Spirituality and child welfare reunification: a narrative analysis of successful outcomes

When children are removed from their families because of maltreatment, the child welfare system seeks reunification whenever possible. Despite the importance of this goal, little is known about families who are able to achieve and maintain successful reunification. This qualitative study conducted in‐depth interviews with 15 families who completed their child welfare case plans, were reunited with their children and remained together for at least 1 year post‐reunification. Narrative analysis using a combination of thematic and structural coding was completed to examine the strengths and process families discussed related to their successful child welfare outcomes. This paper discusses one of those strengths, spirituality, in greater depth. Specifically, 12 participants situated the strength of spirituality within their stories as an important narrative element they perceived as critical, leading to important changes. Findings highlight the benefits some families receive from their spiritual beliefs, practices and faith communities when working towards reunification, suggesting child welfare practitioners be prepared to identify and honour this family strength.     

‘I am the face of success’: peer mentors in child welfare

Child welfare systems have struggled to create innovative, culturally sensitive programmes to address the multiple and pervasive barriers that exist in engaging child welfare parent clients in their service plans. Peer mentor programmes—those in which parents who have successfully navigated the child welfare system and reunified with their children, mentor parents newly entering the system—are designed to address some of these barriers, to improve reunification outcomes. Focus groups with parent clients (n = 25) and interviews with peer mentors (n = 6) were conducted to identify the characteristics of peer mentoring programmes that are critically helpful to parent clients, as well as the mechanisms that allow peer mentors to be effective in their work. The qualitative analysis uncovered three general themes to which both parents and peer mentors frequently referred in interviews—the value of shared experiences, communication and support. Additionally, the study found that peer mentorship has positive effects not only on parent clients but also on the mentors themselves. The inclusion of peer mentors in child welfare practice suggests an important paradigm shift within child welfare that could lead to culture change for the field.     

Patterns of family service needs and caregiver–child relationships among families at risk of child welfare involvement

Caregivers at risk of involvement in the child welfare system report high levels of need for multiple types of services, and their children have high levels of mental health need. Caregivers from families with more service needs, as well as unmet needs, are less likely to be engaged with child welfare services and may have diminished capacity to care for their child. This study takes a family‐centered approach by using latent class analysis to identify patterns of both caregiver and child service needs among families at risk of child welfare involvement. Using data from the LONGSCAN consortium (N = 957), we identified 4 classes of service needs among child welfare‐involved families. We then examined differences between the 4 classes based on demographics, maltreatment histories, unmet service needs, and caregiver–child relationship. The caregivers were split fairly evenly among the 4 classes: low needs, medical needs, poverty support, and high needs. There were significant differences between classes on assessed variables, with higher levels of needs associated with diminished caregiver–child relationships.     

Vulnerable children's rights to participation,protection, and provision: The process of defining the problem in Swedish child and family welfare

This study addresses the relationship between children's participation and the protection and provision offered to them by social services in Sweden. It applies a theoretical framework for analysing child welfare that is anchored in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. How child participation may affect child protection and provision is examined empirically using case documentation from 2 municipalities. The main finding is that when children are not given voice or opportunity to influence the framing of what “the problem” is, the design of protection and care tends to be poorly matched to the actual problems documented in the child investigation and vice versa; when children can influence framing, this is associated with well‐matched protection and care. This suggests that traditional child welfare ethos, to the effect that protection should be of such overriding concern that children even should be protected from participation, is misguided. The study further illustrates the intrinsic problems with the family orientation of Swedish social services and its reliance on partnership with parents, which makes it difficult to live up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Incorporating child participation into existing service models can transform Swedish social services to an augmented child‐focused system that by ensuring participation also promotes protection and provision.     

Children's and young people's participation within child welfare and child protection services: a state‐of‐the‐art review

This state‐of‐the‐art literature review, based on a literature search of multiple scientific bibliographic databases, aims to shed light on what is known about barriers and factors facilitating child participation within the child protection and child welfare services from both children's and social workers' perspectives. The personal relationship between the child and the social worker is mentioned as one of the most important facilitators for participation, although multiple barriers in creating this relationship are demonstrated by both children and case managers and social workers. In studies, children say they should always participate while social workers and case managers identify many situations where, according to them, participation is inappropriate. Professionals' objections to participation mainly stem from the socio‐cultural image of children as vulnerable and in need of adult protection, and a lack of understanding of what participation actually entails. Interventions to strengthen participation should be directed at making social workers and case managers aware that children are knowledgeable social actors.     

Sinking,swimming and sailing: experiences of job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in child welfare employees

The authors conducted a mixed‐method study after a previous study of child welfare employees revealed a subgroup exhibiting surprisingly high levels of both emotional exhaustion (EE) and job satisfaction (JS). This subgroup included direct service workers, supervisors and managers. As these findings appeared to conflict with previous studies, we re‐reviewed the literature and undertook the current study to account for the co‐existence of EE and JS. We explored and compared this subgroup with two others: workers who found their work satisfying without experiencing high levels of EE and those whose high levels of EE were associated with low JS. Using a survey that included several standardized measures with 226 employees and semi‐structured interviews with a criteria‐based subsample of 25, we explored the role that personality, career expectations, coping styles, stage of life, education, gender and social networks play in outcomes for individual employees. Analyses of quantitative and qualitative data yielded a profile for each subgroup, offering insights into the subjective experiences of workers within individual, social and organizational contexts. These findings have implications for recruitment, training and support of child welfare workers.     

Child‐led research in the context of Australian social welfare practice

This paper details the first child‐led research programme to be implemented in Australia in which children design and lead their own research about issues they identify. The programme was specifically adapted for children who were service users of a nongovernment organization that provides social welfare and support services to vulnerable children and their families, living in communities of the disadvantaged. The practitioner – researchers faced the expected challenges of power in child–adult relations pertinent to the status of children in a genuinely child‐led research endeavour. However, the paper details the additional challenges and responses required when conducting research in a practice environment and the successful adaptations that were used to meet these challenges. The positive findings of an independently commissioned programme evaluation raise important questions about the place and purpose of child‐led research within the field of children's social welfare practice.     

The impacts of accessible service delivery on front‐line helping relationships in child welfare

This paper presents the results of a study comparing the impacts on helping relationships of locating front‐line child protection service providers in central locations or in accessible school and neighbourhood service delivery sites. Creating easier access to front‐line child protection service providers, fostering more positive community perceptions of child welfare services, improving client and service provider satisfaction with helping relationships and services, and increasing families' willingness to ask for help were core objectives at the accessible sites. Using a quasi‐experimental outcome design, file reviews and qualitative interviews with service providers and parents, this study presents evidence that accessible sites had substantial success in achieving these objectives when compared with central service delivery locations.     

Stilling the tremors: Resurrecting HIV services in Haiti's post‐earthquake tent cities

The January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti severely undermined HIV service provision in the country. Almost 10 percent of Haitians were displaced and now live in temporary tent communities. Little is known about how HIV services are being provided to Haitians with HIV in these encampments. This study addresses this lacuna by conducting a process evaluation of the manner in which a collaboration among Haitian community‐based HIV service providers, a US‐based HIV service provider, and a US‐based academic research team resurrected HIV services in the encampments. Efforts to set up HIV services in the encampments proceeded through three stages: (i) an initial crisis response that activated established networks and identified feasible goals; (ii) the development of services by building research capacity, conducting needs assessments, addressing logistical challenges, and establishing community‐based services; and (iii) the sustaining of the initiative by targeting resources and negotiating in the political arena. Implications of the protocol for future efforts are discussed. Key Practitioner Message: ● Resurrecting HIV services in post‐disaster zones; ● Utilizing cross‐country, provider–academic partnerships to develop service capacity; ● Targeting structural barriers to establish HIV services in resource‐poor settings.     

Understanding child neglect in Aboriginal families and communities in the context of trauma

Child neglect is a significant concern for Aboriginal families and communities both in Australia and internationally. Service responses to child neglect are largely informed by child neglect theories, which explain the nature and causes of child neglect. However, child neglect is a problem that is worsening for Aboriginal children, suggesting that these theories are not appropriate. This paper argues that to meet the needs of Aboriginal families and communities where there is child neglect, policy and practice needs to acknowledge and address the impact of trauma in shaping the lived experiences of Aboriginal people. International literature discusses the impact and consequence of historical trauma within Indigenous families and communities, and separately, child maltreatment theorists have discussed the ecological nature of child neglect. However, the literature and evidence‐base linking the two, child neglect and historical trauma in Indigenous contexts, are very scant. This paper aims to fill this gap and emphasize the importance of addressing child neglect within Aboriginal families and communities in the context of historical trauma. Although this paper focuses on the post‐colonial experiences of Aboriginal people in Australia, the arguments can extend to many Indigenous cultures universally where child welfare interventions have resulted in significant and ongoing trauma.     

What social workers talk about when they talk about child care proceedings in the District Court in Ireland

Court proceedings are a fundamental and increasingly time‐consuming aspect of social work practice. However, to date, there is a relatively modest body of literature considering the experiences of social workers in instituting child care proceedings and giving evidence in court. This paper draws on data gathered as part of an in‐depth qualitative study of professional experiences of District Court child care proceedings in Ireland and presents findings regarding the experiences of social workers in bringing court applications for child protection orders. It seeks to answer 2 key questions: First, how do child protection and welfare social workers experience the adversarial nature of child care proceedings in the District Court? Second, what are the views of child protection and welfare social workers on the strengths and weaknesses of child care proceedings as a decision‐making model for children and young people? The main findings are that social workers expressed significant reservations about the predominantly adversarial model that currently operates in Irish child care proceedings and about the level of respect that social workers are afforded within the operation of the system.     

Multiple assessors of child welfare youths' mental‐health functioning: comparing perceptions of adolescents,caregivers and teachers

For youth involved with the child welfare system, accurate assessment of mental‐health functioning is a critical factor in case planning. To assess correspondence among multiple reporters of child welfare youths' mental‐health difficulties, this study, using data drawn from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐being dataset, examined the caregiver, teacher and youth (aged 11–16 years) reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (n = 464). Perceptions about symptomatology on a variety of externalizing and internalizing behaviour problem scales were measured with a correlation analysis. Subsequently, logistic regression models were created, which explored how each reporter category matched a fourth reporter category: the child welfare investigation caseworkers' identification of youths' mental‐health needs. Results show that in several models, the odds of matching caseworkers' determination of youths' mental‐health needs significantly increased as youths' perceptions of psychopathology increased. A similar pattern was found for caregivers' perceptions in some of the models, across both internalizing and externalizing domains. Implications for child welfare practice and research with child welfare youth are discussed.     

South Asian immigrants' experience of child protection services: are we recognizing strengths and resilience?

Ethno‐racial minority families who come in contact with child protection services face unique challenges that include different ideas about appropriate child rearing practices, possibly different definitions of child maltreatment, the possibility of racial biases and service provision that does not address their particular needs. Ethno‐racial minority immigrants encounter additional barriers to services associated with the challenges of settlement in a new cultural environment. Although considerable research has explored these issues, knowledge of the experiences of ethno‐racial families who have been in contact with child protection is limited. The current paper provides insights from a qualitative study that explored the experiences of one ethno‐racial group (South Asians) in Canada. Findings suggest a variety of reasons that families come into contact with the child protection system, and the characteristics of the sample highlight their difficult financial and employment circumstances. Themes include participants' desire to be better informed about the reasons for child protection involvement and about what they can expect from the worker and the agency. They also identified a wish for services that not only recognize their cultural diversity but also respond to the needs of the whole family. In‐home services were especially appreciated. The findings reveal the resilience and personal agency among participants that can be enhanced through strength‐based approaches to practice. Helping others, establishing community networks and developing needed services were avenues of resilience identified.     

Fathers' experiences with child welfare services

The lack of engagement of fathers by child welfare services is well‐documented in the literature as a serious problem. Towards addressing this problem, this paper reports the findings of interviews with 18 fathers about their involvement with child welfare services in Ontario, Canada. Qualitative analysis of the interviews yielded themes about what men saw as the positive and negative aspects of their involvement with child welfare. Positive aspects of service involvement for fathers included understanding and supportive workers, useful assistance from workers, being connected to useful resources and being given a ‘wake‐up call’. Negative aspects of service involvement included uncaring, unhelpful and unprofessional workers; prejudice against fathers; and experiencing the child welfare system as unresponsive, uncaring and rigid. Implications for practice are discussed with a view to improving the engagement of men in, and their experiences with, child welfare services.     

Domestic violence and child protection: exploring the role of perpetrator risk assessments

This article explores the issue of severity in relation to domestic violence and provides a number of reasons for the necessary engagement by workers with such a contentious issue. The specific role that the assessment of the risks posed by the perpetrator which has now developed in some police forces in the United Kingdom is examined, and its relevance to child welfare intervention discussed. A range of factors are identified that heighten the risks of increased violence. These include prior sexual assault; stalking and controlling behaviour; substance misuse and mental‐health problems; separation and child contact disputes; pregnancy; escalation including the use of weapons and psychological abuse; attempts and threats to kill; child abuse; isolation and barriers to help‐seeking. The ways in which perpetrator risk assessment can be used to inform the filtering of referrals to the statutory child care agency, enhance multi‐agency working, provide a structure for the assessment of the perpetrator, enhance partnership‐working with survivors (usually women) and inform the protection strategies for workers are explored.     

Agreement and discrepancy between children,parents, and social workers on school‐based effort avoidance in child welfare services

A multiperspective approach is beneficial for obtaining reliable and multifaceted pictures of child behaviour problems. The goal of the present study is to examine interrater agreement on school‐based effort avoidance between children receiving child welfare services, parents, and social workers. Given previous findings, interrater agreement is expected to be low. Self‐reported data on school‐based effort avoidance were gathered for children and adolescents in child welfare services. Additionally, social workers (using the Teacher‐Report Checklist for social and learning behaviour) and parents (using the parallel version of the self‐rating questionnaire on school‐based effort avoidance) were asked to complete an external assessment tool to compare children's perspectives with the ratings of significant adults. The results confirmed significant discrepancies between parents' and children's ratings on effort avoidance tendencies. Furthermore, there were only small to moderate correlations between children's self‐ratings and the adults' assessments; however, the consensus between adults was higher than the interrater agreement between children and social workers. Discrepancies in ratings from multiple informants underline the importance of integrating multiple perspectives, especially children's perspectives, in the diagnostic process in order to plan and adapt appropriate care and treatment.     

Me,myself and I: perceptions of social capital for mothers ageing out of the child welfare system

Youth ageing out of the child welfare system become parents at rates two to three times higher than their non‐child welfare system involved peers. Substantial literature acknowledges that youth ageing out who are parenting are vulnerable; yet, little is known about their lived experiences. Social capital, or the actual or potential resources available from one's network, can provide essential resources for the wellbeing of parents ageing out. This qualitative study examined social capital of mothers ageing out from the perspectives of both mothers and service providers. We conducted small group interviews with 13 mothers ageing out and 14 service providers. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed the use of a social capital framework delineates that mothers lacked beneficial social relationships and, consequently, support. A lack of trust coupled with a desire to break intergenerational patterns and norms contributed to understanding why mothers ageing out may not capitalize on resources that providers often considered available. Based on findings, we conclude that providing mothers ageing out with additional opportunities to develop trust, positive relationships with mentors and extended services may help to disrupt intergenerational patterns of maltreatment and promote child and family wellbeing.     

Overcoming barriers to effective practice in child care

This paper describes the work of three Action Learning Sets – two groups of child care social workers and one group of health visitors. Given the substantial investment in child care research and its dissemination, we wanted to examine barriers to effective practice from the vantage point of workers themselves. Our core question was: ‘What can we do about the things that get in the way of effective practice?’ The method, based on that of ‘co‐operative inquiry’, sought to engage front‐line practitioners as active collaborators in the research. While several of the barriers can be seen as part of the common predictable experience of professionals working in large public sector organizations, a key message is the importance of re‐invigorating models of supervision that can sustain high quality practice. What emerges is a contemporary picture of the pressures on child care workers and of the struggles to make sense of professional roles in different organizational landscapes. We are committed to evidence‐based practice, practice that is derived from the best knowledge available. We would simultaneously stress the importance of ‘holding environments’ to promote effective learning. Our experience suggests that Action Learning offers a constructive method for encouraging such environments and facilitating better practice.     

An Aboriginal community's perceptions and experiences of child neglect in a rural town

Very little is known about how Aboriginal parents experiencing vulnerabilities and communities perceive child neglect, despite Aboriginal families being highly overrepresented in the child protection system. This research investigates the perceptions and experiences of child neglect from Aboriginal parents and human services workers in a rural community. Research methods consisted of community forums and interviews with parents and workers. One community forum developed interview guides and vignettes, and the second discussed and interpreted findings. Between the two forums, in‐depth interviews were conducted with 18 Aboriginal parents and nine Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal workers. Overall Aboriginal parents perceived child neglect in a similar way to Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal workers. Violence and substance abuse were main risk factors for child neglect, and intergenerational trauma, racism and discrimination, and feeling powerless were prevalent in the community. The paper concludes that there are little differences in the way Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal people understand child neglect. Instead it is the difficult circumstances experienced by Aboriginal families that keep parents from actualising their parenting expectations. The implications of these findings when working with Aboriginal families and communities are also discussed.     

Five years in care: documented lives and time trajectories in child welfare

Child welfare practice is temporally structured and includes a variety of follow‐up activities. Practice‐based follow‐up has not, however, been much explored when studying children's paths in the child welfare system. This paper is based on a study of children (103) who were taken into care in 2006 in 10 Finnish municipalities and their paths in care until 2011. The social workers' institutional knowledge of their ‘own’ clients comprises the core of the research design. The paper reflects on the nature of this data from the point of view of the notions of temporality. The analysis highlights four temporal trajectories used in retrospective analysis of children's paths in care: the linear time trajectory of the decisions and changes in the institutional positions, the temporally fragmentary trajectory of childhood and youth, the circular time trajectory of professional understanding of the child's path and the silent time trajectory. Each one documents the children's paths differently; the linear one tends to be the ‘natural’ and most easily available trajectory and consequently, the children's paths are documented via decisions and institutional positions. The analysis suggests that more attention should be given to the complexity of time and temporality when studying children's paths in child welfare.