A necessary engagement: an international review of parent and family engagement in child protection

This report provides a review of international and national models of engagement, support and advocacy for parents who have contact with child protection systems. How statutory child protection systems engage with parents ultimately affects the outcomes for children, including safety, permanency and wellbeing. While social work practices that emphasise people’s self-determination and strengths are recognised as fundamental to eliciting change in parents when care standards have faltered, there is widespread acknowledgment of the struggle child protection authorities have to meaningfully engage parents and families

Resetting the relationship' in indigenous child protection: public hope and private reality

A qualitative study explored the private realities of forty-five Australian Indigenous parents and carers who had experiences with child protection authorities

A national survey on perceptions of how child protection authorities work 2010: The perspective of third parties

This report is based on a survey of 427 people from all Australian states and territories who logged on to an ANU web survey and answered 217 questions about the way in which child protection systems across Australia are operating. Those invited to participate had worked alongside child protection authorities and were contacted through numerous email networks that the researchers were able to access either directly or indirectly through colleagues. Snowballing was encouraged, with participants invited to widen the web of people included in the survey. The focus of the survey was on government child protection agencies – how well is government doing in overseeing the child protection system and how well does government work with third parties (including other government agencies such as police) to ensure that children are being cared for. The results reflect systematic criticism with the way in which child protection agencies are connecting to others who occupy professional roles, to families and to carers. Yet there is no evidence that those responding to the survey did not share the same belief that child protection agencies had very important work to do. They simply believed that child protection agencies needed a different way of doing things and needed to work more with other agencies and groups who could offer assistance. Those doing the judging in this survey are third parties – doctors, lawyers, teachers, police, and welfare and health workers with 72% of respondents covered by mandatory reporting legislation. The average number of years respondents worked alongside child protection agencies was 11 years. Their average age was 44 years, 79% were woman and across all respondents 70% had a university degree. The sample comprised 30 respondents who identified as Aboriginal. No claims can be made about the representativeness of this sample because of how it was recruited. The consistency of responses, however, both quantitative and qualitative suggest that the views of this sample of third parties should be taken seriously and used to foster a range of local debates on how child protection authorities may work with communities better. Confidence in the findings can be taken from the similarity of the results with the conclusions of many of the recent reports on the provision of care for children who are abused or neglected in this country (Bamblett, Bath and Roseby 2010; Mullighan 2008; Wood 2008; Ford 2007; Wild and Anderson 2007; Crime and Misconduct Commission 2004; Vardon 2004). What this report adds is an understanding of how people in the field are thinking about child protection – where are the points of controversy and how might they be addressed so that the system can continue to evolve in more positive directions

Applications of reponsive regulatory theory in Australia and overseas

The following document outlines some examples of responsive regulation applications, both in Australia and overseas. The document tends not to comment conclusively on the success of the approach’s application. Often it is difficult to assess even whether responsive regulation principles have been translated into practice in each example or whether they have simply been endorsed aspirationally. Finally, it should be noted that the list is not exhaustive. It simply provides some examples that practitioners might be able to discuss with colleagues who have attempted to implement the approach

Applications of responsive regulatory theory in Australia and overseas: update

The document has three parts. Part 1 briefly revisits responsive regulation and some of its more important developments. It is not a literature review nor does it aim to represent the theoretical and empirical discussions that have taken place around responsive regulation over the past two decades. It is but a 'taster.' Major sources of information are referenced in the text. Part 2 presents summaries of applications of responsive regulation that we could find on the web. The examples cover a wide range of social, environmental and economic domains. That said, the list is not exhaustive. It simply provides some insights into how practitioners have implemented the approach. Part 3 briefly explains some additional regulatory terms that are used in the examples of Part 2 and in the broader literature, often in conjunction with responsive regulation. We hope this makes it easier for time-poor readers browsing through this documentThis report was commisioned by RegNe

How relevant is the role of values in child protection practice? A national survey of statutory child protection staff 2009: Preliminary findings

A survey of those working in Australian statutory child protection authorities was undertaken by the Australian Catholic University as part of a larger project at the Australian National University: Community Capacity Building in Child Protection (http://ccb.anu.edu.au). The purpose of the project is to explore new ways for supporting families and young people so that they can develop the skills, confidence and resources they need to flourish without continuing intervention from the state. Child protection authorities are expected and do intervene when they have reason to believe children are unsafe or neglected. Too often, however, the outcome is that these families stay in the system instead of developing capacity to move on with their lives free of state intervention. The survey described in this paper represents one part of the project: the views of those who work at the heart of the system in statutory child protection agencies. The survey was funded through an Australian Research Council Linkage grant (LP0669230). This report is based on survey responses from 859 public service employees working in a statutory child protection context in eight offices in Australia’s states and territories. Child protection staff in each of these offices were invited to log on to a web survey set up by the Australian Catholic University. The invitation was sent to a senior official in each state and territory and was circulated to staff by a designated officer. The survey comprised 100 questions about the values that child protection workers held and practiced, the beliefs that guided their practice, the supportiveness of their work environment, their overall satisfaction with their jobs and their intention to remain in their jobs in the immediate future. Participants were introduced to the idea of values in the following way. Values relate to the principles, goals and ways of doing things that people use to make judgments about what is happening in their world. Values are part of the professional code of conduct of individuals. They are also part of the policies and procedures of organizations, reflected in organizational mission and vision statements. We know little about how well the expression of values that are embedded in professional codes of conduct mesh with the expression of organizational values through rules and procedures. This survey explores this issue through asking those employed in statutory child protection agencies what they think of their organization’s values, how they describe their own values, professionally and personally, and how they practice their values in their day to day work

"Resetting the Relationship" in Indigenous Child Protection: Public Hope and Private Reality

A qualitative study explored the private realities of forty-five Australian Indigenous parents and carers who had experiences with child protection authorities. Interviews focused on the nature of the relationship between parents and authorities, how these regulatory encounters served to enlist or dissolve cooperation, and how child-focused outcomes could be delivered. The descriptions of encounters with authorities challenged the public hope for reconciliation between government and Indigenous Australians through reports of procedural injustice, failure by the authority to communicate and demonstrate soundness of purpose, and through lack of interest in identity affirmation and relationship building. In spite of these perceptions of integrity failings in how child protection authorities have operated, a positive role was acknowledged for authorities' future involvement, albeit with different strategies from those currently experienced. How this progression might be facilitated by principles of restorative justice and responsive regulation is discussed

Seeking to Clarify Child Protection's Regulatory Principles

�Child protection systems are expected to scrutinise the care offered to children and to coordinate the provision of improved quality of care. They are under stress in many developed countries with burgeoning case loads and a mixture of positive and negative outcomes. Because child protection systems seek to change the course of parenting, they can be thought of as highly formalised regulatory systems that cut across one of our most entrenched informal systems how parents raise children. This paper asks whether the stress experienced by child protection workers, support agencies and families alike is associated in part with failures to satisfactorily address three basic regulatory principles: identifying the purposes of the intervention; justifying the intervention in a way that is respectful of broader principles of democratic governance; and understanding how the informal regulatory system intersects with the formal child protection system. Child protection interventions are plagued by multiple purposes that are not necessarily compatible; non-transparent processes; and a high risk of counter-productive outcome

How relevant is the role of values in child protection practice? A National survey of statutory child protection staff 2009: preliminary findings

A survey of those working in Australian statutory child protection authorities was undertaken by the Australian Catholic University as part of a larger project at the Australian National University: Community Capacity Building in Child Protection (http://ccb.anu.edu.au). The purpose of the project is to explore new ways for supporting families and young people so that they can develop the skills, confidence and resources they need to flourish without continuing intervention from the state. Child protection authorities are expected and do intervene when they have reason to believe children are unsafe or neglected. Too often, however, the outcome is that these families stay in the system instead of developing capacity to move on with their lives free of state intervention. The survey described in this paper represents one part of the project: the views of those who work at the heart of the system in statutory child protection agencies. The survey was funded through an Australian Research Council Linkage grant (LP0669230)