New Directionsin child protection and family support in Western Australia: a policy initiative to re‐focus child welfare practice

Abstract

There is now considerable evidence from numerous countries that statutory child welfare agencies are being overwhelmed by a massive increase in child protection referrals which require investigation, while there has been a growing failure to develop preventive family support services. This paper describes the changes introduced in Western Australia to address this situation in what has come to be called New Directions in Child Protection and Family Support. The results demonstrate that the changes have led to a significant restructuring of the way the Department of Family and Children’s Services there responds to concerns expressed about children. It is argued that this has had an impact on the proportion of child maltreatment cases which are substantiated and the way responses are prioritized and allocated, and has provided the Department with a more explicit and clearer focus for its work in a period of increasing demand and rapid change.

One nation, underprivileged: why American poverty affects us all

“…These publications were followed by others that provided a strategic overview as to how this shift could be achieved (see e.g. Berg & Kelly, 2000;Holman et al, 1999;Parton & Mathews, 2001). A third wave of publications takes forward discussions at a micro level, exploring ways in which professionals can work with service users to ensure that the spirit of the cultural change is embedded in practiceFamily centres and their international role in social action: Social work as informal education , is one of these publications.…”

Re-visioning Child Protection Management Embedded in Family Empowerment

“…A parent questioned practice values in managing legal system, which according to him is not allowing harmony between the families and the CPS through win win outcomes. The issues are also discussed in the literature review in terms of conflict between child protection and family support as well as conflict between procedural approach and family empowerment focused approach (Parton and Mathews, 2001;Ivec et al, 2012).…”

“…An experiment undertaken in Western Australia (Parton and Mathews, 2001) suggests that a practice strategy, with a fine balance between child protection and family support, caused a substantial drop in child protection referrals. The findings suggest, the level of allegation on neglect was reduced from 38% to 19% but allegation of sexual abuse based reporting increased from 22% to 38%, which can be seen as a sign of confidence in the community in addressing underlying critical issues (Parton and Mathews, 2001 p. 105).…”

“…The debate has been around since 1990s, whether the idea of child protection and family support could go hand in hand in terms of influencing policies and practices (Parton & Mathews, 2001). The professionals and policy makers were concerned regarding the tensions between the two approaches (Parton, 1997).…”

“…This service purchase policy from voluntary sectors needs to be reviewed to ascertain if the voluntary service providers are actually able to resource and support their staff to connect and empower the many families with compelling needs (Lonne et al, 2014 (Parton and Mathews, 2001). …”