Lessons from the courtroom: Perspectives from child welfare attorneys and supervisors

Despite a history of child welfare worker performance difficulty in the courtroom, there has been little documentation regarding specific training needs for worker courtroom practice skills. This study expands the literature on child welfare courtroom practice skills by documenting child welfare worker conduct via perspectives from courtroom attorneys and child welfare supervisors. Separate focus groups with child welfare attorneys and supervisors were held to ascertain best and concerning practices for child welfare workers in the courtroom. Focus group participants identified themes related to preparation, adversarial nature of court proceedings, testimony, reasonable efforts, appearance and mannerisms, esteem of workers, duality of worker roles, and support. Study results have implications for focusing and improving training and supervision.     

Systemic differences in views on risk: A comparative case vignette study of risk assessment in England,Norway and the United States (California)

This article examines how child welfare workers from three countries assess risk to a child in the context of different risk assessment tools, child welfare systems and welfare regimes. Previous research suggests that there are distinct differences between child protection-oriented child welfare systems such as England and the U.S., and family service-oriented child welfare systems such as Norway (Gilbert et al., 2011). We use a case vignette method to analyze how 299 child welfare workers from England, Norway and California (U.S.) assess risk. The case vignette describes the case of ‘Beatrice’, a nine year-old girl of Black African descent who was born with an organic heart disease and a cleft palate. We found that respondents from California assessed the risk to be the lowest, followed by respondents from England and Norway. The risk factors that respondents highlighted as important for their assessment also varied significantly between countries, displaying different perceptions of elements in a case constituting risk. Respondents from Norway, who, comparatively, practice within the context of the least regulated assessment platform, identified the most homogenous assessments and types of reasoning, whereas both the assessment of risk levels and identifications of risk factors were more heterogeneous among workers in England and California. We argue that the different risk assessment tools only partly influence what workers identify as risk factors in a case, and that type of welfare states and child welfare systems is also an influence. This study thus supports existing scholarship on the distinctions between child welfare systems. However, we also found significant differences in perceptions of risk factors between England and the United States.     

A confirmatory factor analysis of the evidence-based practice attitudes scale in child welfare

Despite the emphasis on evidence-based practice (EBP) in child welfare services (CWS) as an emerging and inevitable trend, implementation factors such as child welfare worker attitudes towards implementing EBP have received little attention in CWS. Aaron's (2004) Evidence Based Practice Attitudes Scale (EBPAS) has been used in multiple studies across mental health and healthcare settings. However, it has rarely been used in CWS. A-Mid Atlantic State implemented the EBPAS in all child welfare jurisdictions to measure workers' performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the EBPAS applied in a large urban child welfare services setting using a confirmatory factor analysis. Based on prior literature, three models were tested: a four factor model, a five factor model, and a second order four factor model. The second order model provided the best fit to the data, suggesting the EBPAS can measure workers' global attitudes, as well as four attitude types, towards EBP in a CWS setting. This study validates the use of the EBPAS with child welfare workers. Implications for effective evidence based practice in child welfare are discussed.     

Integrating Couple Teamwork Conversations Into Child Welfare Practice

This article summarizes the importance of and challenges to addressing couple teamwork issues in the child welfare population. Although there is substantial evidence to support the importance of healthy adult relationships for child well-being and the prevention of child maltreatment, there are a number of barriers to addressing these couple relationships in child welfare. These barriers include diverse family configurations and uncertain relationship commitments, the individual presentation of maltreatment, and worker discomfort with these issues. Additionally, there are few relationship programs designed specifically for low income individuals, and a number of policy and environmental constraints affect couple relationships in this population. However, building upon a comprehensive practice model for child welfare known as Solution Based Casework, this article describes casework skills to initiate and maintain couple teamwork conversations. These initiation skills include assessing patterns in everyday life, building partnerships with families, normalizing and externalizing problems, and tracking interactional sequences related to parent teamwork. The maintenance skills described include maintaining a common language, utilizing family team meetings, recognizing small steps of change, keeping treatment providers on track, and making the most of setbacks. These practical guidelines will assist child welfare professionals with building couple teamwork for child protection.     

Sensitivity Training: Relevance for Social Work Education

Students in undergraduate child welfare services courses were required to interview people in their home communities regarding perceptions of, and attitudes toward child welfare services. The exercise was successful in achieving the objectives of moving the course out of the classroom, increasing knowledge of course content, and providing some practice in interviewing and survey research. Some 4,000 respondents indicated consistency in perceiving some services as more important than others Criteria applied in ranking importance of services included blameability, moral censure, urgency, available alternatives, client vulnerability, service effectiveness, and numbers affected. While most people knew surprisingly little about child welfare services there was considerable public support for such services.     

Financial oppression and post-separation child positions in Sweden

The present paper deals with post-separation child positions in two domains of practice in the Swedish welfare state: welfare benefits such as financial aid and child contact. The area of concern is financial oppression in the context of parental separation. Empirically, the study draws upon three types of material: interviews with victimised mothers, court orders in welfare benefit appeals and court orders in contested contact cases. Findings suggest that financial abuse in the context of parental separation is a non-question in the domain of welfare benefits, and in the domain of child contact framed as a conflict between equal parties. Object without voice and with needs ignored was the typical child position in welfare benefits cases, whereas incompetent subject was more prominent in child contact cases. Age order as a form of domination may be reinforced by the practice of both domains.     

MAKING AND MANAGING ELECTRONIC CHILDREN: E-assessment in child welfare

'Every Child Matters' (ECM) is a government response to longstanding concerns about child welfare and protection. A key feature is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve information sharing and inter-professional communication. One of the proposals requires the establishment of an index, ContactPoint, which is a database containing information on all children in their area, to be used by child welfare professionals to indicate their involvement with a child and, where there is 'cause for concern', to facilitate joint action. Whilst these proposals for harnessing ICTs within child welfare are a central part of the government's modernization strategy, plans for the Index have been heavily criticized for its panoptic potential to invade privacy and override professional discretion and judgement. This paper reports findings from an ethnographic study funded by the ESRC e-Society Programme. Drawing on data collected in one 'Trailblazer' local authority area during the pilot phase, it describes the introduction of a local child index and the ways in which professionals and the technologies are drawn together within the local child welfare network. For the Index to achieve its original purpose of improving information sharing and inter-professional communication it must be 'used' by child welfare practitioners. But establishing the Index as a friend to the child welfare professional is not a straightforward process. The research suggests this is dependent on a set of relations that are being constantly negotiated and accomplished in everyday practice. It is clear the deployment of ICTs in professional practice is highly contingent upon local policy implementation, the local arrangement of services and the everyday practices of busy and sceptical practitioners.     

Infusing Clinical Supervision Throughout Child Welfare Practice: Advancing Effective Implementation of Family-Centered Practice Through Supervisory Processes

Child welfare supervision is fundamental to advancing the quality of practice when seeking to ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of children. Child welfare supervisors serve administrative, educational, and support functions as they oversee frontline caseworkers and direct service providers. Clinical supervision, a dialog-driven process of case review and consultation is situated within the educational function. The process of clinical supervision is essential to child welfare practice, because it prompts reflection and builds analytical thinking skills needed to address complex situations involved in child protection. Despite increased recognition regarding the importance of clinical supervision, child welfare supervision continues to focus primarily on administrative tasks. Organizational climate and external pressures push this administrative agenda. In addition, many child welfare supervisors lack experience, training, and therefore competency in facilitating clinical case reviews. Strengths-Based Supervision (SBS; Lietz 2013) is a model of clinical supervision that was developed to (a) increase child welfare supervisors’ intentionality regarding the importance of infusing clinical supervision into child welfare supervision and (b) advance the skills needed to implement this practice effectively representing one solution to this ongoing challenge.     

Social Work Intervention in Child Abuse—An Ever-Widening Net?

This paper considers some of the issues concerning the social work response to child protection which are currently being debated by professionals involved in this field. In particular, the paper considers where there is an imbalance in the system, with too much emphasis being placed on child protection at the expense of child welfare. It describes how one authority has sought to focus its child protection investigation system. This has been achieved firstly through the use of management information to measure performance and make comparisons between different areas. This information was then used as the basis of training, encouraging staff to renew their practice and ensure that an appropriate response is made to child care referrals and that children are not drawn into the child protection net inappropriately but are dealt with within a child welfare framework. Examination of a sample of child protection investigations showed that where welfare needs were investigated, attempts were made to use available resources to meet these needs.     

Alumni of a BSW-Level Specialized Title IV-E Program Voice Their Experiences in the Workplace

This study surveyed 289 alumni of a specialized Title IV-E program that prepares undergraduate social work students for careers in public child welfare, examining factors such as turnover rates, adherence to strengths-based practice principles, perceptions of work conditions, and intent to stay. Findings indicate that graduates of this program were less likely than other caseworkers to leave their positions. Most maintained adherence to strengths-based practice principles, reported satisfaction with the work, felt supported by colleagues, and intended to stay in the field of child welfare. Based on alumni comments, ways that agencies can retain such workers are suggested.     

Patterns of child maltreatment referrals among Asian and Pacific Islander families

Much of the available data on Asian American families who become involved with the child welfare system relies on global ethnic categories, such as the category Asian/Pacific Islander. To explore the diversity of experience that is hidden by such categories, this article analyzes two years of child maltreatment referrals for Asian and Pacific Island families in Washington state. The study findings show that considerable variation exists within the Asian and Pacific Islander population with regard to child protection referrals. Although Asian Americans as a whole were less likely to be referred to child protective services than other groups, the within group picture that these data capture is considerably more complex. Some Asian/Pacific Islander ethnic groups, particularly those which have experienced higher levels of social and economic stress, were more at risk of child welfare involvement than other groups. Such findings underscore the need for child welfare policies and practice that are sensitive to the considerable variability within the Asian/Pacific Islander community.     

Social Workers’ Preparation for Child Protection: Revisiting the Question of Specialisation

Abstract

Child welfare work is a key field of practice for social work graduates and for graduates of a growing range of disciplines. In the present paper, the authors drew on a survey of 208 child welfare workers and interviews with 28 senior personnel in child and family welfare agencies to analyse perceptions of the educational preparation of social workers and other human science graduates for this field of practice. The findings indicated that child welfare workers and employers are ambivalent about the value of social work and other generic social science and human services programmes as preparation for tertiary or statutory child protection practice, which involves investigation, assessment, and intervention in child abuse and neglect. The authors argue that the social work profession must better balance generic and specialist aspects to prepare graduates for practice in specialist fields of high social work involvement, particularly in tertiary child protection work.     

New directions for research on the organizational and institutional context of child welfare agencies: Introduction to the symposium on “The Organizational and Managerial Context of Private Child Welfare Agencies”

This paper argues for a conceptual reorientation to research and practice that emphasizes the prominence of institutional and organizational factors in the lives of those who are involved in child welfare systems. Current child welfare reform efforts are premised on the idea that agencies—their structures, management, and internal approaches to organizing their workforce and frontline services—may be influential drivers of and barriers to innovation in practice and policy. We unpack this premise by providing an introduction to the institutional and organizational context of child welfare practice that highlights the diverse contexts and contributions of public and private child welfare agencies. We then review five domains for future research and present examples of studies that might be undertaken. The paper concludes by introducing the symposium papers and identifying their contributions to child welfare and human service research.     

A multi-level analysis of individual and agency effects on implementation of family-centered practice in child welfare

This study describes factors associated with the implementation of family centered practice (FCP) across a state child welfare system. Using Multi-Level Model (MLM) analysis of self-report data from the child welfare workers and supervisors in one multi-jurisdiction state, individual and organizational factors that may influence successful implementation of innovative practice models are identified. Individual worker's characteristics such as social work degree, training, and age were all associated with higher levels of individual adoption of FCP principles. Organizational culture including innovation and flexibility and outward focus were associated with organization level implementation of FCP principles. Implications for child welfare practice and implementation of FCP are discussed.     

The Research Potential of Testimony from Public Inquiry Websites

Policy and practice in child welfare and protection has been significantly influenced by public inquiries or commissions which follow highly publicised child tragedies. Whilst there has been considerable comment on the final reports, there has been little research on the evidence gathered for such inquiries. Large amounts of testimony are collected which are increasingly available on inquiry websites. Such evidence offers new forms of readily available data about professional practice across a wide range of topics. Suggestions are made about research methods and search functions, and links to some sites provided. However, the data must be understood in the context in which it was produced.     

Preparing Social Work Students for Rural Child Welfare Practice: Emerging Curriculum Competencies

Multiple issues that are unique to child welfare social work practice in rural areas markedly affect workforce recruitment and retention, yet little attention is given to the proficiencies needed to equip emerging social workers for this growing area of the field. Curriculum content is needed that provides students with the opportunity to master the skills needed to thrive as child welfare social workers in rural areas. Using an evidence-based practice critical thinking model as a guide, a systematic review of literature and documents addresses many of the competencies needed to prepare social work students for child welfare practice in rural areas. These competencies are identified. Suggestions for integration into the social work curriculum are offered.     

Rural child welfare practice from an organization-in-environment perspective

An "organization-in-environment" perspective can help researchers understand how rurality influences child welfare practice. Drawing from theoretical perspectives on environment and organizations, researchers find rural/urban differences in practice at the level of the organization, which is the immediate environment of child welfare practice, and also in the relationship between organization and environment. Results challenge previous findings of few differences between rural and urban practice and offer particular implications for rural child welfare practice.     

Illinois's child welfare research agenda: an approach to building consensus for practice-based research

This article presents a consensus-building initiative to develop a statewide research agenda that responds to the needs of Illinois's child welfare community. Researchers conducted this process through a university-community partnership to engage those interested in child welfare services. The process and findings resulted in a living document that will guide child welfare research throughout the state. Findings of the inquiry suggest that the development of best practice models may be one of the most important contributions research can make to practice.     

Methamphetamine and the changing face of child welfare: practice principles for child welfare workers

Methamphetamine use and production is changing child welfare practice. Methamphetamine is a significant public health threat (National Institute of Justice, 1999) reaching epidemic proportions (Anglin, Burke, Perrochet, Stamper, & Dawud-Nouris, 2000). The manufacturing of methamphetamine is a serious problem for the child welfare system, yet child welfare has not addressed the needs of children living in homes where methamphetamine is manufactured (U.S. Department of Justice, 2002; DOJ, 2003; Altshuler, 2005). This article presents key issues for child welfare workers related to the use, production, and effects of methamphetamine on children and families, and identifies practice principles for child welfare workers in order to ensure safety for victims, parents, and workers themselves.