This book identifies and analyses differences between the four UK nations in the way child protection systems are being developed, thought about and put into practice. Covering key areas such as inter-agency working and the role of local safeguarding children boards, it draws out important implications for policy and practice across the UK.

This book builds upon and advances the comparative analysis of child protection systems that was conducted in the mid-1990s. Since the mid-1990s, however, much has changed in the realm of child welfare and how states define and deal with their responsibilities for children at risk. This book sets out to identify and analyse these changes and their implications, with a particular focus on assessing the extent to which the child protection and family service orientations continue to provide a helpful framework for understanding and comparing systems in different countries.

This book equips professionals with the ability to recognise a child at risk and to work with a child already suffering. Advice is offered on how to navigate the multi-disciplinary processes. Fictional case studies and exercises immerse the reader in scenarios. The authors lead readers through learning points, recommendations, and legislation.

This title is directed primarily towards health care professionals outside of the United States. The new edition of this popular handbook gives an authoritative, informative and accessible account of key areas of child protection practice. Covering research, policy and practice it is relevant to all professionals working in child care. No other book on child protection offers such comprehensive coverage of policy and practice. It provides research findings in all areas of child abuse, latest policies and indications of good practice, plus specialist chapters for different professionals. Chapters have been contributed by known experts in the field, both distinguished academics and practitioners. By combining the latest factual information with sophisticated analysis, it is the ideal course text for child protection programmes as well as meeting the needs of more experienced practitioners, academics and trainers. Practical. Examines the issues grounded in reality, and therefore gives the reader confidence in practice, coupled with an understanding of the responsibilities of colleagues in other professions. Comprehensive. Covers a broad review of what constitutes child abuse and characteristics of the abused and the abusers; medical, social and legal management of the process of protection; the actions involved in intervention. and training and new directions for research and practice. Authoritative. Contributors are senior professionals known nationally and internationally for their specific expertise in this area. Research based. All books should be, but amongst the professionals most closely involved in child protection, the heavy workload often means there is little time to catch up on and assimilate up-to-date research fully. This book offers a through guide to what research and policy initiatives can give to the practice of the reader. new chapters addressing issues of culture and parenting.. each chapter contains key messages for practitioners. key websites have been listed. a website on Evolve with supplementary material.

Child Protection Systems is a comparative study of the social policies and professional practices that frame societal responses to the problems of child maltreatment in ten countries: USA, Canada, England, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Norway. Focusing on the developments in policy and practice since the mid-1990s, this volume provides a detailed, up-to-date analysis of the similarities and differences in how child protection systems operate and their outcomes. The findings highlight the changing criteria that define child maltreatment, trends in out-of-home placement, professional responses to allegations of maltreatment, and the level of state responsibility for child and family welfare, providing an in-depth understanding of the different ways modern welfare states assume the sensitive responsibility of balancing children's rights and parents' rights. The changing character of child protection systems worldwide reflects dramatic and rapid organizational, policy, and legislative changes; the expansion of child welfare systems; the rise of formal procedures and evidence-based initiatives; the increased challenges posed by race and ethnicity; and the extent to which countries adopt either a child protection or a family service approach to child abuse. Each chapter analyzes these developments and the directions in which they are heading, such as movements toward privatization and devolution of child welfare service delivery. Against this backdrop, a third approach begins to emerge-a child-focused orientation-that aims to promote and improve children's development and well-being. A vital book for understanding contemporary trends and policy issues in the design of child protection systems, this will be must reading for comparative scholars of child welfare, family policy, and the welfare state.

"cross the spectrum of political ideologies there is, in principle, widespread agreement that the state has a legitimate role in protecting children from harm. Even the Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman (1962), among the most ardent liberal supporters of the laissez faire philosophy, recognized this "paternalistic" function of government. At the same time, the traditional view of children, that they are the property of the father (pater) or the parents, is under pressure (Zelizer, 1994; James & Prout, 1997; Archard 2004). Societies are at an intersection when it comes to how children are treated and how their rights are respected, which creates tensions in the traditional relationship between the family and the state. Children are a focus of government responsibility under certain state-defined norms relating to harm and need. And parents are sometimes constrained by the state from exercising their (familial or property) rights under state-defined criteria of harm and need"--

"Crossover" Children in the Youth Justice and Child Protection Systems explores the outcomes faced by the group of children who experience involvement with both child protection and youth justice systems across several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Situated against a backdrop of international evidence and grounded in a two-year study with the Children’s Court in Victoria, Australia, this book presents a cohesive picture of the backgrounds, characteristics, and pathways traversed by crossover children. It presents statistical data from 300 crossover Children’s Court case files, alongside the expert evidence of 82 professionals, to generate a comprehensive picture of the lives of crossover children, and the individual and systemic challenges that they face. The book investigates the crucial question of why some children involved with child welfare systems experience particularly poor criminal justice outcomes, demonstrating how the convergence of cumulative childhood adversity, complex support needs, and systemic disadvantage produces acutely damaging outcomes for some crossover youth. It outlines the implications of the study, including how these findings might shape diversion and differential justice system responses to child protection-involved youth, and the innovative approaches adopted internationally to avert the care to custody pathway. This book is internationally relevant and will be of great interest to students and scholars of criminology and law, social work, psychology, and sociology, as well as legal, welfare, and government agencies and policy developers, non-government peak bodies and services, professional probation services, case managers, health and mental health services, disability and drug treatment agencies, and others who work with both young offenders and the design and implementation of policy and legislation.

This book provides an account of the experience of a multifaceted system-change programme to strengthen the capacity of Ireland’s statutory child protection and welfare agency in the areas of prevention, early intervention and family support. Many jurisdictions globally are involved in system change processes focused on increasing investment in services that seek to prevent children’s entry into child protection and welfare systems, through early intervention, greater support to families, and an increased emphasis on rights and participation. Based on a four-year in-depth study by a team of University-based researchers, this text adds to the emerging knowledge-base on developing, implementing and evaluating system change in child protection and welfare. Study methodological approaches were wide ranging and involved a number of key stakeholders including children, parents, social workers and social care workers, service managers, agency leaders and policy makers. Since the change process involved an agency-university partnership encompassing design, technical support and evaluation, the book also contributes to understandings of the potential and limits of such partnerships in the child protection and welfare field. Uniquely, the book gives voice to the experience of both agency personnel and academic in the accounts provided. It will be of interest to all scholars, students and practitioners in the areas of child protection and welfare.

The book examines where, why and to what extent immigrant children are represented in the child welfare system in 11 high-income countries. By comparing policies and practices in child welfare systems (and welfare states), especially in terms of how they conceptualize and deal with immigrant children and their families, we address an immensely important and pressing issue in modern societies.

This book examines systems complexity theory and specifically, system and dynamic characteristics of complexity, with a key focus on self/organisation/emergence/adaptation; path-dependence; and bifurcation. Exploring systems complexity at the heart of child protection and welfare policymaking, leadership, practice, and evaluation and implications for policymakers, leaders, practitioners and evaluators in managing its impact, it proposes a systems complexity evaluation framework to assist identification, accommodation and decision-making in child protection and welfare practice, services, and systems. Using national case studies, practice, and research examples, it illustrates how adopting a complexity focus to Child Protection Work in any jurisdiction can augment decision-making and critical analysis acumen at all levels in practice, services, and systems. This book will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, child protection, family support, education, nursing and criminology.