Parents' perceptions of contact with the Norwegian Child Welfare Services

Listening to the opinions of service users is important in research. This study explored how parents cognitively and emotionally perceive contact with the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS). It also compared the reports of parents recently referred to the CWS with reports of more experienced users. A content analysis was conducted on open‐ended survey responses from parents (n = 697). This study fills a gap in the literature on how parents perceive contact with the CWS and what they see as important factors when judging this contact. The findings showed that 40.6% of the parents reported exclusively positive experiences, 30.7% of the parents reported solely negative experiences, while 24% of the parents described both positive and negative experiences. The content of the positive and negative experiences were related to characteristics of the child welfare workers, the quality of the relationship, the help offered and the parent's feelings of insecurity and fear. New CWS users tended to view the contact as more positive than the more experienced ones. Practical implications are presented.     

Child Welfare in the United States: Policy, Practice and Innovations in Service Delivery

Child welfare in the United States is characterized by numerous and complex problems. By reviewing child welfare policy and trends in the United States, this article aims to stimulate discussion about innovative approaches that could allow child welfare professionals, both in the US and internationally, to better meet the needs of children and families.     

Turnover in the Child Welfare Workforce: A Different Perspective

ABSTRACT

Child welfare agencies across the country are experiencing a workforce crisis involving high staff turnover rates. The purpose of this study was to determine which of the organizational, personal, and supervisory variables identified in prior research on this topic are most associated with intent to leave among employees in urban and rural child welfare settings. Four-hundred-and-forty-seven employees in 13 child welfare agencies participated in a survey addressing organizational, personal, and supervisory factors related to turnover. ANOVA, logistical regression, and structural equation modeling were used in the data analysis. The organizational and supervisory variables identified as significant in the logistic regression, as in earlier research, were not significant when the data were subjected to structural equation modeling. Instead, findings suggest that career satisfaction and satisfaction with paperwork are the key determinants of workers' intention to stay.     

Leading Practice Improvement in Front Line Child Protection

Front line child protection managers are a vital conduit foreffective outcomes for children, young people and their families.However, little is known about the change processes that theyneed to implement to effectively intervene in such a complexcontext to support improved practice. This article describeshow organizational action research and Organizational LinkageTheory were used to establish an in-depth understanding of theinhibitors and facilitators of the implementation of an outcome-focusedmanagement model in three child protection offices. This analysisidentified that five interrelated compensatory processes actedto offset the impact of the implementation inhibitors. This,in turn, enabled direct service staff to experience an increasedcapacity to undertake effective service activities. This articleexplores each of these compensatory processes and makes a numberof suggestions for how child protection managers and their organizationsmight seek to embed them.     

Child Welfare in England: Problems, Promises and Prospects

This paper discusses developments in child welfare services in England in recent years and, particularly, the role and contribution of research. It is shown that a more significant and coherent body of child welfare research has been developed, which has linked formally to the policy process. Research programmes in England have highlighted specific problems in three areas: first, moving away from a narrow focus on child protection to an approach that provides broader family support for children in need; second, the absence of policies relating to services for adolescents; and, lastly, problems in the delivery of residential care for young people. A major programme of reform has been introduced by the new Labour government, consistent with research messages. It is concluded that research has had an impact on the development of child welfare services in England, although influencing the structure of services, social work practice and outcomes for young people are highly complex issues.     

'Race', Ethnicity and Child Welfare: A Fine Balancing Act

Western multi-racial societies continue to grapple with the‘best’ and ‘most desirable’ way to integrateracial/cultural minorities in mainstream society. The fieldof child welfare provides a fertile terrain in which to testthe prevailing debates and discussions. This paper exploressome key issues in ethnicity and child welfare and the implicationsof these for minority families and children, and the socialwork profession.     

Assessing Child Welfare Agency Practices and Attitudes that Affect Father Engagement

ABSTRACT

The importance of fathers' involvement in their children's lives is irrefutable. Supportive, warm, and positive involvement of fathers leads to children being well-adjusted. Indeed, involved fathers positively influence their children's cognitive ability, social behavior, psychological well-being, and educational achievement. For children in foster care, when fathers are involved they have significantly shorter stays in foster care than those whose fathers are not involved. For parents to demonstrate fitness to parent they must show the successful completion of goals specified in a case plan that promotes safety and permanence of their child. This cross-sectional study investigated how fathers' perception of social workers' attitude and practice skills was associated with fathers' understanding and confidence with regard to completing the case plan goals. A purposive sample of 56 child welfare-involved fathers completed the Child Welfare Father Involvement Questionnaire. The findings indicated that the more positive fathers perceived social workers' attitude and skills, the greater their understanding about the case plan goals and greater confidence to complete case plan goals. The results were statistically significant. These results have implications for child welfare training to build the social worker-client relationship in a compassionate manner while maintaining a rigorous assessment and monitoring of fathers' parenting capabilities.     

The Influence of Child Protection Orientation on Child Welfare Practice

Summary This article reports the findings of the second part of a two-partresearch project examining the potential for social workersto make changes in their work with families and children. Whilstsocial workers in the United Kingdom have been encouraged toshift from a child protection to a child welfare orientationin their practice, such changes have been hampered by professionaland organizational concern to manage risk. The research exploresthe influence of a child protection orientation on practicein child welfare cases. The findings, from two file analysesand interviews with 26 social workers, indicate that such aninfluence is indeed apparent. This is evidenced in two ways;first patterns of practice in child welfare cases are similarto those in child protection cases. Secondly, while the majorityof social workers express an attitudinal desire to move towardsa child welfare orientation, they still prioritize the managementof risk in their practice. It is argued that social workersneed permission from their employing organizations to make changesin their practice. This, in turn, requires such organizationsto state clear goals in line with a child welfare orientationand develop holistic strategies to achieve these.     

An Exploratory Analysis of Seven Child Welfare Workers who Confused SIDS with Child Maltreatment Fatalities: A Brief Research Report

Abstract

Previous research shows that child welfare workers (CWWs) have low levels of knowledge of risk factors for child maltreatment fatalities. Further, these gaps in knowledge leave CWWs with misconceptions about causes of deaths and the characteristics of the perpetrators. This brief research report focuses on CWWs’ gaps in knowledge with regard to CMFs and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and explores the socio-demographic characteristics of seven workers who confused fatal child maltreatment and SIDS. These workers were experienced professionals—who were in their middle-age, mid-career, and well-educated—and had been trained in how to recognize risk factors for CMFs. Implications for training and collaboration with other professionals are discussed, as well as the need for research to evaluate training efficacy.     

Why Are They Leaving? Factors Affecting Intention to Leave among Social Workers in Child Welfare

This article addresses a topic that has not previously beenresearched in Sweden, i.e. factors associated with the intentionof social workers to leave their place of work. A comprehensivequestionnaire was distributed to 309 social workers in childwelfare in the County of Stockholm (drop-out rate: 3 per cent).The study comprised a total of forty-two workgroups. All thesocial workers handling referrals and investigating the situationof children and youth in these areas were included. One of themost striking results was that although 54 per cent of the socialworkers had been at their current workplace for two years orless, 48 per cent intended to leave their jobs. A logistic regressionanalysis showed that the variable of greatest importance forthe intention to leave the workplace was lack of human resourceorientation within the organization, i.e. the extent to whichpersonnel are rewarded for a job well done, feel well takencare of and where management is interested in their health andwell-being. A final conclusion of this study is that when measuringthe impact of different aspects of work tasks compared withsome aspects of organizational culture, it becomes clear thatthe latter seem to be most important in this respect.     

Welfare Rigidity,the Composition of Public Expenditure and the Welfare Trap

Welfare expenditure is characterized by rigidity, i.e., it goes up easily but is very hard to get down. We introduced welfare rigidity into an endogenous growth model that includes government expenditure to analyze the impact of welfare rigidity and the composition of public expenditure on economic growth and family utility. Our findings show that welfare spending and economic growth have a non-monotonic relationship that is negative or inverted U-shaped depending on cross-country differences. Higher welfare rigidity reduces long-term economic growth and household utility. According to the estimated optimal size of welfare expenditure, China, as a developing country with a large population, has to do all it can to improve people’s livelihood but must at the same time weigh its limited resources so that its welfare expenditure does not fall into a “welfare trap.”     

The Effects of Depressive Symptoms on Work Activities and Welfare Exit of Welfare Recipients in Korea1

The purpose of this research is to examine the link between depressive symptoms of welfare recipients and their work activity and welfare exit using a secondary dataset, entitled the Korean Welfare Panel Study. In 2000, the National Basic Livelihood Security System (NBLSS) was introduced to (i) ensure a basic standard of living for households in poverty, and (ii) promote work activity and welfare exit of the recipients. A considerable body of literature has reported that the policy outcome of the NBLSS is not a success. However, the reason for the low success rate is unclear. In contrast to studies in the USA, few studies in Korea investigated the effect of depression on welfare‐to‐work transitions. To bridge the gap in the literature, we examine the association between depression, work activity, and welfare exit using a logistic regression analytic method. The analytic results show that the level of depression (total score on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) was negatively associated with welfare recipients’ work activity and welfare exit, suggesting that depressive symptoms may be a significant barrier to promoting economic self‐sufficiency. Implications of the study findings are further discussed.     

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.     

The Influence of Performance Measurement on Child Welfare Policy and Practice

Correspondence to Clare Tilbury, School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences, University of Queensland Q 4072, Australia. E-mail: c.tilbury{at}social.uq.edu.au Summary The increasing use of performance measurement in child welfarepromises to have significant consequences. Performance indicatorsare not neutral or merely technical—they represent viewpointsand values that may influence policy and practice. This three-partarticle examines how this may occur. The first part outlinesa theoretical approach to understanding the policy significanceof performance indicators. As they become part of the frameworkwithin which policy debates occur, indicators may frame policyissues, create boundaries around options for solutions, definestandards for evaluating results, and set the terms of publicdiscourse. The second part discusses the background to the developmentof performance measurement in child welfare in Britain, theUSA and Australia, locating it as integral to contemporary approachesto public sector management. The third part examines the performanceindicators used in these jurisdictions-aspects of performancemeasured, underlying assumptions about ‘good’ performance,and how they construct child welfare. Existing indicators narrowlyconstruct child welfare in terms of investigations and out-of-homecare, whereas the child welfare literature suggests a broaderapproach with more attention to family support. The articleargues that there is space to negotiate on the new managerialistterrain, developing an approach to performance measurement thatcontributes to better services and outcomes for children andfamilies.     

Recurrence,eruptions, and a transnational turn: Three decades of strained relations between migrants to Norway and the Child Welfare Services

The relations between the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS) and various migrant groups are notably strained. Numerous media accounts and a growing body of research reveal that many migrants to Norway fear the CWS. By combining quantitative and qualitative analyses of media accounts, this paper addresses the historical evolvement of such strained relations in Norway. Previous research has neglected this aspect. Findings show that migration issues related to the CWS have been topics of public debate in Norway for three decades, with foster care being a particularly intractable concern. With the onset of the decade beginning in 2010, however, matters have intensified and taken on transnational dimensions. In the discussion of our findings, we emphasize in particular how digital and social media have contributed to the recent changes.     

Redefining Welfare: Australian Social Policy and Practice

The present paper outlines and analyzes Australia's welfare reform policies as they have been implemented over the past decade. While there have been numerous social policy initiatives over this period, welfare reform provides an interesting site for analysis and review. This suite of policies and programs is of particular importance from several standpoints. First, its target groups – those needing income security assistance, including the unemployed, people with disabilities, and single parents – are historically and traditionally of concern to social work and social welfare. Second, welfare reform policies have had significant impact on social welfare agencies, and the social workers and welfare workers employed in them. Finally, welfare reform has had a wider impact on inequality in Australia and our attitudes to those in need. This paper first provides a brief overview of the context of Australian social policy and welfare, its origins and current situation. It then outlines the key operational elements of welfare reform and how it has been implemented. The third section of the paper offers a critical analysis of these policies and programs and finally poses some questions and issues requiring further discussion and research.     

Predictors of Child Welfare Worker Retention and Performance

Abstract

Using administrative records, this paper tracks for up to four years using Cox survival methods the retention of 839 public child welfare workers who began child welfare work in 1999. It also examines, using ordinal logistic regression, supervisory performance evaluations of 382 of these workers. Participation in a IV-E-funded social work educational program predicted better retention. In particular, risk of termination decreased by 52% during the mandated contractual employment period in which the educational stipend was “worked off”. Other predictors of longer retention included prior non-child welfare employment at the public agency and working in the state office setting. Temporary job classification predicted higher risk of termination. With temporary classifications excluded, female gender predicted better retention. In exploratory Cox frailty regressions, neither county of employment nor supervisor explained significant variance in retention. Involvement with the IV-E funded social work program was not associated significantly with supervisory ratings. Regression analyses revealed an association between an ethnic group's representation in the population of child welfare workers and supervisory evaluation; the greater that representation, the higher the overall evaluation for the group.     

Awareness of Child Maltreatment among Professionals in Shanghai

This study reports on a series of qualitative interviews with professionals in Shanghai, China who work with children. The interviews explored the awareness of child protection issues amongst a range of people who work with children, how they differentiate corporal punishment from maltreatment and what they would do in response to cases of child abuse. Shanghai has one of the most well developed child welfare systems in China, and compared to similar professionals in other cities, those in Shanghai had higher awareness and more training, but were nevertheless reluctant to intervene and did not feel well prepared to deal with cases of child abuse should they be encountered. However there are some indications that practice is improving, and examples of recent developments are provided.