Essential Elements of Best Practice in Child Protection

1. Essential Elementsof Best Practice in Child Protection Macquarie University Sydney, NSW 20 October 2011

2. Professor Marianne BerryChair and Director Australian Centre for Child Protection University of South Australia

3. The Australian Centre for Child Protection at UniSA • Conducts sound research to meet the needs of children and families at risk of maltreatment and/or out of home placement, and those who work with them. • Provides knowledge and skills for workforce development with high risk communities. • Focuses these research and workforce development efforts on building and sharing the evidence base.

4. My Objectives • Lessons from one researcher’s journey in research on child protection practice • Analyse the services and service components that are provided and how effective they are in protecting children • Place international evidence in the social and political context of given countries, with implications for Australia’s service system

5. Why Child Protection? • Child protection worker in my 20s • The need to be rational in an emotional job • I wanted to know “what will work” • What will work in accomplishing “what”? • I’ve worked backwards • From general to specific, from closure to intake • Always focused in child protection • Always for the benefit of front-line workers

6. What Works? • In preventing child abuse • In stopping current child abuse • In keeping children out of foster care • Other goals of child protection?

7. A Brief Comment on Prevention • To measure the prevention of harm: • Look for signs of the absence of protection (very broad indicators) • AND / OR • Child abuse notifications, substantiations and/or removal of children (very narrow indicators)

8. Reports versus Risks • Effective awareness and education about child maltreatment will lead to earlier identification of maltreatment. • Early intervention and prevention programs are working if abuse referrals and notifications rise (and then fall in future years). • Think of the news stories about “why didn’t anyone know about this child?”

9. Responding to Risks and Reports • Higher numbers of referrals and notifications are good IF the system has the capacity to serve those children once identified. • How can we truly measure whether prevention programs are effective? • Risks and Actual Harm are both decreasing • A National Incidence Survey • PLUS – How do we define Harm?

10. Types of Substantiated Maltreatment AIHW, Child Protection Australia, 2009-2010.

11. What Are Best Practices? • Current best practice is largely from the the US and UK evidence base about what program elements are predictive of or associated with: • lower recurrence of maltreatment, or • lower rates of out of home placement for children. • These are outcomes about which we have some confidence that we can measure them. • This evidence does not focus on prevention and service integration – much harder to measure.

12. So What Works: • In preventing recurrence of maltreatment? • In preventing out of home placement? • In returning children safely home?

13. Effective Practice Components • One-on-one learning and practicing of skills: parenting, social skills, negotiation • Shared within a strong caring relationship • Worker models these same skills in his or her interactions with others • Praise, praise, praise • Clear and concise information, not lengthy or complicated

14. The Importance of Engagement • The best predictor of good outcomes is engagement: • Include staff that “look like” families, e.g., including community members in recruitment and delivery of services • No judging or blaming parents or children • Listen without turning against parents/children

15. More on Engagement • Help with concrete needs, e.g. health care and financial support • Work toward goals with the same sense of urgency as the family • Provide support such as transportation, child care for meetings, flexible hours • Have flexible funds for creative solutions • Meet with families at their homes And engagement is critical to a relationship aimed at learning and practicing new skills.

16. What Does Not Work? • Being less than honest • No surprises • No promises we can’t keep • Giving up hope • Be encouraging even when the news is not good • Referrals to lots of support services • Families note the importance of relationship • Chaotic lives are made more complex

17. The Importance of Social and Cultural Context • Involvement in comparative international research on services to high risk families has amplified for me the importance of social, cultural and political context. • Where does the family stop and the community begin? • Must consider context when attempting to replicate an evidence-based model in another setting. • The International Association of Outcome Based Evaluation and • Research in Family and Children’s Services, Padova, Italy

18. Australian Considerations (from the semi-outside looking in) • Definitions of maltreatment • Greater “caring” necessitates greater care • Definitions of family and child • Who are we serving? • Norms of personal and social responsibility • Compliance versus cooperation • Who is Australian?

19. Professor Marianne Berry Director and Chair Australian Centre for Child Protection University of South Australia (08) 8302 2918 Marianne.Berry@unisa.edu.au www.unisa.edu.au/childprotection Image source: Istockphoto