Determining the skills for child protection practice: from quandary to quagmire?

This article, the first of two, provides an account of an extended literature review that was undertaken in order to establish the evidence base for the learning and teaching of skills for child protection practice. It considers the contribution to the knowledge base from child abuse inquiries and from policies, guidelines and other documents from governmental departments and professional bodies. The subsequent analysis of terminology used for the review illustrates the complexity of searching for evidence that relates to concepts about which there are many differing perspectives, and also highlights the relevance to the study of activities undertaken by practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds. The paper describes the review method beginning with an initial search from which several hundred articles were located, only six of which generated evidence of value to the study. These six, however, highlighted a range of skills that provided the basis for a second, more focused search. Following an account of organisation and analysis of material, the paper concludes with discussion of some of the challenges presented during the process of this review, the complexities of which are reflected in the paper's title. A second paper will present the findings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.