Child abuse,child protection and disabled children: a review of recent research

This paper reports the results of a scoping study that reviewed research about child abuse, child protection and disabled children published in academic journals between 1996 and 2009. The review was conducted using a five stage method for scoping studies. Several studies have revealed a strong association between disability and child maltreatment, indicating that disabled children are significantly more likely to experience abuse than their non‐disabled peers. Those with particular impairments are at increased risk. There is evidence that the interaction of age, gender and/or socio‐cultural factors with impairment results in different patterns of abuse to those found among non‐disabled children although the reasons for this require further examination. It appears that therapeutic services and criminal justice systems often fail to take account of disabled children's needs and heightened vulnerability. In Britain, little is known about what happens to disabled children who have been abused and how well safeguarding services address their needs. Very few studies have sought disabled children's own accounts of abuse or safeguarding. Considerable development is required, at both policy and practice level, to ensure that disabled children's right to protection is upheld. The paper concludes by identifying a number of aspects of the topic requiring further investigation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Issues in European child protection research

This paper considers the issues which emerged from studies relating to child protection in Europe and looks at the value and utility of cross-national comparisons in this field of social welfare. In one study, social workers in eight systems of child welfare took part in a study of practice based on a case vignette. In another, parents in three countries described their experience of child welfare interventions. The paper looks at elements of the structuring and functioning of child welfare and child protection, based on a triangulation of the experience of users and the experience of practitioners. Drawing examples from the research, the author considers how a knowledge of structures, culture and ideology can throw light on the functioning of child welfare services.     

Influencing international child labour policy: The potential and limits of children-centred research

How did research with working children influence child labour policy in the late 1990s and early 2000s? What were the constraints to research findings exerting greater influence over international policy? This paper explores these questions against the backdrop of studies with working children in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1994, 1995 and 1999. It is suggested that rights-based, children-centred research is a potential means of gaining insights into the lives of working children. As such, research has a role to play in informing policy. An analysis of international debates during the 1990s indicates that the findings of research with children did exert some influence over international child labour policy in the 1990s, but there were limits to the extent of that influence. In seeking to explain these limits, this article explores the tension between research that recognises and reports children's agency and the structural constraints that militate against children's views, experiences and priorities being translated into policy.     

Participatory discourse: Engagement in the context of child protection assessment practices from the perspectives of child protection workers,parents and children

ObjectiveThis article describes empirical results of the views of child protection workers, parents and children along different dimensions including interpretation of engagement, approaches with families in the engagement process, collaboration and relationship, barriers and factors promoting engagement.MethodA qualitative study was undertaken of a sample of eleven child protection workers, eleven parents and eleven children in one county in South-Estonia. The study explored the participants' experiences and perspectives of the engagement, within the context of assessment in child protection practice, through in-depth semi-structured interviews.ResultsResults indicate that child protection workers demonstrate an over-reliance on expert- and deficit-based approaches, indicating a requirement for a focus on traditional social work assessment, concentrating on problems, and more investigative, coercive, and judgement-focused approaches. Both workers and parents valued the quality of relationships, emphasising trust, dialogue and support as important elements of engagement. According to children, they were not always considered as a subject in the assessment process, including their needs as the primary focus; children expressed the wish to be more heard and understood, with their opinions being taken into account.ConclusionsFindings propose that child protection workers are ‘stuck in the past’, in traditional deficit-based discourse, however families prefer ‘modern’, strengths-based perspectives.     

Engaging with families in child protection: lessons from practitioner research in Scotland

This paper reports findings from practitioner-led research on engagement with families in the child protection system in Scotland. Engagement is here defined in a participative sense, to mean the involvement of family members in shaping social work processes. Key findings include the importance of workers building trusting relationships; the value of honest and clear communication, information, and explanation; and the potential for formal structures such as reports and meetings to hinder family engagement. These findings contribute to a growing critique of managerialism in social work.     

Trafficked children and child protection systems in the European Union

Child trafficking is a significant social problem across the European Union (EU). A discourse has emerged of state services failing trafficked children, who are portrayed as especially vulnerable. Less attention is paid to the socio-political conditions within the EU that result in exclusion. Such exclusion adds to the situational vulnerability that many children on the move experience and it may lead to exploitation. This paper is based on a review of 20 multi-national European Commission funded projects about child trafficking. The projects addressed the child trafficking priorities outlined in the EU Anti-Trafficking Strategy [(2012). Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012–2016, COM (2012) 286, final. Retrieved from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52012DC0286&;from=EN]. Projects were reviewed via in-depth reading. Protective services for children in origin, transit and host countries contribute to the conditions that sustain child trafficking. Systems do not have the capacity to manage the consequences of globalisation. Consequently, exclusionary criteria are applied on the basis of gender, form of exploitation and ethnicity. In this review, being an EU citizen did not result in any guarantees of protection. Better protection requires commitment and investment in preventative programmes.     

Do current consent and confidentiality requirements impede or enhance research with children with learning disabilities?

Recent changes in UK legislation on data protection and confidentiality have affected key aspects of the research process. They have led to much stricter approaches to research governance, leading in turn to more stringent scrutiny by medical ethics committees and National Health Service (NHS) Trusts. Almost all stages of research are affected, from participant recruitment to storage of data, eating into researcher time and consuming significant resources. The resulting constraints are examined in relation to a research programme on development in children with learning disabilities, highlighting the practical and ethical issues arising, with informed consent a particular challenge. Being multidisciplinary, learning disability research has to satisfy numerous regulatory bodies. For participants' rights to be fully respected and for projects to be completed within time and on budget, all contributors to the research process, including funders, need to be aware of the additional implications and demands imposed by the new regulations.     

Disabled children,child protection systems and the Children Act 1989

It is now widely recognized that disabled children are particularly vulnerable to abuse but that a number of factors get in the way of protecting them. This article discusses research on the implementation of the Children Act as it applies to disabled children and the findings from in‐depth interviews with young disabled people. The research concluded that: current child protection systems are not addressing the particular needs of disabled children; the Children Act regulations on short‐term and long‐term placements are often not complied with; and disabled children and young people have little say in decisions which affect them and few opportunities to communicate their experiences. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream child development research

This study investigated whether children with disabilities are excluded from mainstream child development research. Fifteen per cent of 533 articles from Child Development and Developmental Psychology (1996–2010) were randomly selected. The exclusion rate was 89.9% when no mention of participants with disabilities was interpreted as exclusion and 66.7% when only studies mentioning disabilities were surveyed; 74% of studies did not provide justification for exclusion. Most studies could have included children with disabilities. Inclusion could be increased by adopting universal design principles and accommodations so that more children with disabilities can gain equal access to research opportunities and the benefits that accrue.     

A call for field-relevant research about child forensic interviewing for child protection

This article reviews some sensitivity versus specificity imbalances in forensic investigations of child sexual abuse. It then proposes the development or further testing of additional approaches for those children who do not respond to the current, single-interview National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) protocol. Although there are other interview protocols based on similar principles, the NICHD protocol has the strongest evidence base in both field and laboratory studies to elicit detailed and accurate information from children. Adaptations of the NICHD protocol or additional approaches need to be developed and tested for nondisclosing, partially disclosing, or recanting children, very young children, children with developmental disabilities, and children whose sexual abuse allegations are evaluated in the context of custody or visitation disputes.     

Compassionate,safe and rigorous child protection practice with biological parents of adopted children

There is a worldwide trend towards re‐energizing the use of adoption as a tool of child protection, primarily designed to ensure that children do not languish in care. This paper poses the question: does this trend obscure the rights of relinquishing parents? By inquiring into a specific case, and reflecting on the themes surrounding this practice, the authors suggest that rigorous practice, which attends to the permanency needs of the child, is possible while simultaneously being responsive to the human rights of the biological parents. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Subsequent child protection contact for a cohort of children reported to child protection prenatally in one Australian jurisdiction

Repeated reporting to child protection is common. One approach to early intervention is for jurisdictions to receive and respond to child protection concerns raised before children are born. Despite this, little research has comprehensively examined subsequent child protection contact for those first reported prenatally. This study aimed to examine the subsequent child protection contact for up to a two-year period for a cohort of children who were reported about prebirth. Child protection administrative data were extracted for 640 children reported for a concern about an unborn child in a single jurisdiction during 2014. Data about child protection contacts included reports, investigations, substantiations and out-of-home placements for children reported prenatally. Of the 640 children, 79% reported about prenatally also had contact with child protection between birth and age two. From birth and up to age two, children reported prenatally had between zero and 21 reports. Twenty-two per cent of the children reported prenatally were removed from their birth parents and placed in out-of-home care prior to age two. These findings highlight the importance of intervening and supporting families prior to and during pregnancy to reduce harm to children and reduce the need for contact with child protection.     

Conducting research with community agencies: meeting recruitment and collaboration challenges

Family therapy outcome research with community agencies has been challenging for various reasons. In two recent research projects, it was found that providing active feedback to agencies about their clinical services via a clinical report and a research-agency liaison were successful strategies to develop a collaborative atmosphere with agencies. Specifically, the two strategies improved agency and therapist recruitment, client and therapist motivation, and reduced therapist and client attrition.     

Agency policy and the participation of children and young people in the child protection process

This article explores agency policy in relation to children's participation in the child protection process. This was done by examining policy documents and conference minutes and by interviewing social workers and conference chairs working in child protection in Wales. Issues and dilemmas surrounding the participation of children and young people in the child protection process are identified and examined. The lack of children's more direct participation was noted, but many agencies were taking action to inform themselves of children's views indirectly. Advocacy was being more frequently used, and highly valued where it was available, but did raise some role dilemmas. The essentially child‐unfriendly nature of child protection processes (particularly the conferences) was identified as a significant barrier to promoting children's voices. The contradiction of trying to promote children's direct participation in a process that is inherently not geared towards their direct involvement was noted. The total lack of children's input into service planning for child protection services was seen as significant. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lay and professional knowledge in social work: reflections from ethnographic research on child protection

This paper is concerned with the discursive interaction of lay and professional knowledge in the practice of social workers. The contention is that identifying discrete sources of knowledge—such as evidence-informed materials—may be less important for explaining how social workers guide their practice than recognising the effect of the discursive interaction of lay and professional knowledge within organisational culture. The example used for this discussion is child protection work, with a particular emphasis on how practice can be seen to be gendered. In the course of making this overall argument, the paper draws on academic debates about the nature of knowledge in professional work and discusses lay and professional knowledge as revealed through ethnographic research carried out in a social work team in the UK.     

Courts,kin, and children: Determinants of court-ordered kin involvement in child protection proceedings

Researchers such as Stack (1983–1984) have suggested that social service providers and administrators such as courts are generally unaware of the existence of extended kinship resources among poor families and, as a consequence, that they are unlikely to use these resources in efforts to treat problems such as alleged child maltreatment. Partially as a response to these suggestions, policy analysts and researchers have become interested in the use of kin in the treatment of child maltreatment. This interest is also the result of suggestions that kin may offer social support for troubled families and that placement of children with kin may be less traumatic to them and more cost-effective than alternative placements. For child protection cases that reach the judicial system, it is the courts that sanction the utilization of kin and other resources in the treatment of child maltreatment cases. Yet, little is known about either the extent to which the courts currently use kin resources or the determinants of utilization. Using data from a representative sample (N=210) of North Carolina child protection cases, estimates were made of the degree to which kin were utilized by the courts. Next, a multivariate predictive model of the determinants of kin utilization was developed. In this context, two hypotheses related to kin utilization were tested. It was found that the courts ordered kin involvement in the disposition of 62% of all cases. Eleven variables were found to significantly influence the use of kinship resources in these cases. Several of the independent variables in the model are policy relevant and their implications are discussed in the paper's conclusion.     

Reframing child protection: A response to a constant crisis of confidence in child protection

Child protection systems appear to be in a continual crisis of confidence. They get criticised for not doing enough to protect some children, whilst at the same time being criticised for being too intrusive or not managing demand. This constant balancing act drives almost continual reforms, none of which appear to reduce further crises of confidence. The central issue facing tertiary child protection systems stems from their function as makers of sometimes highly uncertain risk screening decisions. Uncertainty leads to errors; false positives and false negatives. Two recurring issues challenging child protection agencies are concerns about these errors. Fears about doing too much are concerns about false positives and fears of doing too little are concerns about false negatives. The need to address both issues within the context of uncertain high stakes decision making, in a highly risk intolerant environment leads to poorly formed sentinel event driven policy that in turn leads to organisational fragility. A decision outcome-based performance model based on Signal Detection Theory provides indicators that explicitly outline the link between these two strategic issues facing child protection systems. This has improved dialogue, understanding and support from sponsors. It has led an informed focus on improving decision making and stabilisation of decision thresholds. It demonstrates that Child protection systems are in fact very responsive and do perform well in their decision making (risk screening) function. Social work decision makers provide value in their decision making in spite of highly uncertain decisions to make. Child protection systems do not need reform, they need to be “reframed” to better understand true performance and so avoid poorly informed reactive policy responses to the genuine challenges that they face.