Re-visioning Child Protection Management Embedded in Family Empowerment

Abstract

This paper reports on recently completed research which explores the key question of whether public child protection practice requires a vision embedded in family empowerment. The principle objective of the study was to promote our understanding of the experiences families have with child protection services. The project progressed in two different phases. In phase one, a qualitative in-depth interviewing method was applied to explore the experiences and views of the families. The findings were then thematically analysed through a critical theoretical process. For the second phase, we developed an empowerment framework to analyse and map the key themes from the findings, which outlines the families’ difficulties to engage with, and their alienation from, the services in all stages of interventions. The mapping outcomes indicate a link between the process of empowering the families and the process of improving the child protection service.

Building a Collaborative Relationship With an Involuntary Parent in Child Protective Services

“…Yatchmenoff (2005) defined one dimension of engagement as a working relationship characterised by a sense of reciprocity and good communication. Through a supportive relationship, the clients develop self-efficacy (Van Hook, 2019) and trust in the helping process (Oliver, 2017), which is central to collaborative engagement (Healy, Harrison, Venables & Bosly, 2014;Khan et al, 2018). Effective engagement in turn is the basis for appropriate intervention (Damman, 2014;Taylor, Toner, Templeton & Velleman, 2008) and thus for improving client outcomes (Hawkins, 2014;Saebjørnsen & Willumsen, 2017).…”

“…Although family participation and collaboration are central concepts within Child Protective Services (CPS) (Gibson, Samuels & Pryce, 2018;Kemp, Marcenko, Hoagwood & Vesneski, 2009;Roose, Mottart, Dejonckheere, Van Nijnatten & de Bie, 2009), promoting family participation in practice continues to be a more complicated endeavour (Arbeiter & Toros, 2017;Healy & Darlington, 2009, Healy, Darlington & Yellowlees, 2012Khan, Miles & Francis, 2018;Lehtme & Toros, 2020;Mirick, 2014;Muench, Diaz & Wright, 2017;Platt, 2012), especially in the context of involuntary worker-client relationships. According to Munro (2011), the quality of the relationship directly impacts on the efficacy of assistance; therefore, child protective workers play an important role in motivating families to engage with CPS.…”