The “Front Door” to Child Protection—Issues and Innovations

Abstract

How children and families get access to services and supports is critical to the provision of timely help and protective interventions. In this article, the major findings of the front door policies, processes, and practices used across 25 jurisdictions in developed countries are described and assessed. The use and outcomes of actuarial and consensusbased tools to assess risk of harm are examined, and the systemic limitations of such are explored including the potential for misapplication of the tools. Key issues and trends are identified including the increasing use of practice frameworks used in conjunction with risk assessment tools, the development of culturally safe approaches to practice, and the use of differential response to address relational problems such as service user hostility and referrals to community-based supports. The growing use of public health approaches to prevention was identified along with reform agendas to address the difficult task of building system communication, collaboration, and integration. The need for greater use of community development approaches to mobilize informal support networks for struggling families and communities is proposed. Because there are no "off-the-shelf panaceas" available, the importance of jurisdictions ensuring that system changes are undertaken with consideration of their local context and needs is highlighted by these developments. Keywords Child protection. Child protection systems. Public health In this article, we examine a critically important aspect of contemporary statutory child protection-the "front door" policies, processes and practices used to gather, assess and collate information about children and families, and determine whether or not their situation warrants further detailed assessment, intervention, or referral. Front door practices establish whether the authority of the state is to be used to examine children's safety within the privacy of their family as well as to explore their eligibility for

How COVID-19 Is Placing Vulnerable Children at Risk and Why We Need a Different Approach to Child Welfare

“…Statutory child welfare systems are based on a three-pronged model of reporting, investigation, and removal. Risk is assessed at various stages of the "front door" child welfare processes (Lonne et al, 2020). Yet, in the vast majority of cases following reporting-or even investigation-there is no further statutory action aside from potential referrals to community-based support programs, which are themselves over-stretched and under-resourced (Lonne et al, 2020).…”

“…Risk is assessed at various stages of the "front door" child welfare processes (Lonne et al, 2020). Yet, in the vast majority of cases following reporting-or even investigation-there is no further statutory action aside from potential referrals to community-based support programs, which are themselves over-stretched and under-resourced (Lonne et al, 2020). The living circumstances for many vulnerable families, with or without the existential threats now posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, are highly complex due to pressing and often intersecting vulnerabilities.…”

Examining the Prospects for Developing a National Child Maltreatment Surveillance System in Ireland

“…1) and relatively few cases receive intervention beyond assessment (Buckley & Burns, 2015;Thorpe, 1997; see Fig. 1), a pattern familiar across many contemporary CPW services and may incorporate features of assessment processes and competition for scarce resources (DHSS, 2020; see Lonne et al, 2020). The aggregated statistics relate only to referrals and assessments completed within timeframes set for performance monitoring within the system and thus do not include all referrals processed.…”

Child Sexual Abuse in Pakistan: Evidence-informed Policy Framework

“…Newly emerged child centered orientation focuses on the broader welfare and development of child as an individual having all rights rather than narrowly focusing on risks and harms to the child (Gilbert et al, 2011). There is growing trend to exercise the child protection models on the basis of community development process (Lonne, et al, 2021: Young et al 2014: Wright, 2004: UNICEF, 2006: Gardner, 2003: Hudson, 1999. United Nations Committee on the Rights of Child in point 31 of General Comment 7 on United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child recommended the home and communitybased programmes for education and empowerment of Parents and guardians (UNICEF, 2006).…”

“…According to the process of community development, the local community can be engaged for recognizing the problem, identifying the strategies for its solution, decision making for implementation and capacity building of community for protection of children (Wright, 2004). This method of community development can be further used to mobilize informal network for support regarding protection of children (Lonne, 2021). Indigenous culture must be considered while formulating the policy regarding protection of children (Parton, 2020).…”