Parents' involvement in care order decisions: a cross‐country study of front‐line practice

This article examines parents' involvement in care order decision‐making in four countries at one particular point in the care order process, namely, when the child protection worker discusses with the parents his or her considerations regarding child removal. The countries represent different child welfare systems with Norway and Finland categorized as ‘family service systems’ and the USA as a ‘child protection system’, with England somewhere in between. The focus is on whether the forms and intensity of involvement are different in these four countries and whether the system orientation towards family services or child protection influences practice in the social welfare agencies with parents. Involvement is studied in terms of providing information to parents, collecting information from parents and ensuring inclusion in the decision‐making processes. A vignette method is employed in a survey with 768 responses from child protection workers in four countries. The findings do not show a consistent pattern of difference regarding parental involvement in care order preparations that align with the type of child welfare system in which staff work. The goal in each child welfare system is to include parents, but the precise ways in which it is carried out (or not) vary. Methodological suggestions are given for further studies.     

Evaluating Parents in Partnership: A Preliminary Study of a Child Welfare Intervention Designed to Increase Reunification

Child welfare systems struggle with how best to accomplish reunification for children who have been removed from their home due to child maltreatment. Parent mentor programs may facilitate the reunification process. In these programs, parents who have successfully reunified with their children after child welfare involvement provide support and guidance for parents currently navigating the system. The current study examines (a) whether distance was a barrier to participation in orientation of a parent mentor program (called Parents in Partnership [PIP]) for 98 parents involved with the child welfare system and (b) whether participation affected reunification outcomes for 73 parents. Logistic regression models showed parents who lived closer to the PIP orientation location were more likely to participate in the orientation. Further, parents who attended PIP orientation were 5 times more likely to reunify with their children. Parent mentor programs may be one way to increase the likelihood of reunification for families involved in the child welfare system and may increase the engagement of fathers involved with the child welfare system. Future research should examine whether participation in parent mentor programs reduces the length of time children stay in foster care in addition to increasing rates of reunification.     

A Framework for Cultivating and Increasing Child Welfare Workers’ Empathy Toward Parents

ABSTRACT

Much emphasis has been placed on child welfare workers’ skills and attributes when working with parents involved in the child welfare system; however, few studies have examined the potential benefits of using an empathic approach to interacting with parents. Child welfare workers may have negative perceptions of parents involved in the child welfare system and might have a tendency to reflect these attitudes and value judgments in their practice. The lack of empathic understanding and communication between workers and parents impacts service implementation and the success of family interventions. Increasing the workers’ ability to empathize with parents can enhance their relationship while increasing parent participation in services and ultimately family reunification. This article will discuss specific ways to cultivate and increase child welfare workers’ empathy for parents by enhancing workers’ emotional response and self/other-awareness, ability to perspective take, emotion regulation, and their ability to make appropriate decisions. Implications for application to practice and training are discussed as is the need for future research to validate the proposed framework for increasing child welfare workers’ empathy toward parents.     

‘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.     

Collaboration and conversations with children in Child Welfare Services —Parents' viewpoint

Collaboration and conversations are important in meeting vulnerable children's needs in the context of Child Welfare Services (CWS). Building on 10 qualitative interviews with parents of children in Norwegian Child Welfare Services, this paper discusses parents' views on collaboration between children and child welfare professionals. The parents stated that a constructive collaborative relationship depends on professionals' attitudes towards the child, their ability to connect with the child and their awareness of how the child's emotions and how the parents influence the child–professional relationship. A collaborative relationship is essential for child welfare professionals to meet the child's needs and to help improve relations between the child and the parents. The parents asked for more collaboration between children and child welfare professionals. The findings call for more discussion of child welfare workers' tasks and competence.     

A comparison of systems and outcomes for safeguarding children in Australia and Norway

Using aggregated national data, this paper compares outcomes of Australian ‘child protection’ (CP) and Norwegian ‘child welfare services’ (CWS). We highlight each nation's context and key elements of their CP/CWS organizations, with emphasis on policy and programme orientation. System outcomes are examined along with the implications of their different approaches. The main policy focus in Australia is protection and risk, while Norway's systemic approach stresses prevention, early intervention and support. These differences influence practitioner's intervention strategies and how the needs of children and parents are met. In Norway, approximately 80% of the children in the CWS receive some sort of supportive services. In contrast, Australian services for supporting families are narrowly targeted. Both countries share the ‘best interest of the child’ principle and an increased focus on children's rights, and have experienced increased service demands and rates of children in out‐of‐home care. The paper explores the relative merits of these systems.     

Negotiating cultural values and expectations within the public child welfare system: A look at familismo and personalismo

This paper examines, from the perspective of parents and child welfare workers, how cultural values and expectations are integrated and negotiated in public child welfare cases. The study focuses on the experiences and interactions of Mexican families with the public child welfare system in Southern California. Grounded theory is used to complete the content analysis. Findings indicate that workers' efforts to provide culturally congruent services are limited by organizational structural factors. Consistent with the value of personalismo, parents stress the importance of a good relationship with their worker and the implications to their case. Specific recommendations to enhance service delivery include (1) developing services models that are informed by families served; (2) developing/providing ongoing training and evaluation to ascertain if services are in fact culturally competent; and (3) promoting a change in child welfare policy that reflects the diverse needs of families.     

Achieving permanency for youth in foster care: assessing and strengthening emotional security

For some youth in foster care, the closest family or family‐like relationships are with the foster parents with whom they have lived for extended periods of time. Nonetheless, child welfare agencies often do not explore these relationships and the potential they may hold for youth for legal permanence through adoption or guardianship. Recognizing that social workers often lack resources to help them initiate permanency conversations, Casey Family Services, a direct service child welfare agency in the USA, developed a tool that social workers can use to explore youth's sense of emotional security with their foster parents and foster parents' sense of claiming and attachment with youth in their care. The research literature that suggests that emotional security is a critical component of successful permanence provided the foundation for the development of the Belonging and Emotional Security Tool (BEST). When used with youth and foster parents, the BEST was found to advance meaningful permanency conversations. The authors provide case examples of its use and discuss future directions for using the BEST and broadening its application.     

Child‐centric or family focused? A study of child welfare workers' perceptions of ethnic minority children in England and Norway

This paper analyses child welfare workers' perceptions of ethnic minority children in England and Norway based on in‐depth interviews with 52 child welfare workers in 2008. We employ a child‐centric theoretical framework to explore up to what extent workers focus on minority children in their perceptions. We found that about half of our study participants (n= 27) did so, and many more in Norway than England. They perceived many risks and problems for minority children related to their ethnicity, including children's biculturalism and language skills, parenting methods, unequal treatment and racism, lack of social inclusion, and problems in school. Norwegian workers displayed a broad needs perception and embraced a change‐orientated perspective and held parents accountable for their children's educational success and social inclusion. English workers had a narrower approach, focusing on protecting children. We discuss how the cross‐country differences may be related to different welfare state and child welfare paradigms.     

Matching children and substitute homes: some theoretical and empirical notions

Matching describes the process of selecting the substitute home for a child who needs to be placed away from the care of his/her birth parents. However, very little theorizing is done about matching and there is also a lack of systematic investigation into models of practice currently in use. Most importantly, very little is known about front‐line matching practices in different socio‐historical child welfare contexts. This paper aims to explore the concept of matching by addressing it theoretically and empirically as a decision‐making practice in social work. Based on the analysis of phone interviews (49) and focus group interviews (five groups with 18 child welfare practitioners) in Finland, we claim that matching includes a high degree of navigation: decision‐making balances between professional discretion, legal norms and principles, subjective views of the children and their parents as well as the economic and bureaucratic conditions of the service provision administration in the municipality. Navigation is shadowed by uncertainty and compromises. The analysis suggests that the notion of matching needs further analysis as it plays an important role in child welfare decision‐making. The interplay between front‐line practice and the socio‐historical context needs to be further addressed.     

Lesbian and gay individuals' path into foster parenting in Norway—Barriers and facilitators at the person and system levels

Growing numbers of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ) people are becoming foster parents in several western countries. The LGBTQ perspective on the child welfare system has received little attention in practice, research and policy. Despite their increased rights, LGBTQ foster parents continue to face challenges related to fostering. Knowledge is needed on LGBTQ individual perceptions of the process of becoming foster parents, including barriers and facilitating factors. This paper reports on the experiences of 13 gay or lesbian foster parents in Norway. The study shows a lack of knowledge about the possibility of becoming foster parents due to lack of information directed at them as a minority group. Participants felt vulnerable and experienced “minority stress” before encountering the child welfare system, while mainly experienced the encounter with the staff as good and respectful. Although several valued being treated “like everyone else” by the system, others questioned why LGBTQ-specific parenting issues were not raised and discussed. Apart from lack of information, the process towards foster parenting seemed mostly hampered by participants' own assumptions that sexual identity would be a barrier and to some extent biological parents' refusal. The study suggests that foster care and child welfare services would benefit from information in recruitment of foster parents, aiming at being more inclusive. Furthermore, we address gender and sexuality diversity related to foster care work and highlight the strengths and challenges it may offer.     

Battling parenting: The consequences of secure care interventions on parents

Secure care in Sweden is the most intrusive child welfare intervention, and children and their family members have restricted contact. For each child in secure care, there are at least twice as many affected family members and parents who must manage the consequences of this institutionalization. Clearly, it is just as important to understand how secure care affects parents as it is to understand how secure care affects children. To address this issue, we conducted in-depth interviews with 11 parents to eight children who had been placed in secure care during their childhood, focusing on the institutional and societal structures that affected these parents and their parenting. With a narrative approach, stories alluding to a metaphor of war are identified. These stories reveal how all parents (but especially single mothers) are affected by their diverse socio-economic positions and the rigid frames of family life presumed by child welfare interventions. In these narratives, parenting emerges as a social practice rather than a skill. Above all, the stories demonstrate a great deal of vulnerability and sensitivity of parenting. The findings raise critical questions about the meaning and overarching consequences of institutional interventions in a family life.     

Between the maternal and the professional: the impact of being a child welfare officer on motherhood

Child welfare officers experience stress from exposure to child neglect and abuse and the burden of responsibility for children's well‐being. This qualitative study addresses the question: How do social workers who are child welfare officers perceive and cope with the influence of their professional occupation on their relationships with their own children? The research is based on in‐depth interviews with a purposive sample of 10 child welfare workers who are mothers (of 2–4 children aged 2–23 years). The data analysis illustrates how the professional identity and the maternal identity of the child welfare officer fluctuate between two positions. The first is ‘anxious motherhood’ in which anxiety is the prism through which the welfare officer views the world as dangerous for her children, stimulating protective, control‐enhancing actions. The second position is reflective motherhood in which the welfare worker struggles with her own stresses and conflicts as a mother and searches for an experience of meaningful, positive motherhood. The findings reinforce the need to raise the consciousness of child welfare officers regarding the impact of encountering distress and trauma on their own well‐being as parents. In this way, they can prevent secondary traumatization and enhance professional and maternal growth.     

Discourses of Child Protection and Child Welfare

Correspondence to Gordon Jack, University of Exeter, Department of Social Work and Probation Studies, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ Summary The history and dominance of the discourse of child protectionand its influence over social work practice with children andfamilies is discussed in the light of recent research into theoperation of child protection systems in the UK and elsewhere.The often negative effects of current approaches on professionals,parents, and, particularly, children are highlighted. The issuesof confidentiality and empowerment appear to be of central importancefor current debates about the welfare of children and youngpeople. Three strategies for change are outlined and discussed. It isargued that a fundamental challenge to the child protectiondiscourse is required. Parallels are drawn with the changeswhich occurred in attitudes and responses towards football supporters,following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. The dangers and shortcomings of the present reliance on a diseasemodel of ‘abuse’, with its focus on individual pathology,are analysed. Support is provided for the development of a newdiscourse, which acknowledges the social contexts within whichallegations of ‘abuse’ arise, and without whichsocial work will continue to be restricted to a procedurallydominated conservative orientation to child welfare.     

Social Workers and Child Welfare

Correspondence to Dr Gunvor Andersson, Lund University, School of Social Work, Box 23, 22100 Lund, Sweden. Summary What problems do social workers at social services offices haveto face in their child welfare work? How do they handle theproblems, and how important is the relation between the socialworker and the child's parents? The research project includes189 child welfare cases with 0–3-year-old children inten local communities in Sweden. The article shows that thesocial work can be categorized into four different types ofwork, where the work done, as well as the relation between thesocial worker and the child's parents, differ. (1) The socialworker is mediating help and support and has a positive contactwith the child's parents. (2) The social worker is exercisingcontrol and authority and has a negative contact with the child'sparents. (3) The social worker is doing treatment-oriented workand has a personal involvement and a relation to the parentsthat is important for the family and not exchangeable. (4) Thesocial worker is solely engaged in investigatory work with norelation to the child's parents, rather a neutral contact. Inthe categorization the concepts contact and relation are differentiated.Only in the treatment-oriented category, encompassing aboutone-fifth of the children, can one speak of a relation. In allcategories there are elements of both help and control, butdifferent ways of handling this doubleness.     

Children's and young people's experiences in various residential arrangements: a longitudinal study to evaluate criteria for custody and residence decision making

Summary The child's welfare or the child's best interest is, in manycountries, the court's paramount consideration for determiningcustody and residence of a child after parental separation ordivorce. This longitudinal study evaluates the custody criterionchild's relationships and residence preferences. Based on aqualitative study design including interviews with childrenand parents, the experiences of 62 children of separated ordivorced parents in various residential arrangements are analysed.The main findings are: (i) a residential arrangement in accordancewith the child's relationships and residence preferences accordswith the child's welfare and represents a positive living situationwith loved people in the family and social environment; (ii)the personal relationships of the child are in no way static,but demonstrate a noticeable dynamic as they change under theinfluence of internal and external factors. Therefore a timelychange of residence, which occurs in accordance with the changedemotion preferences of the child, is beneficial; (iii) a residentialarrangement contrary to the child's relationships and residencepreferences represents for the child involved a difficult situation,which can lead to one of three different processes: adjustment,a trajectory of suffering or initiatives to change the livingsituation. This means that some children adjust, others experiencetrajectory processes of suffering, and those in the remainingcases act as competent social agents, who can autonomously representtheir own interests and pursue them in order to initiate orcontribute to a change of their residence. Findings of the studyare discussed, and suggestions are offered for substantive andprocedural laws to guarantee the child's welfare in custodyand residence settlements and for further research.     

An alternative response to "The best interests of the child thesis: some thoughts from Australia"

Many of the concerns about recent changes in child welfare services practice in Australia have also been raised in the USA. Although it certainly may be the case that mandatory reporting is causing a broadening of child welfare services in Australia, close data-informed scrutiny suggests that this is not the case in the USA. Further, there are positive alternatives to overly intrusive child welfare service interventions that are arising in the USA. There is reasonable evidence to suggest that too little protection rather than too much intrusion remains the more significant problem in the USA; this may also be true elsewhere. The quality and range of services certainly determines whether intrusion is helpful to children and families. In some cases, for example life-threatening health problems that parents will not or cannot treat, engaging the assistance of child welfare services should not be ruled out for ideological reasons.     

An alternative response to "The best interests of the child thesis: some thoughts from Australia"

Many of the concerns about recent changes in child welfare services practice in Australia have also been raised in the USA. Although it certainly may be the case that mandatory reporting is causing a broadening of child welfare services in Australia, close data-informed scrutiny suggests that this is not the case in the USA. Further, there are positive alternatives to overly intrusive child welfare service interventions that are arising in the USA. There is reasonable evidence to suggest that too little protection rather than too much intrusion remains the more significant problem in the USA; this may also be true elsewhere. The quality and range of services certainly determines whether intrusion is helpful to children and families. In some cases, for example life-threatening health problems that parents will not or cannot treat, engaging the assistance of child welfare services should not be ruled out for ideological reasons.     

Reconstructing child welfare through participatory and child‐centred professional practice: a conceptual approach1

The ‘child’ in child welfare/protection is seen as a dependent waif and an object of interest, on whose behalf adults speak and act. An alternative perspective has argued for child‐centredness, and includes concepts of child liberation, rights and citizenship. Policymakers and practitioners who may accept the underlying principles may be concerned about the appropriateness and applicability of such principles in relation to practice with children and their parents in child welfare/protection cases. This paper discusses a conceptual framework for research that aims to explore participatory and child‐centred professional practice by critically evaluating and developing, for professional practice, the practical meanings of ‘participatory’ and ‘children as citizens’. We do not present research outcomes based on empirical data; instead, we present our conceptual framework as the first stage of research in progress into participatory and child‐centred professional practice.     

Recruitment and Retention in a Parenting Intervention: A Case Study with Parents Aging Out of the Child Welfare System

ABSTRACT

Parenting interventions are efficacious in reducing child maltreatment and negative child behaviors, yet the recruitment and retention of parents, especially vulnerable parents, in such interventions can be challenging. Prior research identifies several ways to improve recruitment and retention including laying the foundation for the intervention, fostering relationships with parents, ensuring fit of the intervention with the intended population, and identifying barriers to parents’ participation. This case study presents a process of recruiting and retaining a vulnerable group of parents, specifically parenting youth aging out of the child welfare system. In addition to outlining the strategies used, lessons learned are highlighted. Parents expressed interest in the parenting intervention, experienced significant needs, negotiated great instability in their lives, and valued the social connections facilitated by the group intervention. Despite the research team following best practices and investing significant time and resources, recruitment and retention remained challenging. Implications for future work in this area are presented.