact to produce intervention rates. In turn, this analysis raises profound moral, policy, practice and research questions about current child welfare and child protection services.     

Child protection systems within the Danish,Finnish and Norwegian welfare states—time for a child centric approach?

This article explores the relationship between the child protection systems and the Nordic welfare state in Denmark, Finland and Norway. Despite an ideological focus on prevention and provision of a fair amount of universal services and in-home child protection services for families and children, there is, nevertheless, a relatively high number of children in the child protection system, even children placed out of their home. The outcome of child protection seems to be relatively poor. One of the problems in the present child protection systems is related to questionable service provision within the system. Other problems are about the normative foundation for the system, for example, family orientation and the least intrusive principle. Such principles are closely related to the logic of universal services, and may as such ignore the diversity of needs, rights, risks and ages of children needing protection and related services. Consequently, many principles of the present child protection systems are – and will remain – challenged by a child-centric orientation, in which valuing children's needs, rights and voice in situ are central.     

Inter‐professional working in child protection with families with long‐term and complex needs

Within the United Kingdom there is growing awareness of the need to identify and support the small number of children who are living in families experiencing multiple problems. Research indicates that adverse experiences in childhood can result in poor outcomes in adulthood in terms of lack of employment, poorer physical and mental health and increases in social problems experienced. It is acknowledged that most of these children are known to child welfare professionals and that some are referred to social services, subsequently entering the child protection system. This paper reports research conducted with 28 experienced child welfare professionals. It explores their views about families known to the child protection system with long‐term and complex needs in relation to the characteristics of children and their families; the process of intervention with families; and the effects of organisational arrangements on practice. The research indicates that these families are characterised by the range and depth of the problems experienced by the adults, such as domestic violence, mental health difficulties and substance misuse problems, and the need for professionals to have good inter‐personal skills and access to specialist therapeutic services if families are to be supported to address their problems. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A qualitative data analysis: family victim advocates in child advocacy centers

ABSTRACT

Family victim advocates in child advocacy centers provide a valuable resource to children and parents involved in child abuse investigations. This work requires that family victim advocates be knowledgeable in such areas as child development, crisis intervention, community resources, family relationships, child welfare and criminal justice systems. Because family victim advocates provide essential services to parents and caregivers, the role requires ongoing training and education to remain current on the ever-changing complexities of working with not only the children and families but also the criminal and child protection systems responsible for investigating these cases. The current study reports the findings from a nationwide survey of family victim advocates employed in child advocacy centers related to their motivation for doing the work as well as their perceptions of their training and potential training needs. A group of doctoral students comprised the research team and worked collaboratively under the supervision of university faculty to conduct the qualitative data analysis. The findings describe the characteristics and motivations of family victim advocates working in child advocacy centers and emphasize the need for more advanced trainings that focus on skill-building and strengths-based practices utilized to support children and parents in child abuse cases.     

Ideology and conflict: The place of adoption in English child welfare services

This paper locates the adoption services in England and Wales within the wider context of children's services, and examines the reasons why adoption, during the 1970s and 1980s, achieved a position at the pinnacle of the available child placement options. The central claim is that adoption survives today as an artifact of a philosophy of permanence that the new Children Act of 1989 sought to abandon, so that it is now divorced, practically and ideologically, from other child welfare services. As a result there is a pressing need, it is argued, for adoption to be integrated into a range of children's services that are founded on collaborative working and partnership. The current review of adoption law in England and Wales seems poised, however, to preserve adoption as a placement system that is fundamentally out of step with other initiatives for consumer-led child welfare services. In conclusion, the paper considers the implications that this twin-track approach holds for services to children and their families.     

Housing problems experienced by recipients of child welfare services

This study uses data on the experiences of families involved with child welfare services to examine the nature of housing problems and needs among these families and whether housing status affects case outcomes. First, the article describes the housing difficulties faced by two distinct child welfare service populations: families receiving voluntary in-home services and families with children in court-ordered out-of-home care. Second, the study demonstrates the relationship between housing problems and the likelihood of family reunification for children in out-of-home care. The findings have implications for the delivery of child welfare services and the provision of housing assistance to low-income families with children.     

Crisis nursery effects on child placement after foster care

The results of a study of the relationship between receiving crisis nursery services and the placement outcomes for young children leaving the child welfare system in Illinois are reported in this paper. The placement outcomes for children leaving foster care whose families received crisis nursery support prior to the children's placement in foster care is compared to the placement outcomes for children whose families received only foster care services. The children in two samples were identified by matching crisis nursery children's data from FY 2006 with children's data in the Illinois Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System and Children Youth and Services Information System databases. After children served by crisis nursery and foster care services were identified, a comparison group of children with like-characteristics whose families received only foster care services was identified using propensity score matching. The children were followed until their out-of-home placement was terminated or until June 30, 2009. The placement outcomes and the length of stay were compared for the two groups. Using logistical regression analysis the results showed that children whose families received crisis nursery services prior to foster care placement were twice as likely to be reunited with their biological families (birth or extended family members) when compared to children whose families received only foster care services. The difference in the length-of-stay in foster care was not statistically significant when the two groups were compared. This preliminary study using administrative data shows that receiving crisis nursery services may have positive effects on the children's ultimate placement outcome after foster care. Additional research is needed to further explore the relationship between placement outcome and crisis nursery services.     

The role of licensing in child placement and protection

Regulation of child residential care facilities requires licensors who have professional experience in child welfare. Licensing requirements must be applied within a context of professional knowledge and experience, particularly in regard to child placement and child protective services. The licensing of facilities for out-of-home care of vulnerable children generally has not been viewed as a mainstream social service or child welfare function. Although licensing differs from placement services and protective services in that licensing is basically a nonservice approach to protection each of the three elements forms a triangle of comprehensive protection for vulnerable children. Recognition of both the similarities and the distinguishing characteristics of the three elements reduces individual and organizational role conflict and, furthermore, holds promise for mature and effective coalitions in achieving the common goal of protection for vulnerable children in out-of-home care. The strength of a statewide licensing program is founded in centralized organizational and supervisory structure. Licensing must fulfill its partnership role in coordination with child placement and child protective services to achieve genuine community protection for vulnerable children.     

Trauma-informed forensic child maltreatment investigations

Trauma-informed child welfare systems (CWSs) are the focus of several recent national and state initiatives. Since 2005 social work publications have focused on systemic and practice changes within CW which seek to identify and reduce trauma to children and families experiencing child maltreatment or other distressing events, as well as to the agency personnel working with these clients. Within the body of trauma-informed literature, little attention has been devoted specifically to the initial investigative response and its role in controlling for system induced trauma to the child, family, and caseworker. Training child protection services (CPS) workers on the impact of trauma in child maltreatment forensic investigations and the worker's role in anticipating and mitigating the effects of trauma during the investigative process is rarely addressed in the trauma-informed literature. This article reports on a training strategy to infuse trauma information into an existing forensic child maltreatment investigation curriculum with the goal of enhancing CPS caseworker's knowledge, skills, and values concerning the importance of viewing investigations and their associated tasks through a trauma lens.     

Family support in practice: voices from the field

This paper revisits core family support messages for social work practice in working with children and families, linking to findings from high-profile child protection cases in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on a comparative study where these identified practice messages were explored through the lens of testimony of family support workers in the UK and Ireland, these core messages are examined. Operating with hard-to-engage children and parents, we hear how families and family support worker colleagues now view the core functions of child and family work across both jurisdictions (Ireland and England). The authors argue that by naming a more detailed set of practices that are deemed as most useful by families, based on the benefits and challenges of intensive family support work, key messages arise that have major resonance for social work and multiagency practice into the future. A basic message from this study is that valuable lessons on engagement and intervention with families can be drawn for professionals by examining the practice elements of this group of paraprofessionals in the child and family arena. This paper adds to debates on the role of support and intervention in social work and family support work.     

Kinship care of the abused child: the New Zealand experience.

The concept of continuity--keeping children within their own kinship, community, and cultural networks--has found international favor in contemporary child welfare practice. This principle is reflected in the 1989 New Zealand Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act. The Act represents a significant shift--from the state to the family--in responsibility for children in need of care. The increasing use of the Family Group Conference process allows families to make decisions about the future of kin children and reflects the belief that, although most abuse is intrafamilial, the family will also be the most committed to keeping the child safe. Other countries have adapted this model to suit their own cultural child welfare needs. The international trend toward formal use of kinship care for children who have suffered abuse or neglect is likely to continue as foster care resources shrink. Drawing on qualitative research, this article describes the experiences of caregivers and their kin children who have been the subject of a care and protection order.     

Family-centered child welfare services: new life for a historic idea

The recent emphasis on permanency planning in child welfare has strengthened the resolve of policy makers and service providers to serve the families of dependent children better. Permanency planning asks child welfare services either to reunite children in care with their families of origin or to find permanent substitute families for children, but the goal of a permanent family for every child has been much easier to articulate than it has been to achieve.     

Gatekeeping in child welfare: a comparative study of intake decisionmaking by social workers in Canada and Sweden

This article details findings from social workers in Sweden and Canada, illuminating similarities and differences in gatekeeping in child welfare and child protection. Analysis revealed different patterns of inclusion and exclusion. Swedish child welfare includes a greater readiness to intervene with more resources and measures. Gatekeeping is assessment driven and focused on family preservation. In Canada, only the most needy children are eligible for a limited range of services. Gatekeeping is structure driven and narrowly focused on protection. Analyses of evidence-based research to improve outcomes for children and families must include comparisons of how different structural orientations influence management of referrals at intake. The authors discuss the implications of these findings.     

Wraparound Services: An Effective Intervention for Families Impacted by Severe Mental Illness

ABSTRACT

Children and families impacted by severe mental illness (SMI) have multiple strains that effect family functioning, child safety, and parental rights. Traditional services for children and families struggling with severe mental illness have not achieved success in improving family functioning and keeping families intact. Wraparound is a philosophy and a system of care with a promising evidence base that could enhance collaboration of child welfare, mental health, and community services to work more effectively with families impacted by SMI.